THERE was never any question that President Bush would grant amnesty to Scooter Libby, the man who knows too much about the lies told to sell the war in Iraq. The only questions were when, and how, Mr. Bush would buy Mr. Libby’s silence. Now we have the answers, and they’re at least as incriminating as the act itself. They reveal the continued ferocity of a White House cover-up and expose the true character of a commander in chief whose tough-guy shtick can no longer camouflage his fundamental cowardice.
The timing of the president’s Libby intervention was a surprise. Many assumed he would mimic the sleazy 11th-hour examples of most recent vintage: his father’s pardon of six Iran-contra defendants who might have dragged him into that scandal, and Bill Clinton’s pardon of the tax fugitive Marc Rich, the former husband of a major campaign contributor and the former client of none other than the ubiquitous Mr. Libby.
But the ever-impetuous current President Bush acted 18 months before his scheduled eviction from the White House. Even more surprising, he did so when the Titanic that is his presidency had just hit two fresh icebergs, the demise of the immigration bill and the growing revolt of Republican senators against his strategy in Iraq.
That Mr. Bush, already suffering historically low approval ratings, would invite another hit has been attributed in Washington to his desire to placate what remains of his base. By this logic, he had nothing left to lose. He didn’t care if he looked like an utter hypocrite, giving his crony a freer ride than Paris Hilton and violating the white-collar sentencing guidelines set by his own administration. He had to throw a bone to the last grumpy old white guys watching Bill O’Reilly in a bunker.
But if those die-hards haven’t deserted him by now, why would Mr. Libby’s incarceration be the final straw? They certainly weren’t whipped into a frenzy by coverage on Fox News, which tended to minimize the leak case as a non-event. Mr. Libby, faceless and voiceless to most Americans, is no Ollie North, and he provoked no right-wing firestorm akin to the uproars over Terri Schiavo, Harriet Miers or “amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
The only people clamoring for Mr. Libby’s freedom were the pundits who still believe that Saddam secured uranium in Africa and who still hope that any exoneration of Mr. Libby might make them look less like dupes for aiding and abetting the hyped case for war. That select group is not the Republican base so much as a roster of the past, present and future holders of quasi-academic titles at neocon think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute.
What this crowd never understood is that Mr. Bush’s highest priority is always to protect himself. So he stiffed them too. Had the president wanted to placate the Weekly Standard crowd, he would have given Mr. Libby a full pardon. That he served up a commutation instead is revealing of just how worried the president is about the beans Mr. Libby could spill about his and Dick Cheney’s use of prewar intelligence.
Valerie Wilson still has a civil suit pending. The Democratic inquisitor in the House, Henry Waxman, still has the uranium hoax underlying this case at the top of his agenda as an active investigation. A commutation puts up more roadblocks by keeping Mr. Libby’s appeal of his conviction alive and his Fifth Amendment rights intact. He can’t testify without risking self-incrimination. Meanwhile, we are asked to believe that he has paid his remaining $250,000 debt to society independently of his private $5 million “legal defense fund.”
The president’s presentation of the commutation is more revealing still. Had Mr. Bush really believed he was doing the right and honorable thing, he would not have commuted Mr. Libby’s jail sentence by press release just before the July Fourth holiday without consulting Justice Department lawyers. That’s the behavior of an accountant cooking the books in the dead of night, not the proud act of a patriot standing on principle.
When the furor followed Mr. Bush from Kennebunkport to Washington despite his efforts to duck it, he further underlined his embarrassment by taking his only few questions on the subject during a photo op at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. You know this president is up to no good whenever he hides behind the troops. This instance was particularly shameful, since Mr. Bush also used the occasion to trivialize the scandalous maltreatment of Walter Reed patients on his watch as merely “some bureaucratic red-tape issues.”
Asked last week to explain the president’s poll numbers, Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center told NBC News that “when we ask people to summon up one word that comes to mind” to describe Mr. Bush, it’s “incompetence.” But cowardice, the character trait so evident in his furtive handling of the Libby commutation, is as important to understanding Mr. Bush’s cratered presidency as incompetence, cronyism and hubris.
Even The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, a consistent Bush and Libby defender, had to take notice. Furious that the president had not given Mr. Libby a full pardon (at least not yet), The Journal called the Bush commutation statement a “profile in non-courage.”
What it did not recognize, or chose not to recognize, is that this non-courage, to use The Journal’s euphemism, has been this president’s stock in trade, far exceeding the “wimp factor” that Newsweek once attributed to his father. The younger Mr. Bush’s cowardice is arguably more responsible for the calamities of his leadership than anything else.
People don’t change. Mr. Bush’s failure to have the courage of his own convictions was apparent early in his history, when he professed support for the Vietnam War yet kept himself out of harm’s way when he had the chance to serve in it. In the White House, he has often repeated the feckless pattern that he set back then and reaffirmed last week in his hide-and-seek bestowing of the Libby commutation.
The first fight he conspicuously ran away from as president was in August 2001. Aspiring to halt federal underwriting of embryonic stem-cell research, he didn’t stand up and say so but instead unveiled a bogus “compromise” that promised continued federal research on 60 existing stem-cell lines. Only later would we learn that all but 11 of them did not exist. When Mr. Bush wanted to endorse a constitutional amendment to “protect” marriage, he again cowered. A planned 2006 Rose Garden announcement to a crowd of religious-right supporters was abruptly moved from the sunlight into a shadowy auditorium away from the White House.
Nowhere is this president’s non-courage more evident than in the “signing statements” The Boston Globe exposed last year. As Charlie Savage reported, Mr. Bush “quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office.” Rather than veto them in public view, he signed them, waited until after the press and lawmakers left the White House, and then filed statements in the Federal Register asserting that he would ignore laws he (not the courts) judged unconstitutional. This was the extralegal trick Mr. Bush used to bypass the ban on torture. It allowed him to make a coward’s escape from the moral (and legal) responsibility of arguing for so radical a break with American practice.
In the end, it was also this president’s profile in non-courage that greased the skids for the Iraq fiasco. If Mr. Bush had had the guts to put America on a true wartime footing by appealing to his fellow citizens for sacrifice, possibly even a draft if required, then he might have had at least a chance of amassing the resources needed to secure Iraq after we invaded it.
But he never backed up the rhetoric of war with the stand-up action needed to prosecute the war. Instead he relied on fomenting fear, as typified by the false uranium claims whose genesis has been covered up by Mr. Libby’s obstructions of justice. Mr. Bush’s cowardly abdication of the tough responsibilities of wartime leadership ratified Donald Rumsfeld’s decision to go into Iraq with the army he had, ensuring our defeat.
Never underestimate the power of the unconscious. Not the least of the revelatory aspects of Mr. Bush’s commutation is that he picked the fourth anniversary of “Bring ‘em on” to hand it down. It was on July 2, 2003, that the president responded to the continued violence in Iraq, two months after “Mission Accomplished,” by taunting those who want “to harm American troops.” Mr. Bush assured the world that “we’ve got the force necessary to deal with the security situation.” The “surge” notwithstanding, we still don’t have the force necessary four years later, because the president never did summon the courage, even as disaster loomed, to back up his own convictions by going to the mat to secure that force.
No one can stop Mr. Bush from freeing a pathetic little fall guy like Scooter Libby. But only those who paid the ultimate price for the avoidable bungling of Iraq have the moral authority to pardon Mr. Bush.
I’m growing to love Mr. Waxman and all the other Democratic committee chairs/members who are standing up for us. Be strong, gentlemen.
Suggested legislation: (1) Since only the Congress can make law, any signing statements that do not agree with legislation as passed should be considered void and not binding on anyone.
(2) Since some of the most egregiously awful of the egregiously awful appointments are made by Mr. Bush as “emergency” recess appointments to avoid Senate review and approval, the Congress should enact a law obliging the Senate to review all such appointments within a month of their making that would allow them to remove the bad guys.
Gutless scum, I concur.
When will Frank Rich, who is a insightful political columnist and an excellent writer, reach the obvious conclusion that he keeps skirting in his essays about the Bush/Cheney regime: that they should and must be impeached for their crimes and abuses of power?
It is frustrating, yet also amusing to watch as he skewers the president and vice president week after week, yet never mentions the “I” word.
I cannot for the life of me understand what is holding him back.
Clearly if Bush cannot be impeached for his crimes (and we won’t even talk about Cheney!), then the impeachment clause of the Constitution has simply lost its meaning and should be removed as an anachronism, just as the references to slaves were removed.
Come on Frank, make the leap.
Dave Lindorff
author of “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006)
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Start using the new terminology, Folks:
Impeach AND PROSECUTE!!!
Otherwise they go on, basically, as if nothing happened.
Jail time or hanging is NOT too much for traitors of our country!!!
One word to describe George Bush: Criminal…after that, add incompetent and cowardly. What a “legacy”…
The saddest part of the whole Libby scandal is that a large percentage of Americans probably don’t even know who he is, what he has done, or even care. Even sadder, they probably do know who Paris Hilton is, what she has done, and they probably do care that she got her few days of jail time. But the Libby scandal and all the other misdeeds of this crop of Neo-Con facsists (NSA wiretapping of Americans, Lying about intelligence to guide us into a war with Iraq, Condoning torture in violation of the Geneva convention, Outing a CIA operative for political gain, atacking the writ of Habeus Corpus, etc.) is destroying our democracy right from under the noses of these same ignorant Americans. I can’t totally blame these people. The Americans who do understand what’s going on have few friends in the Media to voice their opinions as the Media continues to be engulfed by large corporations whose executives have a duty to increase the botom line and no check and balance toward reporting truth or important news. The silence of the Democratic Leaders stuns me but they also are on the hook to get as much corporate cash as possible in order o win their campaigns. Impeachment is so readily deserved and so easy to justify yet its “off the table”. This is an Orwellian Nightmare… but I preach to the choir.
Is anybody else familiar enough with alcoholics to recognize the dry drunk syndrome?
The one quality that conspicuously stands out in this article is not Mr Bush’s cowardice, but connivance. If a person could get away with committing so many illegal acts, it could only point to one thing: Either he is very, very intelligent, or the jury is very, very stupid. The jury in this case being the Congress, that’s assuming they’re not co-conspirators.
In many ways they are a bigger problem sober than they were drunk. Somebody who can afford it should send him a case of the stuff.
Frank Rich threw me a curveball with this statement:
In the end, it was also this president’s profile in non-courage that greased the skids for the Iraq fiasco. If Mr. Bush had had the guts to put America on a true wartime footing by appealing to his fellow citizens for sacrifice, possibly even a draft if required, then he might have had at least a chance of amassing the resources needed to secure Iraq after we invaded it.
I guess the pathetic, incompentent Mr Bush was not quite Nazi Stormtrooper enough to satisfy the media Establishment.
There is no pardon for Mr. Bush. He is a war criminal and should be treated as such. History should not be kind to this charlatan. I pity a populace that could elect such a delinquent as the simpleton they have chosen. But he will live out his time on the people’s dime and do his best to rewrite his contributions to the record of his folly. He is a traitor to the constitution and should be judged as such. The day Bush leaves office will be a good day for democracy.
Bush has set a precedence for the future: anything goes. Until elected and non-elected officials understand that they will be held accountable for illegal acts this same nonsense will continue with whomever resides in the White House. It is up to Congress to follow through and show once and for all that Crime Does Not Pay!
Good article. Yes, a coward, a sociopath and a useful idiot all rolled into one. I’m usre he was intended as a fall guy early on with a cabal running the show behind him. They must all be rooted out and held accountable for their crimes.
King of Hannover, William V, once said that American Constitution created King under title of President. It took 225 years and confluence of unhappy events to show the grim reality, Bush’s character being the least important.
More important was bastardization of American politics, especially after Republican Revolution that had brought to the fore such a capo as Tom DeLay.
But the most important of all was bastardization and atomization of American public, which accepted rant against “tax and spend” Democrats. Majority of Americans institutionalized contept for tax and, thereby contempt for common cause. They bet their farms on going alone. And alone they went as the Romans did 2 millenia ago beond the point of no return.
I don’t see any reasons our destiny will be better. Do I regret it? Not for a moment, albeit life is very comfortable in this US of A.
People of the world will have collective sigh of releif, as well as majority of people in this country when Empire finally goes under. Hopefully without a wimp as her mirror image, SU, did in 1989.
It’s not so much that the brain-addled President is a coward as it is that, like most sociopathic criminals he does not want to get caught and held accountable, so he acts in the darkness and the night.
If ever he is convicted and imprisoned, his cell should have a camera, turned on permanently, and feeding its images of him to the internet so that the people of this country can be forever reminded of what their willful ignorance, their refusal to be responsible for the governance of their country, and their cheaply bought false patriotism has done to us and the world.
How is that so much can be written about George W Bush’s cowardice but utterly fail to mention that he is a war criminal?
His failure is not in “failing to secure Iraq”, unless of course the author is complicit in the crime as well…
Wars of aggression are criminal acts. Bin Laden his best known associate has more courage and honesty than the wretch Bush.
To The Hague with him and his cohort. They should swing for their crimes as the Saddam Hussein bunch has.
If you’re curious, and a night-owl, there’s a re-run of “24″ currently in progress late Sat nights.
A new President has just been sworn in following a terrorist attack. His name is Charles Logan. A fictional profile in cowardice, watch as this character develops, and then say that the show, at least in this respect, is not itself a profile in courage (and perspicacity). And, a rather amazing reflection of Amerikkka today.
Just because the tough guy with the Texas accent (curiously enough, the only person in his family who sports one) was a cheerleader at an exclusive prep school with a proud history of catering to brainless legacies, whose daddy then bought him a diploma from Yale and later saw to it that he, sonny boy, never saw combat during the Viet Nam days (to avoid joining the 56,000 plus, unconnected poor boys who never came home)and who had his military records(such as they were)”disappeared” after going permanently AWOL, and who spent the next quarter century of his life hiding in a whiskey bottle and shagging brainless debutantes, and who’s every business venture was little more than a pale and artificial gesture, compliments of his daddy’s rich and ever-so-well-connected friends, I don’t think these things add up to sufficient reason to assume that the wrangler from Crawford, who’s “ranch” features not a single DANGEROUS animal is a coward, do they?
“Antonin G. Scalia, “arguably the Court’s most colorful jurist today,” has conspired with Richard B. Cheney the 46th Vice-President of the United
States of America to subvert the U. S. Constitution. The question now is not only about these “ high crimes and misdemeanors,” but moreover about a larger effort that includes other justices of the court and other members of the Bush administration, members of Congress, their staff and lobbyists. The on-going subversion of law, today has cost many their civil liberties and all the purse of the US government.
Today the evidence is now broad and conclusive; it is only for the magistrate and the people to file the charges in our courts, in our congress and in our local and state governments.”
• Laboring the issue. All along it has been the Iraq War and the cover-up of the conspiracy to enter into and pursue the war. But as yet there is no smoking gun. Cowardice is not a smoking gun. Bush’s lack of character is not grounds for impeachment.
Frank Rich: “That Mr. Bush, already suffering historically low approval ratings, would invite another hit has been attributed in Washington to his desire to placate what remains of his base…”
~An appropriate clue to explain this latest delinquent behaviour might be found in the old German phrase: “Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad…”
Nietzsche:
“Is anybody else familiar enough with alcoholics to recognize the dry drunk syndrome?”
~To the best of my knowledge dear Nietzsche, he IS no longer a ‘dry drunk’, but again, -actually, hitting the bottle!
ricg:
“If ever he is convicted and imprisoned, his cell should have a camera, turned on permanently, and feeding its images of him to the internet so that the people of this country can be forever reminded of what their willful ignorance, their refusal to be responsible for the governance of their country, and their cheaply bought false patriotism has done to us and the world.”
~Beautifully written Ricg, and yes, -as many Americans *do* seem to be suffering a short-term memory loss problem (-can it be the dope? the drink?) then having **PRESIDENT POLTROON** as a (TV exhibited) daily reminder, in the corner of their screens, may help those US amnesiacs who so quickly forgot such belligerent catastrophes as Vietnam (etc, etc, etc), to now bear in mind that the current psychosis of toting big guns around and shooting up the world is about as sensible as teasing large alligators and then wondering why both legs just went missing…
Maybe there’s a moral in there somewhere? And maybe (at long, long last) America will, -as a nation, now finally wake up to realities which are *not* directed by Cecil B. De Mille?
~ I pray so!
“No one can stop Mr. Bush from freeing a pathetic little fall guy like Scooter Libby.”
I wouldn’t call Libby a pathetic little fall guy, by any stretch of the imagination. He was a willing co-conspirator, and a high-ranking one at that.
And if Mr. Libby felt any loneliness whatsoever in taking the rap for these criminals on this one, it was within Libby’s power to change that situation by testifying: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
So please, spare us any even obliquely symphathetic characterizations of this criminal, however unintentional.
A good article. But, I believe the greatest act of cowardice by Bush was when he, notified of the planes hitting the World Trade Center, sat there for an interminable time, like a childish, fool. Then he flew to Nebraska? rather than to D.C. to take command. Isn’t he the Commander-In-Chief?
I don’t think so. His daddy is still runnung the show, ergo Cheney,ergo: Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Feith, Card, Rove, Armitage, Addington, and on and on.
Impeach, you Nancys, goll ding it!
….and in spite of it all, both the president and his VP are still sitting where they are.
The British PM, Gordon Brown, in response to the deeds of his predecessor requested the Parliament to take away the powers of the Prime Minster. This is demonstration of courage and went almost unnoticed in the US.
What the present occupants of the White Hose have committed are pure and simple “war crimes”. As a simple example, take collective punishment that the US forces are dishing out everyday in both Iraq and Afghanistan. These are the same crimes that gave birth to the Nuremberg trials.
Impeachment followed by a Nuremberg style trial and offering deepest of apologies and reparations to our victims is the honorable way out of this quagmire.
This is the only way that may wash off the sin of collective responsibility that we the people of these United States committed by re-electing the Bush-Cheney team.
These crimanals must not get away with this. When Clinton left the Reagan crew off the hook by ending the Walsh investigation into the Iran/Contra affair, a huge mistake was made.Currently we see many of the same faces involved in yet another crimanal affair, they must not get away with this. Impeach, and prosecute, hold them to account, otherwise, we are wasting are time,and hope for a better existence.
Ha!
As if he can be impeached.
Then what?
Continue to allow the corporate overlords to run roughshod?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxnpujfanUM&mode=related&search=
President Kennedy warns us all…..and advises us on our duty as American citizens.
The NYT is a cowardly rag. Let’s not forget what flagship of American journalism aided and abetted the criminal behavior of Bushboy, consistently resorting to the most cowardly form of journalism, the go-along-and-get-along type of journalism. And now that the Commander in Chief is down, the cowardly NYT joins the crowd to kick him. Of course, the bravehearts of the NYT first put their finger to the wind to make sure it’s safe. Apparently, they have not yet received persmission from their handlers to call for impeachment.
Fuck the NYT.
What would be nice would be if it turned out that this was the last month of Bush’s presidency.
Americans, through apathy and/or indifference, have allowed this secretive (& unelected) zealot president to manipulate our rights by tolerating the senate’s acceptance of dubious and potentially dangerous justices–even after the politically motivated & disasterous Supreme Court 2000 intervention which planted him in office. This has enabled unprecedented abuses including countless environmental sellouts, manipulation of science to impede environmental reforms, impediments of family planning and medical programs, & the list goes on.
The gravity of these outrages eclipse the Lewensky scaandel which led to an impeachment, & are more serious than Watergate which brought down a presidency.
The Hague, oh the beautiful Hague! It would be awesome, wonderful and even necessary to repair our image to make the impeachment issue one of truly international importance. Get the whole world behind this impeachment/bringing a war criminal to justice movement. First impeachment, then we can try him and Cheney for war crimes. It will never happen, but we can at least dream…
A respectful suggestion _
If anyone out there is in a position to work with US city councils, which have passed resolutions condemning the Iraq war, etc., how about a more succinct resolution of REAL rebellion? Such as _
“Because George W. Bush and Richard Cheney have clearly demonstrated their incompetence, corruption and contempt for the people and Constitution of the United States of America, the city of XX(City name) hereby resolves to NO LONGER RECOGNIZE THEIR AUTHORITY AS PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. If Bush or Cheney enters XX(City name) for any reason, our law enforcement and other officials will refuse to offer them protection, and we cannot guarantee their safety.”
COME ON!!! It’s time to get real. Our country is in serious danger. We owe this to our children. No amount of discussion will help.
Rise up and man up. Our children and grandchildren deserve better. If we don’t do something, we’re letting them down, and trashing our entire legacy as a “free country.”
Come on, Eugene, Oregon; come on, Ann Arbor, Michigan; come on, Boulder, Colorado; come on Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, California, Wisconsin, Minnesota.
Please.
I think Bush has made a monumental error by commuting Libby’s sentence, the full impact of which has yet to be felt; it may actually lead — unintended consequences — to his and Cheney’s impeachment.
Many Republicans are as disgusted as the rest of us by Bush’s cowardly commutation — they wanted either a full pardon or some actually wanted Libby to do time, at least so that the GOP that dumped on Clinton for ‘perjury’ wasn’t made to look like total hypocrites.
Bush has satisfied no one but the media wretches that Frank Rich mentioned, and they have no idea what goes on out in ‘flyover country’ or what the people are thinking.
If nothing else, Bush’s incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, cruelty and cowardice will insure the GOP will be a minority party for at least a generation. He is the most loathed president of my lifetime, even more so than Nixon, and I remember the Eisenhower administration.
A mindboggling array of crimes from an incompetent, coward–yet he has been allowed license to continue. On who’s head does that fall? It is not the Bush junta–we all knew the score from day 1–it was the true cowardice of the congress that allowed this runaway train.
The corporate ideologues who own this country will never allow one branch of their government to hold the other branch accountable. Both sides know their reciprocal other has a cache of buried bodies and much dirty laundry. Theyll continue to cover for each other.
A new, mass, independent party, rooted in the working class majority must be painstakingly built. Or there is no future for democracy in the United States.
asnet, the smoking gun is PNAC. that is the reason the MSM has never discussed it.
Perfect for the Democrats. An issue where they can sling some mud, but where there’s no possible chance for any action to be taken.
If Mr. Waxman were energetically defending us and attacking the Bush White House, he’d be starting impeachment proceedings. Instead he just messes around with little political side issues. Issues where the Dems can sling some mud at the Rethugs, but where no real change can come.
If you want change, please stop voting Democrat.
I applaud you, Mr. Rich. This idiot is going to take everyone who is not SUPER,ULTRA rich right down the yellow brick road–BUT it isn’t going to be where they ALL want it to be. We will all be at the BOTTOM of the world’s garbage dump, scrounging for food. What happens if foreigners who own us, decide to call in their loans? Can you say “1929″ except to the 100th power? We have sold our souls to $$$$ and now we are dealing with the devil himself. One of our state’s new tags says “God bless America” and I am ashamed to ask God to bless this sham of a country. Why should we ask Him? Our leaders don’t even obey our laws. We MUST do the right thing, impeach and convict and imprison, before we ever ask God to help us. The ultra right wingers need to look up the meaning of hypocrite!!! I believe it was Jesus who said, “I it is harder for a rich man to get into Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.” This being the case, some folks ought to get right with God. It was also said, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s. God doe NOT expect us to be rich, he just wants us to believe, live morally, not hypocritically, and one day we will be with Him. Our country was NOT broken when Pres. Clinton left office; so WHY did this pretense of a leader try to fix it? Not money, but Power. They should arrest him and Deadeye and throw them into the DC prison system and let them LEARN all about ABSOLUTE POWER!!!
Yes, I must admit, the American penchant for public crucifixion suddenly appeals to me too. But it ain’t gonna happen unless a couple million Americans hit the streets, along with a few hundred mayors and a coupla dozen governors — and even then you ain’t gonna get no satisfaction, what with your ultra-right-wing Supreme Court.
Cuz the Dems are up to their armpits in Bush-Cheney crimes, and an impeachment isn’t gonna help the Democrat candidates for 2008. Washington is such a cesspool: the only way anyone in Congress gets anything done is to blackmail others into it — and there’s obviously plenty of blackmail material available.
So, to those who say “impeach,” I say “third party.” If the Greens aren’t capitalizing on the success of Live Earth, then they’re not worth third-party status, of course. But nothing’s gonna change unless your current one-party system can be seriously challenged.
“If nothing else, Bush’s incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, cruelty and cowardice will insure the GOP will be a minority party for at least a generation.”
Let us hope for a lifetime. In a democracy, political parties that have no connection to reality or with the people’s apsirations, should not even exist. Here in South Africa, the party that invented apartheid, the National Party, is completely dissolved after only 10 years of democracy. It simply does not exist any more. Anybody who harbours ideas similar to theirs or has been a member of this party once, does not say this in the open and is ashamed of it. It has completely evaporated.
Looking at reality and what they have actually done for the american people, the Republican Party has been completely irrelevant for at least a generation now already. Voting republican is like confessing that you are stupid. I don’t actually understand why this party still exists.
#
Nietzsche July 8th, 2007 3:34 pm
Is anybody else familiar enough with alcoholics to recognize the dry drunk syndrome?
What is the syndrome that prevented Congress from reeling Bu$h the inferior in years ago even just to protect their own turf? What is the syndrome that prevents them from impeaching him now that he is a political liability for anyone connected to him?
Winnetou, it would be nice if the GOP simply dried up and blew away, but in our ridiculous ‘two-party system’ here in the States, where we have a greater choice of cereals than political parties, that’s not likely to happen in the near future.
What may happen, though, is that the old-line conservatives will kick the crazy Christians and the neocons out of the GOP and return to sanity and the rule of law. Either that or a viable third party will emerge to challenge the domination of the Dems and GOP.
Either one would be fine with me.
Incidentally, a friend of mine who works with ex-alcoholics and drug addicts says that Bush exhibits all of the flaws of the drunk who attempts to cure themselves — rigidity, arrogance and, most importantly, the messianic feeling that they have been spared for some great mission in life. She has also said that Bush’s inarticulation and confusion in speech is typical of brain damage from excessive drinking and/or drug-taking. He is the kind of man you would least like to see in charge of anything, as the majority of America is finding out.
So, Frank Rich was for the war before he was against it:
“In the end, it was also this president’s profile in non-courage that greased the skids for the Iraq fiasco. If Mr. Bush had had the guts to put America on a true wartime footing by appealing to his fellow citizens for sacrifice, possibly even a draft if required, then he might have had at least a chance of amassing the resources needed to secure Iraq after we invaded it.”
This was shocking to me. I’ve been a huge fan of Frank Rich’s until I read these unsettling sentences.
THANKS,MISSY BEATTIE.YA NAILED IT .it cannot be overstated that the mission was immoral at its damned core.the misery we have brought to the iraqi people cannot be justified.that we might have prevailed if the government had been willing to raise the taxes,and the army necessary to attack and occupy a nation which never harmed us is a non-sequiter.if bush had been honest with the congress about the facts as they existed,let alone provided a realistic assessment of the cost of this sorry project,he never could have gotten it off the ground.it seems eons ago,we were told the invaison would “pay for itself”-as a liberated people gave us their oil in return for their new national life.thanks again.
Zell is correct.
We need to take action to bring this illegal administration to account for their crimes against the Constitution and humanity, i.e. the Iraq war! We can discuss, talk, banter back and forth, etc. but unless we force the Democratic leadership in Congress to move toward impeachment or bring Bush & Cheney to trial for their crimes, we’re wasting our time. We need leadership and action.
The nation is going down and except for a few, people are completely clueless. They think their lives will continue in comfort. Forgetaboutit! When Republican control is complete in 2009, people will see the hideous tentacles of Fascism in their daily lives.
That Bush is a coward is irrelevant. He is a drug addict, a drunk, and a dangerous simpleton handled by a truly evil man, Cheney. This pair is not going to relinquish control via an honest election. Why should they when stealing has worked so well with so little effort? A “terrorist” event will occur or Bush will bomb Iran creating a national/worldwide emergency. He will declare martial law, cancel the election and declare himself president for four more years. They must be removed, forcibly, through the Congress and courts.
Yeah, let’s all just keep on a kicken the president, let’s all just have a good ol’ foot stompen time. Let all us ni eve little wide eyed idiots who pretend to exclaim that we were all led astray by slight of hand,bring on the tar and feathers. Why we will show them monstrous cab ball peoples that we will change this nations die wrecktion by bringing on more of our outstanding political leaders to face down their cokniveing backstabbing ways.
Why we will front an attack on them with a strong presidential race headed up with a young black senator named O-bama, that rymes with O-sama, name recognition being real important these days. Or, perhaps a Lady senator, who having all the infomation available to her helped to lead the American people foward into Iraq, jumping on Poor Georges’ War Wagon and waving that American Freedom Flag for all the world to see, “WE” are going to establish a New America in the heart of rag head land, and them folks over there will be so happy that they will practicaly give us their oil for the priviledge alone of being their liborator and friend. Did I say the “O” word, I had better strike that, I might be con sidered un-American, but then again if our current congress and the field of front running democrats can throw shadows on their voting records and pont their fingers at George as the reason for the treason, than I suppose I could be president someday myself. Anything is possible in America if you are willing to dress yourself in a puppet suit and allow public opining to pull your moral strings. Oh well, just a nother day in Pair o Dice, America, come one and all to the great gambling hall. You folks have a nice day, and just keep throwin them rocks, I’m sure Jeesus would be proud. And don’t forget what Forests’ momma said, “Forrest if you are pointen your finger in another persons direction, your gonna have three fingers pointen back at you. So let all them flag waven, finger pointen polititions just keep on yappin, they still can’t change a yea vote into a nea vote, and all us gung ho American voters who thought that those little rag heads were a push over cannot lie to themselves that they didn’t know that oil was the reason for the treason. We are all responsible for the current situation and must take responsibilty for this mess and stop beating the hell out of our President unless we give ourselves a bit of self flagelation as well.
Through our fault, through our fault, through our most serious fault. God have Mercy, Christ have Mercy, A-Man..LM
Berniece,
I share your indignation, frustration,and FURY. But, it’s apparent to me now, and should be also to the Dem leadership in Congress, that Mr. Conyer’s and Mr. Waxman’s (and others) committees will not be allowed to set things straight. Any convictions that may derive from Congressional investigations, will simply and without a second thought, be wiped away by Presidential Pardon. Therefore, the investigative ‘bulldogs’ in Congress are actually helping the bushies run out the clock. Anyone who still thinks the system will be allowed to ferret out the rats is delusional. If the Dems don’t impeach now, they may as well all go home. It’s crunch time.
RSJ,
I am in sympathy with your views, but unfortunately, I don’t think we can hope for much action anytime soon…
“I think Bush has made a monumental error by commuting Libby’s sentence, the full impact of which has yet to be felt; it may actually lead — unintended consequences — to his and Cheney’s impeachment.
I’m not holding my breath. Impeachment and removal from office requires a majority in the House and 2/3 of the Senate. There is absolutely no chance that this is going to happen by next November. The best we can hope for is a congressional bill requiring voter-verified permanent ballots and random audits of vote tallies in the 2008 election. If we don’t get at least that — and it looks like we won’t — it’s going to be game, set, and match for the GOP.
Many Republicans are as disgusted as the rest of us by Bush’s cowardly commutation — they wanted either a full pardon or some actually wanted Libby to do time, at least so that the GOP that dumped on Clinton for ‘perjury’ wasn’t made to look like total hypocrites.
So what if they look like total hypocrites? As long as they continue to be compliant corporate lap-dogs, they’ll have al the “resources” needed to maintain a healthy edge in any reelection campaign. Besides, wasn’t Joe Wilson just some Librul Wimp? Kudos to Scooter for outing his wife. Served them right. That whole thing was just a politically-motivated media event staged by librul wimp Bush-haters.
Bush has satisfied no one but the media wretches that Frank Rich mentioned, and they have no idea what goes on out in ‘flyover country’ or what the people are thinking.
So what? When the voting apparatus is owned by Corporate America and the mainstream media functions as your propaganda arm in order to maintain “access”, you really don’t need to concern yourself with ‘flyover country’ or what the people are thinking. You just need to make sure that your coporate pals are well cared-for. Meaning, of course, that they have free access to the public till and aren’t burdened by burdensome environmental, workplace, and trade standards or irksome government oversight of their financial practices. You gotta know whaich side of the bread is buttered. And who holds the butter knife.
Small wonder that Bush famously does not care about opinion polls. I wouldn’t either! Public opinion is irrelevant.
If nothing else, Bush’s incompetence, arrogance, stupidity, cruelty and cowardice will insure the GOP will be a minority party for at least a generation. He is the most loathed president of my lifetime, even more so than Nixon, and I remember the Eisenhower administration.
Well, if being the most loathed, incompetent, arrogant, stupid, cruel and cowardly president in a generation was sufficient to relegate his party to the back benches for a generation, I think you’d be right. My observation over the last ten years, however, has been that “election” outcomes have very little to do with votes cast. I have a feeling that Americans are going to get a very rude awakening on November 5, 2008. But by then, so what? The die will be cast.
As the saying goes, a great county like America will not destroyed by an external enemy, but by rot from within. We are all responsible.
Antiwar people should not armchair-quarterback the war, period. It totally ruins the case. The war wasn’t ever winnable, unless genocide is considered winning. So, anyone who wishes we had the “guts” to win is, ipso facto, supporting genocide.
It is like the people who continue to say we failed South Vietnam by pulling out. We were responsible for over 2,000,000 — some say 3,000,000 — deaths in that war. We need to get over ourselves and realize that there aren’t many “good wars” that need to be won.
I wish Bush sent the minimum number of troops to Iraq to assure failure. That would be much better than the pathetic attempts to prolong the day of judgement about this whole fiasco.