Shakespearean Drama

So what to make of Scott McClellan’s new tell-all? At some base level he’s just another Republican hack trying to wash the blood off his hands after the fact. Why is he being given so much credence? He never was the sharpest knife in the drawer, and became almost a caricature of himself with his obstinate idiocy by the end of his tenure. TPM is collecting suggestions for your own favorite display of good ol’ Texas stupidity ala Scottie boy if you want to participate.

The MSM are having a field day, of course, and I should just delight in seeing the beasts turned against this administration and let it go.

But the psychologist in me just can’t turn away from this little Shakespearean drama unfolding before us.

Scottie. The slow one. Not exactly deficient, if you know what ah mean, just a little slow. Bushie adopts him, takes him under his wing, gives him a place. He’s the stupid son. The one who gets the job he can’t do because Daddy makes sure there’s a place for him. Bushie has a lot of sympathy for stupid sons, since his entire career owes its debt to the tradition.

But the stupid son actually takes himself seriously. What a concept! He actually feels hurt when he finds out that he has been used as nothing more than a marketing hack, a mouthpiece to go on camera and recite the script for the commercial. Because he is a stupid boy, he doesn’t really “get” that this was his entire purpose from the beginning. He feels tricked, so now he is lashing out. What a stupid, stupid, boy.

And Daddy feels hurt, because he can’t believe that the stupid boy would betray him after everything he did for him. Doesn’t the stupid boy understand that he would never have risen so far without Daddy behind him? So Bushie will turn his head away and wipe a tear while his enforcers proceed to tear the man apart. It breaks Daddy’s heart to have to do it, you understand, but the boy has left him no choice.

How utterly Shakespearean.

To follow: The most disturbing revelation from Scottie’s tantrum, and why it matters to the upcoming November campaign.