"The Base"

You know: all those Republicans at the grass roots who were demanding that the president pardon Irving Libby for perjury. It turns out that, according to Gallup, they make up a whopping 6 percent of Americans, compared with the 66 percent who think the president's job is to uphold and defend the justice system, not to undermine it for special favors for his friends. "The base" is often a fiction for cliques in Washington whose constant goal is to defend their own privilege and power. And boy do the neocons know how to do that.