Cynical Nation

Liberals warned that Bush would use his reelection to consolidate political power and aggressively push a far-right political agenda. Many saw it coming, but who knew it would happen with such alarming speed?

Bush went to work almost immediately, taking the insidious and surely unprecedented step of staffing his cabinet with people who actually agree with him.

If that's not enough to chill the marrow, consider some other developments from the first month since the election:

• The radical-right Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to Massachusetts' gay marriage law. This is obviously an attempt to get the gay rights movement to lower its guard, at which point the Bushies will swoop in for the kill. Rove's fingerprints are all over this one.
  
• The administration abandoned its push in the U.N. for a worldwide cloning ban. This can only be a tactical retreat, and surely signals the marshalling of anti-choice forces in order to launch an even larger assault on reproductive freedom.
  
• The White House gave a tacit green light for liberal Republican Arlen Specter to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee, but don't be fooled! This is a victory for the extreme Right. Specter owes his senate seat to Bush, who campaigned for him against the wishes of his conservative base. This makes Specter a tool of the White House, compelled to do their sinister bidding. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.