Bling Bling in the ATL

Has anyone else noticed the word ' Kool-Aid' popping up in articles about the Bush administration?

Like today's article in the Washington Post, 'Series of Misjudgments Cost President His Lead':
A top official from a former Republican White House said Bush's governing operation created critical problems for his political arm by deciding to "divide and conquer rather than unite and win." ... "There's nobody over there saying 'No,' " the official said. "It's all the same Kool-Aid. Instead of the art of governing, it's been, 'Are you for me or against me?' "

drink the Kool-Aid v. To become a firm believer in something; to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly.

Notes: This phrase comes from the 1978 "Jonestown massacre" in which members of the Peoples Temple cult committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid (although some say the drink of choice was actually Flav-R-Aid).

I did a search in Lexis Nexis and came up with 125 articles from the past 6 months.. pretty funny.

1. www.esquire.com/features/ articles/2004/040729_mfe_reagan_1.html
   None of this, needless to say, guarantees Bush a one-term presidency. The far-right wing of the country—nearly one third of us by some estimates—continues to regard all who refuse to drink the Kool-Aid (liberals, rationalists, Europeans, et cetera) as agents of Satan.
2. http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2003-09-14-media-mix_x.htm
   On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."
3. Slate Magazine, June 10, 2004, Thursday, Palestine Policy Paralysis
   ...... Col. Patrick Lang writes, who think they are the 'bearers' of a uniquely correct view of the world. In his essay Drinking the Kool-Aid, Lang explains that officials with experience in the Muslim world are strangely absent from Team Bush. Rather, the administration stacked the deck with people who were willing to succumb to the prevailing group-think that typifies policymaking today "or, drink the Kool-Aid.
4. Charleston Newspapers Charleston Gazette (West Virginia), August 2, 2004, Reagan, Amazing cry against Bush
   THE SON of former Republican President Ronald Reagan has taken a remarkable step. In the upcoming issue of Esquire, in an essay titled "The Case Against George W. Bush," Ron Reagan continues:"The far-right wing of the country - nearly one-third of us, by some estimates - continues to regard all who refuse to drink the Kool-Aid (liberals, rationalists, Europeans, et cetera) as agents of Satan.
5. Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), August 4, 2004, Kelly: This duck flies DFL coop; And some good party eggs in St. Paul feel left behind.
   Among other things, I voted for Kelly in 2001, but, like a lot of his voters, I am wondering why he decided to drink the Kool-Aid. Just in case I was blinded by the brilliance of his self-immolation strategy, I drove out to the mayor's home turf to see whether he has managed to turn St. Paul into easy pickings for George Bush and Randy Kelly into a two-term mayor.
6. The Houston Chronicle, April 07, 2004, Staying the course? (Yeah, till June 30)
   ... A telling moment came Sunday on NBC News' Meet the Press when host Tim Russert asked Hughes: "What do you think (Bush's) biggest mistake has been and how has he learned from it?" It was a good question, if only as a veracity meter or reality check on Hughes. But she long ago drank the Kool-Aid, earning well the $ 15,000 a month she has been paid as a consultant by the RNC.
7. San Antonio Express-News (Texas), March 7, 2004, Random Notes
   TOXIC LEGISLATIVE MIX "The conservatives at the statehouse are known as the ' Kool-Aid Drinkers,' after the religious cultists who committed mass suicide, while the few remaining moderate Republicans call themselves the 'Mushroom Coalition' - kept in the dark and covered with excrement." - Columnist Sidney Blumenthal describing the Arizona Legislature (Guardian Unlimited)

// posted by MMIMIKA @ 2:50 PM