Frontline last night was well worth watching-- A Sad and Tragic Life

It showed the documentary Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story. This video should be required viewing for all right wingers -- but, unfortunately, they would probably not see the real point being made in it. Instead, they would no doubt praise Atwater for his slick lies and wasted life, which spawned proteges like Karl Rove, who continue the same Machievellian political practices. Atwater, at least, seemed to regret what he had done as his life came to an early close due to a brain tumor. You can see excerpts from the video at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/atwater/view/ But to see the entire documentary, you will have to purchase it.

Many of Atwater's friends say he was terrified when given a death sentence by the doctors. He was only 40 and at the prime of his "career" as dirty-trickster-in-chief. But he had been spinning lies for so long, it was as if he could not be honest with himself--even as he faced death. He ordered a Bible and quoted biblical verses, but aides who helped clean up his possessions after his death said that the Bible was still wrapped in its cellophane outer wrap, and had never been opened. Karl Rove doesn't seem worried about his own life and legacy -- he apparently still worships Atwater as his hero and mentor. Rove certainly has followed all of Atwater's practices--and then some.

From a Maureen Dowd column in 1993: ( http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE6DA1E31F932A15752C1A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all )
His friends say Atwater was not at peace when he died. He was frightened, slipping in and out of lucidity, dictating an anecdotal autobiography, lurching from Catholicism to Judaism to Buddhism to crystals. He went from bloated to emaciated, his hands like toothpicks, black and withered, his face like that of an 80-year-old man, charcoal circles under his eyes.

One by one, he called in friends he had double-crossed. He told them, even when they murmured it was not necessary, the lies he had told to George Bush about them, in order to get them banished from the magic circle.

"It was not a true conversion but just the best calculation he could make to settle old scores because he was scared," said a close friend. "Lee was spinning his own death." A liar to the end.

To see how Lee Atwater's teaching lives on in today's politics (as if we didn't know!), see NOW video of Dirty Politics at: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/401/index.html