Further down the spiral
I was all set to do another post on the president and his recent trouble when I got blindsided by an AP story about a Karl Rove appearance today where he spoke about a number of subjects.
But let's just set that aside for a minute and lay the groundwork.
Newt Gingrich's statements on "Meet the Press" Sunday got me to thinking about the current political state of El Presidente. When you boil all the fat off, Gingrich said that the president's problem isn't one of substance but of style, that the policies are sound but he and his administration have done a piss-poor job of selling them to the American people.
At first I was very dismissive of this viewpoint. But then I got to thinking.
Gringrich has a point. We are at war and have been since 9/11. We were all horrified by the events of that day and nobody is opposed to going after those who are responsible.
Think about it. In the days after 9/11, the country was unified and willing to back the president in this new war.
So what went wrong, to the point where there is now open talk about impeachment?
It was simple. Richard Clarke pointed it out in his book. When 9/11 happened, Bush wanted it linked to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. For whatever reason, he wanted this linkage and pushed hard for it, facts be damned. This hatred for Hussein and the desire to "get" him overwhelmed the true war effort.
When Bush sent US troops into Afghanistan to go after Bin Ladin and destroy the Al Qaeda training camps, he had the full backing of Congress and the American people. It was only when he tried to sell this phantom conspiracy with Iraq that he ran into trouble.
From there it only snowballed. This unhealthy obsession with Iraq overtook policy and common sense. Instead of devoting the full military might of the US and its allies to Afghanistan and the battle in the Tora Bora region, instead we had valuable military resources pulled back and used for the war in Iraq.
Could we have caught Bin Ladin? I don't know. The US trained him and his fighters well back when the genesis of what would become Al Qaeda was fighting the Soviets. But it certainly makes sense that if you devote 150,000-200,000 more troops to an operation that you increase the odds of success.
So this was a huge blunder by Bush and it's led to this ugly situation we have today. Whether or not Bush admits it, he and his Administration lied and the American people know it. But supremely arrogant in the righteousness of his own views in that obnoxious sort of way that is characteristic of many reformed alcoholics, he refuses to admit his mistakes. He expects us to forgive him without his ever asking for forgiveness, a violation of the 12 steps where the first step to redemption is acknowledgement of the problem.
The other component of this is a combination of what I will call 9/11 fatigue, with a good dollop of "the boy who cried wolf". Bush's answer for everything was 9/11- to the point where people felt sick of hearing it and no longer cared.
I agree with Gingrich that Al Qaeda is still out there and is still supremely dangerous. I also think that aggressive steps need to be taken to prevent another attack. The US has always been a reactionary power, responding rather than taking the initiative. Of course, there's a bloody good reason for that, as events in Iraq have shown.
But- and huge but here- the president no longer has the trust of the American people. We have gotten burned too many times. And what I cannot understand is how the American people- the very same people who were all for impeaching Clinton because he lied about an extramarital affair- are not also calling for the impeachment of Bush, when he lies did far more harm to the country.
So when Gingrich contends that the NSA spying and the calling records collection are necessary in the 'war on terror', we just do not want to believe him and for good reason. Whether truthful or not, we view it as just the latest pack of lies. The president does not get the benefit of the doubt. And even this latest justification is yet another round of lies.
How so? We were told that the NSA spying was legal and undertaken according to the Constitution. However, we have already heard the Bush Administration say that for X reasons, they did not go through the FISA court.
Read this again- they did not go through the FISA court.
That is the law, that a wiretap can be legally obtained via the FISA court.
It is yet another goddamn lie from the Administration. The only explanation we get is that the president believes himself exempt from the law.
We saw this with Nixon as well.
And this is where today's news report comes in. Rove essentially said the the president is very much liked on a personal level but that the public is not happy with the Iraq war, and this is dragging El Presidente's numbers down.
Now Rove is a smart fellow- too smart for his own good. And he is an evil machinator on the level of Iago in "Othello". He knows how to manipulate people and shift blame and spin. But Rove's in deep trouble here and for the first time I'm believing that he is in over his head on this.
This weekend 7 more US soldiers died in Iraq. The Administration has done their damndest to sweep the casualties under the carpet, not allowing press coverage of the return of bodies to the US. But as more and more bodies are shipped home to small towns across America, people are going to ask more uncomfortable questions that the Administration cannot possibly answer.
Rove tried the old "Look, Elvis!" tactic as well, pointing to economic numbers that purportedly show that the US economy is humming along and that We The People are fat and sassy and just fucking ducky with the way things are going- well, except for this nasty little war thing. Oh, that $3/gallon gas- ignore that too. And ignore those latest record profit reports from Big Oil. And if, god help you, you want to travel to Europe, ignore the clerk laughing at you as you attempt to exchange dollars for Euros.
Hey, I understand. It's Rove's job to spin, and that's what he's trying to do. But even he is getting the old stink-eye as he is also wearing a set of chains around his neck from the Plame affair. Outing a CIA officer is a serious crime and the fact that it was done for much the same reason as the burglery at the Watergate or the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's shrink makes it that much worse. This was not a crime about national security, it was a crime about punishing a political opponent.
This is why we refuse to cut Bush any more slack. Circumstances might warrant giving the president more leeway and expediency in cutting them some slack on the Constitutional front, but the president violated our trust. No matter how compelling the reasons, we are now going to hold that ditzy little weasel's feet to the fire. He has constantly and arrogantly screwed up, making wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision, and never taking responsibility for his actions. Remember that picture of Truman's desk with the sign "The Buck Stops Here"? Truman must have spun himself into butter in his grave by now.
If I had to pick a defining moment of El Presidente's rule, there would be 2. The look on his face in that classroom on 9/11, and the interview with him between his first and second term when he was asked something along the lines of what would he have done differently/did he make any mistakes in his first term and he stood there with that same 9/11 'deer in the headlights' look, unable to answer the question.
This is why the president has lost our trust. If only we had a parliamentary system here where we could call for a vote of no confidence. Alas, we do not, and now we just have to hope that there will be a country to pass on after the 2008 election.
But let's just set that aside for a minute and lay the groundwork.
Newt Gingrich's statements on "Meet the Press" Sunday got me to thinking about the current political state of El Presidente. When you boil all the fat off, Gingrich said that the president's problem isn't one of substance but of style, that the policies are sound but he and his administration have done a piss-poor job of selling them to the American people.
At first I was very dismissive of this viewpoint. But then I got to thinking.
Gringrich has a point. We are at war and have been since 9/11. We were all horrified by the events of that day and nobody is opposed to going after those who are responsible.
Think about it. In the days after 9/11, the country was unified and willing to back the president in this new war.
So what went wrong, to the point where there is now open talk about impeachment?
It was simple. Richard Clarke pointed it out in his book. When 9/11 happened, Bush wanted it linked to Iraq and Saddam Hussein. For whatever reason, he wanted this linkage and pushed hard for it, facts be damned. This hatred for Hussein and the desire to "get" him overwhelmed the true war effort.
When Bush sent US troops into Afghanistan to go after Bin Ladin and destroy the Al Qaeda training camps, he had the full backing of Congress and the American people. It was only when he tried to sell this phantom conspiracy with Iraq that he ran into trouble.
From there it only snowballed. This unhealthy obsession with Iraq overtook policy and common sense. Instead of devoting the full military might of the US and its allies to Afghanistan and the battle in the Tora Bora region, instead we had valuable military resources pulled back and used for the war in Iraq.
Could we have caught Bin Ladin? I don't know. The US trained him and his fighters well back when the genesis of what would become Al Qaeda was fighting the Soviets. But it certainly makes sense that if you devote 150,000-200,000 more troops to an operation that you increase the odds of success.
So this was a huge blunder by Bush and it's led to this ugly situation we have today. Whether or not Bush admits it, he and his Administration lied and the American people know it. But supremely arrogant in the righteousness of his own views in that obnoxious sort of way that is characteristic of many reformed alcoholics, he refuses to admit his mistakes. He expects us to forgive him without his ever asking for forgiveness, a violation of the 12 steps where the first step to redemption is acknowledgement of the problem.
The other component of this is a combination of what I will call 9/11 fatigue, with a good dollop of "the boy who cried wolf". Bush's answer for everything was 9/11- to the point where people felt sick of hearing it and no longer cared.
I agree with Gingrich that Al Qaeda is still out there and is still supremely dangerous. I also think that aggressive steps need to be taken to prevent another attack. The US has always been a reactionary power, responding rather than taking the initiative. Of course, there's a bloody good reason for that, as events in Iraq have shown.
But- and huge but here- the president no longer has the trust of the American people. We have gotten burned too many times. And what I cannot understand is how the American people- the very same people who were all for impeaching Clinton because he lied about an extramarital affair- are not also calling for the impeachment of Bush, when he lies did far more harm to the country.
So when Gingrich contends that the NSA spying and the calling records collection are necessary in the 'war on terror', we just do not want to believe him and for good reason. Whether truthful or not, we view it as just the latest pack of lies. The president does not get the benefit of the doubt. And even this latest justification is yet another round of lies.
How so? We were told that the NSA spying was legal and undertaken according to the Constitution. However, we have already heard the Bush Administration say that for X reasons, they did not go through the FISA court.
Read this again- they did not go through the FISA court.
That is the law, that a wiretap can be legally obtained via the FISA court.
It is yet another goddamn lie from the Administration. The only explanation we get is that the president believes himself exempt from the law.
We saw this with Nixon as well.
And this is where today's news report comes in. Rove essentially said the the president is very much liked on a personal level but that the public is not happy with the Iraq war, and this is dragging El Presidente's numbers down.
Now Rove is a smart fellow- too smart for his own good. And he is an evil machinator on the level of Iago in "Othello". He knows how to manipulate people and shift blame and spin. But Rove's in deep trouble here and for the first time I'm believing that he is in over his head on this.
This weekend 7 more US soldiers died in Iraq. The Administration has done their damndest to sweep the casualties under the carpet, not allowing press coverage of the return of bodies to the US. But as more and more bodies are shipped home to small towns across America, people are going to ask more uncomfortable questions that the Administration cannot possibly answer.
Rove tried the old "Look, Elvis!" tactic as well, pointing to economic numbers that purportedly show that the US economy is humming along and that We The People are fat and sassy and just fucking ducky with the way things are going- well, except for this nasty little war thing. Oh, that $3/gallon gas- ignore that too. And ignore those latest record profit reports from Big Oil. And if, god help you, you want to travel to Europe, ignore the clerk laughing at you as you attempt to exchange dollars for Euros.
Hey, I understand. It's Rove's job to spin, and that's what he's trying to do. But even he is getting the old stink-eye as he is also wearing a set of chains around his neck from the Plame affair. Outing a CIA officer is a serious crime and the fact that it was done for much the same reason as the burglery at the Watergate or the break-in of the office of Daniel Ellsberg's shrink makes it that much worse. This was not a crime about national security, it was a crime about punishing a political opponent.
This is why we refuse to cut Bush any more slack. Circumstances might warrant giving the president more leeway and expediency in cutting them some slack on the Constitutional front, but the president violated our trust. No matter how compelling the reasons, we are now going to hold that ditzy little weasel's feet to the fire. He has constantly and arrogantly screwed up, making wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision, and never taking responsibility for his actions. Remember that picture of Truman's desk with the sign "The Buck Stops Here"? Truman must have spun himself into butter in his grave by now.
If I had to pick a defining moment of El Presidente's rule, there would be 2. The look on his face in that classroom on 9/11, and the interview with him between his first and second term when he was asked something along the lines of what would he have done differently/did he make any mistakes in his first term and he stood there with that same 9/11 'deer in the headlights' look, unable to answer the question.
This is why the president has lost our trust. If only we had a parliamentary system here where we could call for a vote of no confidence. Alas, we do not, and now we just have to hope that there will be a country to pass on after the 2008 election.
posted by Stevie Z at 4:54 PM
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