"Be Careful What You Vote For...You Might Just Get It...."

I liked Dr. Phil a lot more before he decided to become Jerry Springer.

And, admittedly, I wasn’t really all that big a fan to begin with because I don’t think you have to be a member of Mensa to figure out that Phil is pop psychology personified.

Donahue with a doctorate.

Frasier without Roz, Niles and Marty.

On the other hand, I do enjoy some of Phil’s fortune cookie one liners.
One in particular.

When he looks the guest/victim/addict/manic depressive/abuser/obsessive compulsive in the eye and asks…

“How’s that workin for ya?”

Can’t think of a better way to put actions into perspective.

Which brings me around to “Recount”.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s one of the newest made for cable movies, this one produced by HBO, telling the story of the 2000 Bush v Gore election and the circus disguised as electoral college process that put Dubya in the White House almost eight years ago.

As a TV critic, I imagine that I wouldn’t give the production more than three and a half stars out of five as it surely has some draggy moments.

But it does a pretty good job of painting a picture of a Republican Party that was determined to use, as Malcolm X used to put it, any means necessary to insure that the son of Bush 41 would get his own library some day.

And Katherine Harris, the secretary of state in Florida? Well, if this script is even close to factually correct, she pretty much air headed her way to insuring that every move made down there during the vote recount process would put George II in power.

Laura Dern plays the part brilliantly and deserves an Emmy.
Katherine Harris played her part brilliantly, too.

And she got what she deserves.

Problem is, so did the rest of us.

Sour grapes aside, what struck me as I watched the plot thicken was the fervor, passion, even fanaticism that the Bush supporters, both big ticket and everyman, displayed in their belief that the world was going straight to hell unless Dubya took the oath.

This would have been a moderately entertaining couple of hours if it had been released in, say, 2001.

Seen in the context of 2008, though, it’s quite the tragedy disguised as satire.

The presidency of George W. Bush will be appraised, as are all presidencies, by history’s cool eyed gaze.

And there’s little to be gained by me pointing out that, at this writing, the one thing we can be sure he has accomplished is becoming the first president in American history to ever have more than 70 percent disapproval.

Well, okay, I sort of pointed it out by saying there was little to be gained by pointing it out.
But you get my point.

And as far as the movie, “Recount” is concerned…

During the whole last hour, as I watched the story of how the Bush folks moved heaven, earth and chads to make sure that their guy would get the chance to lead the country to peace and prosperity, all I could think was how I would like to have the opportunity to gather all those people in a room today and, having reminded them of the heart, soul and energy they put into getting the guy “elected”, ask them one simple question.

“How’s that workin for ya?”

I’m guessing there would be a lot of foot shuffling and staring at the floor.

Maybe even some tears and asking for forgiveness.

Sounds like a great Dr. Phil show, don’t you think?