Bush job approval at 30 percent, Zogby says.
Historical perspective: Nixon was at 24 percent when he resigned.
The Mahablog
Politics. Society. Group Therapy.
Bush job approval at 30 percent, Zogby says.
Historical perspective: Nixon was at 24 percent when he resigned.
Now here’s something you don’t hear every day.
Mr. Smith is in DC, and at the end of his rope.
GOP Senator: Iraq War “May Be Criminal”
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002104.php
Avalanche
The Women from Maine, Nagel, maybe even Voinovich now have the cover they need to join the mass confession and return to a fact based reality.
Hold on to your hat
The video of Sen Smith’s speech is here. Note the introduction is made by Linc Chafee.
http://src.senate.gov/public/_files/television/smith_dec7.ram
Even were Bush to get lower than Nixon, I somehow don’t see him resigning. He’ll definitely want to “stay the course” ;). Oh, well. Cheney scares the hell out of me.
There will always be the few diehard loyal Bush fans, although I can’t imagine why, in the face of all that’s happened with his administration. He really is the worst US president of all time, so I expect his numbers could still drop even futher.
I have a friend who lives near Cincinnati and she’s planning a visit to Washington DC with her daughter. One of the things she’s most looking forward to is meeting John Boehner. Ack! Can’t account for some people’s tastes in politics.
Even were Bush to get lower than Nixon, I somehow don’t see him resigning.
Nixon didn’t resign until some senior Republicans decided he had to go. They elected Barry Goldwater to go to the White House and break the news. Goldwater informed Nixon that Republicans in Congress would do nothing to stop his impeachment and conviction should he remain in office. Nixon resigned the next day.
That said, I’d be surprised if Bush is pushed into resigning, but if more information damaging to the White House comes to light between now and 2008, I expect to see Washington Republicans throw Bush under the bus in many other ways.
I’ve been noticing little tid bits of information on the “internets” about gay sex in the WH, Jeff Gannon’s name is poping up, with links to Dubya and Rove.Is the enemy within the WH gates leaking? This is interesting in light of recent developements like the Haggert and Foley messes, the Kwo revelation, etc.Perhaps it’s just tabloid crap, but perhaps it goes deeper. Time to turn over some rocks and see what slithers out…..
Bush is doing “a heck of a job”.
(December 08, 2006 — 11:40 PM EST // link)
Maybe if I ignore this for a while it’ll get better?
From USNews …
White House advisers say Bush won’t react in detail to the ISG report for several weeks, while he assesses it and awaits various internal government reports on the situation from his own advisers. Bush tells aides he doesn’t want to “outsource” his role as commander in chief. Some Bush allies say this is a way to buy some time as the president tries to decide how to deal with rising pressure to alter his strategy in Iraq and hopes the critical media focus on the Iraq war will soften.
What a pitiful coward this man is. Maybe if I just sort of shuffle the papers a bit and clear my throat everybody will get off my case. That’s his response.
Just above that passage there’s this …
“We have a classic case of circling the wagons,” says a former adviser to Bush the elder. “If President Bush changes his policy in Iraq in a fundamental way, it undermines the whole premise of his presidency. I just don’t believe he will ever do that.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anything truer said on the whole sorry topic of this war. And it gets to the heart of the issue. He won’t ever change course. Not because there’s anyone who can’t see that the present course is a catastrophe, but because changing course would cut the legs from under the collective denial of the president and his supporters. As bad as things get they can still pretend they’re on the way to getting better. It’s a long hard slog to January 2009 when it becomes someone else’s fault. Once they pull the plug themselves, though, they admit it was all a disaster, that the whole presidency was, in Dick Gephardt’s half forgotten phrase, “a miserable failure.”
That is why we’re in Iraq today. Get your head around it.
— Josh Marshall
It just boggles my mind that all that matters to this man his the “premise of his presidency.” Doesn’t it matter that 2,900 American lives have already been sacrificed?! Bush has murdered almost as many Americans as al Quaeda did on September 11. It is too bad that his ego his more important to him and his supporters than the lives of the Americans serving in his illegal and immoral war–the lives of Americans! Doesn’t he understand that?!!!!!!!! Is he capable of understanding that?!!!!!!!!
Bush always was a diversive ‘front’ for real deciders who love the secrecy of backrooms. Today, even his poll numbers and his personal petulance adequately serve as newsmaking diversive ‘fronts’.
The whole country ‘seems to be’ held hostage to the whims of one incompetent guy, but the scrambling for time and advantage in the backrooms is what needs to be uncovered. For example, what is actually being done within the executive branch to comply with the new 2006 legislation forbidding ‘permanent military bases’ in Iraq?
An investigative reporter worth his/her salt would specifically tie the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Commission Report’s recommendations into the context of actual U.S. decision-making behaviors taking place in Iraq in this past year and at the present time and in the next few months. I believe there is a hidden agenda being directed from the backrooms that simply needs further time for implementation and that hidden agenda utilizes front-puppet Bush’s ‘stay the course’ delaying actions as a successful red herring for public consumption.
Maybe if I just sort of shuffle the papers a bit and clear my throat everybody will get off my case.
Bonnie, that’s Bush in a nutshell. Daniel Shor said something very similar on NPR this morning. Bush has no intention of implementing any of the ISG’s suggestions.
I must say though, after considering erinyes’s comment #6, a gay sex scandal in this White House would make a hilarious third act. Then curtain down, and all of us poor taxpayers who paid for this farce can go home chuckling.
Donna- What’s the small print in the legislation say about no permanent bases in Iraq? Is the base ‘temporary’ if we leave by the year 2080?
Joanr – I love your idea for the third act. In it is George giving or receiving? Because he has been giving it to the country for 6 years; it would be appropriate if he was on all 4’s receiving. The question is: who would be delivering? The suspense could be built in media hype like they did with “Who shot JR?” except this time it would be “Who shot King George?”. And it would be tastefully non-violent.
Seriously, I think the comment that tells all about the disconnect was George telling the press corp that we are “not winning as fast as I expected we would”. Civilian casualties are off the scale; American military deaths are at the highest rate since??; the president of Iraq is called by the Iraq press ‘mayor of the Green Zone”, because that’s as far as his real authority extends. We are getting our butts kicked to the tune of 6 – 8 billion per month and the total cost of LOOSING this war will be over a trillion. George has a strategy; don’t admit to reality for 2 years and blame reality on the poor schlups (probably Democrats) who have to clean it up.
Bush needs to be impeached. He’s already committed high crimes and misdemeanors.. and he has to be held accountable, not to punish him, but to uphold our democracy. He’s made a joke of democracy, and he continues to ridicule democracy with his incessant surveys, reports, evaluations and assessments he claims are needed so he can decide a “new way forward’..He’s playing head games with the hope and gullibility of the American public.
Let’s just re-invent the wheel!..Now we are off on a goose chase where the resolution of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict will be a determining factor for the outcome of Iraq. Yeah, that’ll work…if patience is one of your virtues. Let’s not get sucked in trying to analyze possibilities when they will only serve to ensnare us with false hope and lead us further away from the source of the problem. The problem is Bush, and we have to focus on him first in order to take the first step in the right direction concerning Iraq and concerning our liberties at home.
Impeach his ass..forget the political ramifications or perceptions, or even obstacles that have to be overcome to achieve an impeachment..it’s the only way to a positive outcome.
I say… let’s follow Michael Schaivo’s example in courage and wisdom by pulling the plug on Bush, because we all know to well that he’s brain dead and useless.
Grammar question: Seeing how Bush is the President, would the word loser be capitalized when used in reference to Bush? Would he be the Loser, or the loser?
Yes and exactly yes, Swami. He’s already a Capitol Loser, er.. and a capital Loser.
Here is a good article on why we should impeach:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120906C.shtml
I’m with Swami. Bush needs to know that he will be held accountable. It is what is best for the country. It is what is best for democracy. It is not partisan. No man is above the law. It is a principle we must adhere to or there is no democracy.
If we impeach Bush, we’ll have to impeach Cheney as well. No way do I want Cheney as President.
Impeach them both…. and give a welcome to President Pelosi. Sounds like a plan to me.
Impeaching Bush would force Cheney out of his hidden location and make his behind the scenes manuevering less likely to go unchecked or un-noticed…….not saying I would ever, ever want the Dick to be President, just that I wonder if such could operate as a curb on Cheney’s stealth-dependent behavior.
I think there will be a movement to impeach Bush and just plain Jail Cheney before late spring.The crap is getting so deep several republicans are speaking out, they are like a bunch of penguins pushing each other around until one falls off the ice, when they figure it’s safe to jump in, it’ll be a real f— fest.