Memo to Democrats: Don't buy into Bush's act

Memo to Democrats: Don't buy into Bush's act
November 9, 2006
By DOUG THOMPSON

President George W. Bush decided before Tuesday's mid-term elections to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld but lied, once again, to the press and the American people about his intentions. Bush admitted Wednesday that he interviewed former CIA director Robert M. Gates over the weekend for Rumsfeld's job and said he intentionally misled reporters last week about the defense secretary's future to avoid making the Iraq war more of an issue in the election. More of an issue? The Iraq war, and Bush's mishandling of it, was the issue in Tuesday's rout that swept Democrats back into power in both the House and Senate. Once again, Bush proved himself unaware of the obvious and oblivious to the voter anger that sent Republicans packing. He blamed GOP losses on voter ignorance, saying Americans didn't understand the war in Iraq. He chastised political guru Karl Rove, saying "I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was." He later would claim the line was a joke but it wasn't. Bush was clearly pissed at everyone involved in Tuesday's election debacle. Everyone but himself.

Wednesday's press conference was classic Bush. Offer up Rumsfeld as the first of what some expect will be a number of scapegoats for the Tuesday massacre, avoid accepting responsibility for his own culpability and talk about how he hopes to work with Democrats after six years of riding roughshod over them. When asked about the outrageous claims he made about incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats during the election, saying they favored victory by terrorists, Bush dismissed his inflammatory rhetoric as "just politics." "The election is over," Bush said. "It's time to move on." Yet it's hard to move on with a President who openly admits lying and then rationalizes that lying as "just politics."

Bush's disregard for the truth is just one of his many ethical problems and moral lapses. He lives in a delusional world of his own making, a political allegory that mocks morality, ethics and the law. In his warped mind, all is fair in politics. He and his party proved that over and over in this past election season, using fear, racism, bigotry, homophobia and outright lies to try and hold on to power. Now that he's lost, he wants to make nice and demands that the opposition forgive and forget.

A recommendation for incoming Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid: Don't fall for Dubya's act. He's a venomous political snake who will turn and bite at the first opportunity because that's what snakes do. Don't turn your backs on him, don't trust him for a nanosecond and don't believe for an instant that he serves any interest but his own. George W. Bush proved this past week that he will sell out anyone - including his own administration and his party's leaders in Congress. If, last week, he had announced his decision to replace Donald Rumsfeld, it might have swayed enough voters to keep at least the Senate in GOP hands. But Bush, for reasons lost somewhere in his deranged mind, decided to lie again to the American people. It was, in the end, another desperate, unexplainable, act by a madman.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/news2/2006/11/warning_to_dems.html

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Always remember: George W. Bush is not your "friend".

Poppy called him up and told him "I'm sending Gates over to talk to you and tell you what he'll be doing at DOD. Make sure you pay attention."

I disagree with the assessment that had he dumped Rummy last week, it would have helped. Too many people knew about that TIMES editorial calling for the dump. He had to appear resolute, even though it was a lie, because that is what stupid idiots LIKE about Bush--he may be WRONG, but he's "decisive" when he fucks up.

It would have been viewed as the act of a desperate man (which he is), flailing about and trying to make a lousy Iraq situation work had he tossed his Rummy over the side, and it would have invited speculation (which is happening now) that Big Fuckyerself Dick, Rummy's former protege, is no longer Advisor Number One to the White House. It would have caused even the mouth-breathers to question his fortitude, and the margin of victory for the Democratic ticket would have been greater still.

OTOH, if he had done this MONTHS ago, gotten everyone to believe that it was a mutual decision on the part of Monkey, Rummy, and Big Dick, and put LIEBERMAN into the SECDEF slot, it actually might have helped the GOP. But hey, too effin' bad!! Poppy's running the show now! He's corrupt too, but at least he's competent!!!

The people sitting in the catbird seat now are Nancy and Harry. They can "make nice" with Bush, providing he signs what they send him without bitching, and they may give him a few "legacy" items to keep him happy, but if he gets all "veto-ish" on their asses, they can start investigating everything under the sun having to do with his administration--turn over a few rocks, and we're off to the races. The choice is the Monkey's--he can have a constrained two final years, or they can be a living hell.

There was no imminent danger of WMDs.

We were not there to liberate the people.

Was it so he could capture Saddam and keep the pistol? I doubt it, though that's a nice consolation prize.

If it is about securing the oil for the US to save our economy, I would probably have agreed with him. But he hasn't said that on record either. So to date, few people know his true intentions, which means most people don't and as such most people will look to inferences and go from there. Faith only works so far, and after 6 years (3 in Iraq), people lost faith. That's all I can guess from inferring.

Why would Bush turn on Repubs, as suggested, who would be more inclined to vote for his policies in the first place? Bush isn't that dim for one thing; and for another, with more Dems in office the chances are greater any veto's made would be overruled.

As with Macaca Allen conceding and all the scandals, known for over a year by folks, I will say - yet again - that there may be something deeper going on. OTOH, if Bush was trying to play coy and suave in yesterday's speech, he did one hell of an acting job. Too good an acting job and it did come across as genuine; unlike so many speeches that do come across with less veracity. So maybe there is no magical conspiracy or anything else and we're trying to find any little thing to make into one. I don't know all the facts, but I have only observed what has been going on and made best judgments on who to vote for, even if certain candidates made me feel ill, they were still better than the others. (in the last 2 days, I found out a lot of people did not feel cozy with Hatch and voted for him reluctantly. So even I am convinced that Pawlenty's win was not due to any fudging of numbers or systems.)

The trouble with conspiracies is, the real ones cannot be fathomed until it's way too late. And the ones least likely to be real are ones people can find anywhere with even the smallest of inferences. I only fathomed from everything that Bush and co may never have had a plan, therefore to say there is a conspiracy is silly. Maybe there is one, but we won't know until it's too late. And sometimes, a cake is just a cake and we look for something within the cake that just isn't there.

I do know N Korea and Iran are genuine threats, and the Dems in office know that too. So nobody should worry about the Dems' ability to decide when war is right.

Believe it or not, I think the future is going to look promising. It's just as possible Bush wanted the Dems to win because his fellow Repubs abandoned him. I don't know! But to draw inconclusive conclusions only leads to false beliefs.

I just wish, if Bush is true about the importance of Iraq, he had been honest from the get-go. And maybe that's why people gave up on him. Not because wars sometimes have to be fought, but because the reasons for it kept changing and that will only alienate people, so it's no shock people don't understand the purported importance. Nobody knows what the importance is.