The Casablanca Lesson

Although released in 1942, "Casablanca" seems to speak to us today with insights to human behavior.

Remember the scene when Major Strasser orders Vichy puppet Captain Renault to close the "Cafe Americain" after the embarrassing singing of "La Marseillaise" drowned out the Germans songfest? 

Renault, who has been playing roulette all evening, follows the orders, finding an excuse.

"I’m shocked," he says. "There’s gambling going on here." He is then given his winnings.

Sixty-nine years later, we hear the Pakistan government echo Captain Renault after the U.S. Navy Seal Bin Laden compound raid.

And what is their response?

Reports from Pakistan are that the embarrassed "intelligence" leaders there have arrested many in Abbotabad and are conducting an "investigation" to determine how Bin Laden could have lived there.

In other words, they are following Captain Renault’s orders after the killing of Major Strasser:

"Round up the usual suspects."

And speaking of the usual suspects, the responses by Republicans have been just as predictable and ineffectual. 

First, at least from the more rational, a more or less grudging acknowledgement of President Obama’s win. 

For most, that was not enough.

There had to be a "but." 

The buttheads followed as the night the day: but he was only following what we started. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and others emerged to remind us that torture, er, tough interrogation, helped start the ball rolling.

Fun fact. Some American nuts and Islamic conspiracy theorists still choose to disbelieve the killing of Bin Laden on the order of the American president.

As Seth Myers said on SNL, a rare event when people deny that a black man is responsible for a killing.

In The News:

1. Governator Arnie vetoes a criminal procedure bill that would have required corroboration for jailhouse informants, taping of interrogations, and uniform identification routines. Police and "some" DA’s objected to the bill.

2. Matt Lauer’s hard hitting interrogation of Larry Craig reveals that he likes his wife and in not gay, bisexual, or liberal - that is, Craig, not Lauer. Lauer’s cross-examination technique makes Mike Wallace blush, requiring a transfusion. Matt asks hardball questions like: "Pardon me for asking, but weren’‘t those bloggers who outed you embarrassing to a real man like you?

3. PBS’s "Frontline" episode called "Cheney’s Law" exposes more about how our government works than any Poli. Sci. class in any college in America. Those of us old enough to remember the 70's call it "All The Vice-President’s Men."