In the heat of the American night

By Michael Moriarty
web posted July 5, 2004

Quit auditioning, George!

Forgive my using the familiar with you, Mr. President. I'm just a
simple American in exile, under self-appointed house arrest up
here in Canada due to the ravages that Billy the Kid Clinton (see
Our Own Tom Sawyer at www.enterstageright.com) and his
federal socialist administration wrought on the Constitution, the
Republican Party and your entire family.

My middle name is George. My father and grandfather were
both named George, which is a heavy name to carry. It haunted
my Republican father all his life. It obliges us to never forget the
essential, founding principles that our country was built on. The
burden of expectation which that name puts on us can make
amnesia seem a blessing.

Despite my decade in Canada, my nationality is still American.
Under the First Amendment, I have the right to be wrong with
my mouth or my pen, and do so without threat of jail, beating or
death.

However, speech has never been "free," nor without a price, as
anyone over two years old soon finds out. The second we can
say "mama" or "papa," from that point on anything we say or
don't say can and will be used against us by our parents, then by
a raft of questionable well-wishers, and finally by the enemies we
all make when we wish to stand taller than a tyrant.
As for the title of this editorial, it's a turn on a fairly well-known
movie and television series. My first sentence to you is a
common remark at all first script readings.

"You've got the part, George. Stop auditioning."

That you should have been starring in Casablanca doing
Humphrey Bogart impressions is what we all hoped for.
However, it's never too late for that great Producer in the Sky to
change the script. Apparently, you are now doing Rod Steiger's
turn in In the Heat of The Night. Steiger's sheriff in that film, you
might remember, starts out as the bad guy, but ends up paying
grudging respect to the hero, played by Sidney Poitier. With
General William Colin Powell standing right next to you, we're
obviously doing In The Heat of The Night, Part Two. This is not
a television series, but a vicious barroom brawl on the six o'clock
silver screens of network news and, unfortunately, the blood in
the action scenes is not catsup.

You've already played In The Heat of The Night, Part One. You
sewed up the bad guy role as Governor. They called you "Hang-
'em-high George."

That you and your brother Jeb let Janet Reno and her federal
vigilantes waltz around Texas and Florida dressed up like the
bad guys in Shane and High Noon just shows that you and your
whole family think "checks and balances" are about bank
accounts and ledgers, and not states' rights.

I can hear you telling me to "get a job." That's your opinion of all
of us Hollywood types. "Get a job" is what you told Michael
Moore and now you're saying it to Michael Moriarty.

Well, my real name is George. I take that part of my inheritance
very seriously. I also take the word "Republican" in its literal
meaning: protectors of the American Republic.

I can't blame you for the actions of previous Presidents (including
your own father) that left the Constitution in tatters. George Bush
Sr. really should have known that when his CIA jumped into bed
with Billy the Kid Clinton in Mena, Arkansas, to create a
domestic guns-and-drugs fundraiser for an off-the-
congressional-books slush fund, it led to four consequences:

1-   It corrupted America's foreign intelligence service.
2-    It broke the checks and balances of the Constitution.
3-   It emasculated the FBI — ordered to look the other way.
4-   It set up Clinton's victory in 1992.

Billy the Kid became a professor of Constitutional law to find out
how to run around that document's rules and regulations. He
wants our Republic to be a socialist federation. Why most of
Washington, D.C., doesn't seem to know even the A and B of
the Constitutional alphabet is why our house is so divided. It's
why the former CIA Director George Tenet stated publicly that it
will take five years to put the CIA's house in order. A remedial
course in Constitutional law might be the beginning of a solution.

"Grow up, Michael!"

I hear you, sir.

"We're in a much different world than 1776!"

Yes, sir. I accept that worldwide terrorism has destroyed our
right to privacy. We can't afford it in the middle of this nightmare.
However, our Constitution allows for the curtailment of certain
freedoms following a declaration of war. The Alien and Seditions
Act, approved by President John Adams, despite the know-it-all
press pundits, was as correct a necessity as your Patriot Act.
You are now Commander-in-Chief. You've told us the job you
have to do and, God bless you, you're halfway there. You need
another four years to complete the operation. You have Hussein
in lock-up and Osama on the run. I would personally prefer he
were wolfing down his couscous behind bars and so would you,
but we know he's getting desperate when he tries to turn his holy
warriors into bounty hunters by putting a price on your head as
well as that of Kofi Annan. So much for the will of Allah.

The bin Laden/Bush family connection, as revealed by Michael
Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11, is further confirmation that the sins of
the son should not be visited upon the parents of Osama. The
metaphysical fallout from family mistakes is the other way
around. It's the sins of the father that end up catching up with the
son or sons.

Your impatient obsession with completing the Iraq job your
father didn't is, so far, the only major mistake in your order of
business. Osama should have been cuffed first, then Hussein.

This rather fierce editorial is offered with the certainty that only
you can finish this job. No one can play the new sheriff in town
better than you. We're as much in a "war of theater" as we are in
a "theater of war." So far, our enemy has shockingly won the
approval ratings of the audience. In other words, they've
maintained your bad guy image and given the real bad guys a
pass.
 
My request, Mr. President, is that you stay in the frying pan 
because the “fire” is a lot worse for all of us. Your plans for 
a mini-nuclear weapon is like playing with a little bit of HIV.
 It makes us all a little bit pregnant with death.

Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning
actor who has appeared in the landmark television series Law
and Order, the mini-series Taken, and the recent TV-movie The
4400. In May, Moriarty won a Leo Award (celebrating
excellence in British Columbia film) for best supporting actor for
his role in the TV-movie Mob Princess.

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