Are they drinking Victory Gin?

I think that comparing government actions--any actions of any government--to George Orwell's 1984 is cliche and lazy. And the adjective "Orwellian" is so overused as to be almost meaningless. When people use Orwell metaphors and analogies my reaction is often, if not always, along the lines of, "Way to go, you read exactly one political book (or more likely saw the movie, or even more likely have absorbed the basic outline of the plot through cultural osmosis), I now think that you are smart and will respect your soon-to-follow analysis as though you were a serious thinker and not just someone who reads the local alt-weekly newspaper...douche."

But here's the thing. The current administration is so sophmorically--even cartoonishly--shitty that hackneyed phrases are in fact perfectly apt. (I like that phrase, "in fact perfectly apt," it sounds so sharp, say it out loud...There you go, nice huh?)

Ken Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said on NBC this last Sunday that no Republican advocates "staying the course" in Iraq, but rather that the Republican line has always been to adapt the strategy to changing circumstances. According to Mehlman no Republican has ever advocated "staying the course" as a strategy for the Middle East, that such a characterization is the work of people that are trying to undermine the Republican plan for adaptive and successful Iraq policy.

Mehlman (8/13/06): "But look, we’re not coming in and saying 'Stay the course.' The choice in this election is not between 'Stay the course' and 'Cut and run,' it’s between 'Win by adapting' and 'Cut and run.'"

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-TN (7/27/06): "We're for staying the course in Iraq and the war on terror."

So why all the stuff about Orwell and 1984? Because, dear reader, Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.