The Humbling of the Bush Administration

Views from our allies (still, I hope!) on the scandals, 2000 casualty mark, indictments, and more...Bush “utterly dependent on his tight circle of advisors”. God, I hope we see our way out of this mess...
Splat

With scandal at every turn, many wonder if Bush will restaff.



The George W. Bush presidency is “imploding,” said Reymer Klüver in Munich’s Süddeutsche Zeitung. The president is suffering disaster after disaster in a Job-like rain of catastrophe. The 2,000th death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq, the forced recall of his Supreme Court pick, and the indictment of his vice president’s top advisor came “all in the same week.” Bush can still salvage his administration, but only by doing what most leaders of other countries would do in such situations: firing a bunch of top officials and putting in untainted people. Yet there’s almost no chance that such a “stubborn” person as Bush will even admit that his administration is broken. He is so “utterly dependent on his tight circle of advisors” that he can’t possibly do without them. Bush will try to ride out the criticism without changing course.

He hasn’t seen the worst of it yet, said Julian Borger in the London Guardian. The trial of Dick Cheney’s aide “Scooter” Libby for lying about the outing of a CIA operative could easily turn into a debate over the justification for the Iraq war. The U.S. has conducted several investigations into the faulty evidence indicating that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, but all have “avoided directly tackling the politicization of intelligence.” But tampering with intelligence is at the heart of the Libby indictment. When Ambassador Joe Wilson reported that there was no truth in the claim that Iraq was buying nuclear material from Niger, Libby allegedly tried to discredit Wilson by claiming his CIA-operative wife had organized the trip. Cheney had already been at loggerheads with the CIA over its reluctance to endorse his wild theories about Iraqi WMD.

This scandal could awaken the American people to the truth about the war, said Gérard Dupuy in Paris’ Libération. Plamegate “reveals the power the neocons wield in the Bush administration, their cynical and brutal manipulations, and the adventurism their dogma pushed America into.” A majority of Americans already disapproves of the way the Iraq war has been conducted. The more they learn about the lies on which it was based, the more they will come to join the rest of the world in condemning it. The satisfying sight of the administration under fire restores one’s faith in the American justice system, said Amsterdam’s De Volkskrant in an editorial. Even such a “slick, controlled machine” as the Bush administration can’t escape “the cherished American tradition of independent investigation.”

Don’t write Bush’s political obituary quite yet, said the London Times in an editorial. Bush may be having a bad spell, but that’s normal for presidents in their second terms. The Watergate, Iran-Contra, and Monicagate scandals all came after the presidents involved had just been re-elected. Compared with any of those, Plamegate is not so bad. After all, Bush is not personally involved in the scandal the way Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton were. And he’s got some good news to trumpet: The U.S. economy is growing, and Iraq is making progress on democracy. If Bush can “recapture his authority,” he will still be an effective president.

http://www.theweekmagazine.com/article.aspx?id=1190

He hasn't inherited the earth, by any means, fair or foul.

requires a team that is at least competent, and can effectively develop and implement policy. Bush's team shows no ability in this respect except when it comes to cutting taxes and waging a pr campaign for war, or campaigning for office.

They have no interest or competence in day-to-day governing. And Bush shows no ability to make the kind of changes needed to climb out of a deep rut.

this is another reason why his administration is sunk.

And he would never countenance that advice. If his worldview cannot be changed, no amount of competency can change the disasterous course he has this country headed on.

He just didn't have these conditions in mind.

the Bush administration will be seen as one of the most successful presidencies ever. How Bush was able to bulldoze both Congress & the Senate is still a mystery to me.

He got everything he wanted: the huge tax cuts, his war in Iraq, the crony deals to all his corporate buddies. No one stood in the way of his diabolical plans.

History books will remember him as amazingly successful. And corrupt. I think it's amazing he survived as long as he did. That sorta tells you the level of apathy in this country.

"personally involved in the scandals"?

Just because he was out riding his bike when the airplane flew over the cuckoo's nest and they didn't let him know..doesn't mean he didn't know outing Valerie Plame and manufacturing evidence to send the Country to war..he damn well knew there was no reason to go to war.

So don't say bush didn't know.

That's why I'm countering it with.."Don't say bush didn't know".

I'm sick of them protecting that propoganda catapulter little lyin' sack of shite.

Times like these, bad as they are, are good for outing moles at least!