no supper tonight

When Mike Gravel injected some genuine life into the Democratic primaries by throwing down zen-like videos–the equivalent of streaming cinema nouveau into a midwestern family room–even I was confused, and my cosmological viewpoint is disturbingly akin to the former Senator’s. But I found his heartfelt explanation, his genuine enthusiasm for the project, downright heartwarming, even to the point of considering, in one of those bongy reveries to which I am prone, a portrait of the artist as president, because that’s what Gravel is at heart–an artist. Before of course realizing how silly the whole idea is, seeing as how the the Oval Office is a prerogative of Ivy League lawyers, not boho YouTube mavens.

The critical reception afforded both his campaign and his art has not, happily, dampened the man’s enthusiasm for either. Gravel has jumped ship and signed on with the Libertarian Party, just days after endorsing Jesse Johnson for Green Party nominee; equally important, he’s dropped a newly minted MUSIC video:

There’s a touch of the gloomy Old Testament prophet about Gravel, as there is Nader, and America is not a land that is kind to prophets. Like profoundly insecure children, Americans demand to be constantly reminded of how special they are–how noble in faculties, in action how like angels, … the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!–how decent are their motives, how divine their traditions; how righteous their endless warfaring. Not that they are a stiff-necked generation of generations who hath entered into a league with death, and have made a covenant with hell. America understands, as Rome did, that prophets disrupt the business of empire. Crucifixion being–so far we know–one of those methods as yet unsanctioned by the Bush Administration, the preferred method of dealing with those who insist on muddying the marble floors is to dismiss them as irrelevant–as opposed, to, say engaging them in adult debate. Thus, Nader is endlessly demonized–you can turn up one parrot another sqawking that “Nader stole the election and gave it toBush!,” at any given moment; and Gravel is laughed at.

The New York Times sure found Gravel entertaining. Summarizing his performance in the April ‘07 Democratic debate, Mark Leibovitch wrote that

“Every field of candidates needs, for lack of a better term, comic relief — for the sake of keeping things interesting and, if everybody is lucky, for making the other smoothies on stage a little uncomfortable…. like most things that rambled from the busy lips of Mr. Gravel, it left many audience members rolling in the aisles. He served as a kind of cranky uncle in the solemn field of well-barbered, sound-bite practitioners with whom he shared the stage, joining the other long shot, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, in berating the others as being too cautious in trying to get troops out of Iraq. While most of his fellow candidates were content to chuckle at Mr. Gravel’s meanderings and not engage him….”

I watched the same debate Leibovitch did. I didn’t find the insistence upon getting the hell out of Iraq as cranky-uncle talk, myself. Didn’t feel like comic relief to me. Felt more biblical, actually:

Wisdom shouts in the street,
She lifts her voice in the square;
At the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings:
“How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded?
And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing
And fools hate knowledge?” (Prov. 1:20-22)

And then there’s DailyKos, the allegedly “progressive” grassroots site that spends an inordinate amount of time flapping about how “the mainstream media” either doesn’t get it, or always gets it wrong, but won’t even consider the possibility of supporting anyone outside the electoral mainstream. Hell, endorsing Edwards is considered an exquisitely radical move on Kos. Aux les barricades! Hasta la Victoria siempre! How much did we rake in in ad revenue this week? Kos is at the heart of the so-called “Netroots”–you may recall how, having raised wheelbarrows of cash for Democrats in the 2006 midterms, they gave themselves all a hearty pat on the back the day after the election with a banner headline proclaiming that “WE WON!” And they did indeed.

How’s that working out for you now, Kos? Well, as it turned out they won themselves a Congress posting even lower approval ratings than the President’s, a Congress mainstream media Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi recently described—in a short and essential article–this way:

Before the 2006 elections, Democrats told us we could expect more specifics on their war plans after Election Day. Nearly two years have passed since then, and now they are once again telling us to wait until after an election to see real action to stop the war. In the meantime, of course, we’re to remember that they’re the good guys, the Republicans are the real enemy, and, well, go Hillary!

But don’t expect any genuine criticism from Kos—it’s so much more sporting to go after folks like Mike Gravel, so last week Kos himself rained his disdain in his own electrifying middle-school style (“So check this out because it’s really, really, really funny”):

Mike Gravel, the cranky guy who ran for president in the Democratic Primary, was sort of laughed out of contention. So on March 11, he endorsed the Green candidate for president.

Hah hah! Funny Kos. Cranky Mike, the old fool who’s not in on the big joke, who just doesn’t get it.

But you know who found Gravel funner than anyone? Hillary Clinton. Clinton found her own vote on the Iran resolution–that’s the recent one which gives the President tacit authorization to strike Iran–downright hilarious. And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing….

Let’s compare the records of some first-term congresspeople. Clinton voted to authorize the President to attack Iraq. She voted against the Levin amendment. She consistently voted to fund the damn thing until the polls swung sufficiently in the other direction, at which she began making a few tepid squeals about the matter. This was about the same time she declared that she’s not a “liberal,” but a “progressive,” which I guess makes me an unreconstructed Bolshevik. And Obama, well, he delivered a speech against the war while still serving in the Illinois legislature, got himself elected to the Senate, and has shown precisely zero degree of leadership in ending it. That’s zero. “Yes we can ” ? More like, “No, I couldn’t.” Hillary’s “experience” and Obama’s “change we can believe in” is pretty cold comfort in a Boston April.

Oh, and Mike Gravel? As a freshman Senator from Alaska, Gravel filibustered for five months to end the draft–and hence the war. In the face of staunch opposition from his own party’s leadership. “As a result, aside from those who volunteered, everyone under the age of 54 has been able to stay out of harm’s way in the tragic war against Vietnam, the first war against Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, and Bush’s current war in Iraq. In addition, the children of everyone under the age of 54 have been able to stay out of harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan. ” That would presumably include Chelsea.

And Hillary laughs in this man’s face?

That’s an image I can’t shake.

Then there was, oh, the little matter of The Pentagon Papers. But you have to hear the extraordinarily self-deprecating, genuinely funny, and born raconteur Gravel tell it in his own words. It’s a genuinely amazing story–transferring documents at midnight, hiding behind the columns on the Capital–by an authentic hero, hell, an authentic human, humane, being. The video runs to 18 minutes, but you’ll get hooked; and after, spend two minutes watching this clip of Gravel breaking down as he read the papers into the record. It’s astonishing.

And Hillary Clinton, the hollow opportunist, laughs in this man’s face.

In any case, I’m glad to see that Gravel ain’t going gentle into any good night.

Hmm, neither’s Nader, for that matter.

Hope they all find it so damn funny come November.

I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,
When your dread comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you. (Prov. 1:26-27)