Howard Dean’s mass e-mail today recalls the Right’s brief flirtation with the “c” word:

“Elections have consequences.”

Remember that saying? It was a favorite of George Bush and the pundits after his narrow victory in 2004.

I understand consequences: I learned about them from Missile Command.

I recall complaining to my brother that the then-new arcade game offered a distressingly small number of anti-aircraft missiles with which to mount a homeland defense.

Older, and much more astute about economics and militarism, he expained that that was the point. Modern alchemy can turn guns to butter and vice versa, but as Billy Preston observed, “nothin’ from nothin’ leaves nothin’ — you gotta have somethin’.”

Whereas other games offered an infinite supply of ammo, Missile Command taught you to choose and wage your battles carefully.

A few years later, when I took a macroeconomics class, the instructor reinforced what Nolan Bushnell and company had already taught me — the essential factor in how society functions is that resources are limited.

Surely there must have been a Missile Command at one of Bush’s favorite Dallas watering holes in the 1980s. Even if his Harvard MBA didn’t take, couldn’t he have spared a few minutes and quarters learning the consequences of squandering capital (be it military, financial, or diplomatic)? Was, this too, a mission that he and Dick Cheney ducked out of?

Alas, in January of 2001, a president was sworn in who knew only a fantasy world where if you threw your silver spoon on the ground, it was immediately replaced with a platinum one.

And he was supported by a right-wing communications machine that had — though a combination of bullying, bribing, media consolidation, and perhaps most of all, complete shamelessness — built a Teflon shield worthy of St. Ronnie:

They operate in a credibility-free zone where there are never any consequences for their mistakes because the partisans who read them will always dismiss every one of these unfair smears on the media as well-intentioned….

Last week, the Republicans canonized their first new saint since the non-stick Gipper took his arms-for-hostages act to the Pearly Gates: St. Gerald, Patron Saint of Avoided Consequences. It is perhaps the GOP’s highest calling.

In the current century, losing control of Congress is the first consequence these people have felt. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis haven’t been so lucky. 3,006 young Americans haven’t been so lucky. And over the long haul, an America with its reputation stained, its laws perverted, and its treasury raided needs more than ever leadership that understands the laws of consequences, both practical and moral.

Perhaps in 2008 we can aspire higher than “drinking buddy” and the appearance of “gravitas” for our executive branch. Perhaps we can value probity over cover-up.

Because even if the ruling elites can avoid getting their hair mussed, little things like missiles and White House criminality do, indeed, have consequences.