The White House is crumbling internally. President Bush seems bewildered, no longer in charge. He wanders around the country talking about health savings accounts and other small-bore projects that mean little to most people. Nobody is listening. — Marianne Means, syndicated columnist
I don’t think Bush realizes nobody is listening. On television he seems as swaggering as ever. He strides into the open and strikes a menacing if off-balance pose, like a listing gladiator who’s lost his gladius. Oh, yeah? Come ‘n’ get me his body language says.
Of late the business at hand has been White House staff changes, although pundits are noting that nobody with any real power or influence seems subject to change. Dan Balz of the Washington Post writes,
On that score, many people who know the administration best are privately dubious. Presidents, more than chiefs of staff, determine how White Houses operate, they said, noting that Bush has shown that he prefers a tight circle of advisers and does not welcome the advice of outsiders.
So the hapless Scott McClellan goes but Karl Rove stays, albeit with a shortened job description.
“Metaphors about deck chairs abound,” observes the New York Times, dryly.
The sudden exit of Scott McClellan, the press secretary, would be meaningless under normal circumstances. But in the current context, it really does send an important message. The president is like one of those people who pretend to apologize by saying they’re sorry if they were misunderstood. He doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong. It’s our fault for not appreciating him.
Blame the victim.
Sidney Blumenthal writes at Salon (also True Blue Liberal)
While White House press secretary Scott McClellan resigns, Rumsfeld stays. Clinging to Rumsfeld as indispensable to his strength, Bush reveals his fragility.
Bush is a weak man pretending to be strong. Because he’s a weak man he clings frantically to his props, including those who stand by his side appearing strong and looking cool, even if they are real Dick Cheneys. Bush’s supposed “loyalty” is a big part of his mythos, but he’s less loyal than desperate. Bush can’t maintain the tough guy persona by himself.
No wonder Bush rewards his loyal bumblers with the Medal of Freedom. He decorates his props with medals to give them more legitimacy, thereby giving himself more legitimacy.
Some White House insider whispered to Tim Russert that Bush “won’t fire Rumsfeld because it would be the equivalent of firing himself.†Exactly.
But the props are no longer having the effect of making Bush look strong. H.D.S. Greenway writes in the Boston Globe,
President Bush’s loyalty to Rumsfeld may seem admirable, but it is politically foolish and dishonorable. After the spectacular failure of Iraq — not to mention the horrors of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo — it’s time for the old Republican virtues of personal responsibility and accountability. The continued presence of Rumsfeld in the administration decreases the chances that Bush can keep public support for the war. For the American people have lost faith in Bush’s judgment, and Rumsfeld is a prime example of the president’s lack of judgment.
Bush won’t let go of those were were the dressing of his salad days. This stubborn and pathetic denial of his changing circumstances is a sure sign of weakness. He’s like a vain but elderly woman who dresses like a 20-year-old and can’t see how ridiculous she looks.
Blumenthal continues,
The two men prefer not to understand that time and opportunity lost can never be regained. Their denial extends beyond the realities of Iraq and its history to the history of the United States. It is extremely peculiar that they have learned no lessons of nation building from the tragedy of failed political leadership during post-Civil War Reconstruction, whose collapse consigned African-Americans to second-class citizenship for a century. Bush & Co. disdain nation building as something soft and weak connected to the Clinton presidency, just as they belittled and neglected terrorism as a Clinton obsession before Sept. 11 and as the president dismissed history itself as weightless.
“History? We don’t know. We’ll all be dead,” Bush remarked in 2003. “We cannot escape history,” said Abraham Lincoln. The living president has already sealed his reputation in history.
Speaking of history, be sure to see the Sean Wilentz cover story at Rolling Stone, titled “The Worst President in History?” You’ll want to read the whole thing, but I’m only going to quote this little bit —
When William F. Buckley, the man whom many credit as the founder of the modern conservative movement, writes categorically, as he did in February, that “one can’t doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed,” then something terrible has happened. Even as a brash young iconoclast, Buckley always took the long view. The Bush White House seems incapable of doing so, except insofar as a tiny trusted circle around the president constantly reassures him that he is a messianic liberator and profound freedom fighter, on a par with FDR and Lincoln, and that history will vindicate his every act and utterance.
Some pundits still think that if Bush could just replace people in that tiny trusted circle with some new faces, he could salvage his second term. What they fail to understand is that if Bush were deprived of his props he’d spend the rest of his administration hiding under a bed, whimpering.
I wonder how much time he spends under his bed whimpering now. Those “props” can prop him up for those public appearances and lie to him about his place in history, but as dumb as he is–and he is quite unintelligent-he is not that dumb and he has never had any character when it comes to dealing with adversity.
This is a sorry, sad spectacle. It’s hard to imagine a good outcome for America. Major damage has been done and it looks like it will continue, especially if in November Republican losses aren’t as severe as expected. The Bush crowd will call it a sweeping mandate to continue with business as usual. And then God help us all.
Because the Bush team is so consistently inbred, it is getting easier and easier to translate Bushspeak. All one has to do is reverse 180 degrees from what is ‘stated as policy’ to recognize that what is actually their self-serving intent is the opposite of that policy:
Uniter, not divider……healthy forest initiative, clear-cutting……clear sky’s initiative, more mercury……promote democracy abroad, undermine those democratically elected…….no child left behind, refuse funding……..support our troops, cut veterans’ benefits………etc, ad naseum
He has become a pittiful comedy skit. I look at him and listen and think the guy has no concept of reality.
I had to laugh when I hear him say, “I’m the decider”. He was like a kid who is playing a game and the game belongs to him. He gets angry because he isn’t winning and just flips the board over with all the parts. He is a childish pathetic loser who is like a fucking parrot with a limited vocabulary.
I wonder how much time he spends under his bed whimpering now.
None at all. The brush clearing, at least, is how he takes his mind off the fact that he’s in over his head… but being in over his head doesn’t actually bother him. He’s Barbara [Bush]’s son: he’s been conditioned to be an insensitive monster by the best.
Besides: he knows he’s not really in charge… that’s why he has to do this absurd act (“I’m the decider, see? [Hey Ma, look at MEEEE!]”)
(I do like a take on Scotty’s leaving I saw– “I guess he wanted to spend more time lying to his family.”)
Anyway, back to Junior… Part of the delicacy of a staff change (notice its just rearranging staff already there… no outsiders…) is because he IS such an immature buffoon that he is loaded with personal tripwires, so they need someone around to make sure they don’t say the wrong thing (show up late, wear the wrong color or shoes… that sort of thing.)
Notwithstanding that he is just a figurehead, he is a monster nonetheless (recall his making Andy Card get coffee– “you’re the chief of staff, right– go get the coffee…”) So “the right people” must present him “his version of reality”… like Hitler’s generals were moving phantom divisions all over Europe, so the President is constantly briefed on our “victories” in Iraq. Barring a well-deserved but extraordinarily unlikely impeachment and removal from office until January 20, 2009, when the game is timed out.
I suggested that former Iraqi information minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf a/k/a “Baghdad Bob” would make an excellent replacement for Scotty… whether he’s hired or not, that’s certainly the attitude required to work in the Bush White House.
I haven’t read the Rolling Stone in probably 15 years, and by now I’d developed an old-ladyish fear that its writers begin paragraphs with “Dude!”. But dude, Sean Wilentz’s article is intense.
I wonder if the college-age kids who forgot to vote in 2004 still read Rolling Stone?
My thought is that when the people who don’t usually pay any attention to politics get pissed off, change happens. We need an even bigger get-registered and get-out-the-vote movement this year, and maybe then we really will throw the bastards out. 2007 sounds like a fine year for an impeachment.
No 4 – Correction
“pitiful”
paragraph 2 – when I “heard”
Sorry, I was typing faster than I was thinking!
Say, didn’t those old Russian leaders surround themselves with a bunch of medal-wearing show dogs?
Just asking…
As I read on another blog, the administration does not want to go through the confirmation hearings that would be necessary for a new SecDef if Rumsfeld were to resign or be fired.
Talking Dog comment no 5
You are so correct – Barbara Bush’s son. She is/was quite the “Mother”. He walks like her and looks like her in eyes and hawkish nose. Also, the same smart-aleck attitude to everyone who isn’t part of their “inner circle”. She “attended” college for six months but likes to present herself differently.
Pulling brush is probably a 5 minute photo-op whenever he is at his “ranch” in Crawford. Oh, let’s not forget the bike riding!
Anybody seen Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room? Bush’s behavior reminds me a bit like Skilling or Lay right before the company collapsed. The writing is on the wall, the big guys know how bad it is, but they have to put a smiling face on everything or the shareholders (the Republican Party and Voters) will run for the exits in November.
Anyone remember the late 70’s/early 80’s song “Golden country?”… was it a REO song???,, reading this made think of that song,, now it will be going thru my head all damn day.,,,
From Rolling Stone:
“…an unswerving adherence to a simplistic ideology that abjures deviation from dogma as heresy, thus preventing any pragmatic adjustment to changing realities.”
Also called “blind faith.” This is the glue that binds our executive branch and that’s gotten us in this sticky mess.
Another thought – Now that Tony Snow from Fox News is under consideration for press secretary (we already know how warm and fuzzy Fox News is for our “true believer” executives – Cheney feels right at home there), will the American public finally catch on that Fox News is better named, “Bush News”? And when Bush and Company finally go down (how can they not?) will Fox sink along with them? Pleasant thought.
Maha, you wrote of Bush’s swagger and off-balance pose, ‘like a listing gladiator’.
Ever notice that ‘hitch in his come-a-long’ when he walks, now? His left leg hitches out, then up, then finally forward….. makes me think it might be hemorrhoids, those livid and painful swellings at the anus. Maybe his body language says, “.. reality is such a pain in the butt”.
dnadan56 – Comment #8
You reminded me of a great Brezhnev joke. (I read in Cathy Young’s book (Growing up in Moscow) a while back.)
“With his bushy black eyebrows, his pebbles-in-the-mouth mumbling, the rainbow of medals and awards on his chest, and the overall image of someone who wouldn’t be able to put his pants on if left to his own devices, our dear Leonid Ilyich was a veritable gold mine for the anonymous wits who did so much to brighten our lives.â€
Brezhnev says to an aide, “Look, I told you to write a fifteen-minute speech for me, and when I read it at the conference it went on for forty-five minutes!†The aide replies, “But Leonid Ilyich, I gave you three copies.â€
Makes me think of that speech that Bushnev started a week or so ago in which he had to start over again completely because he messed up the subject to be discussed.
I agree with most of what’s said here, but there are a few problems:
1. He’s still going to be president for a thousand more days.
2. The Republicans are still going to retain control of both houses of Congress. (Go to the breakdown of any recent poll and check the question about how the respondent feels about his or her own member of Congress — the numbers are still very positive.)
And #2 means:
3. He can stay in Iraq as long as he wants and bomb Iran whenever he feels like it, and
4. His tax cuts will be made permanent.
All in all, a pretty good second term, as far as he’s concerned.
Steve M –
I agree with you. It’s pretty depressing and there’s the feeling that not much is going to change in favor of the nation’s health for some time. I also fear that the immigration issue is going to be used as a hot button by some on the right as our latest “us versus them” ploy (we’ve done it many times in the past- we’re always suckers for it, as we all know). Rather than thinking through our shambles of an immigration policy that takes into account so many conflicting factors, media opportunists like those found on KFI know how to use fear-mongering to a scary degree. Our community knows all about what sort of witch hunts they can provoke.
Your take on the triangulation that Bush Co might be trying for is thought-provoking. I’ve wondered if Bush and V. Fox are so closely allied because of the NAFTA mess down there. But count on Bush to use this issue to his party’s advantage, that’s for sure.
On the plus side, two single-issue candidates who had hoped to hop on the bandwagon for this hateful stuff (Jim Gilchrist and Dianne Harkey) both lost in conservative OC. I’m hoping that the moderates will hold sway a little longer.
By the way, I saw your blog for the first time and like it a lot. Too bad you had to close it to comments.
This article over at BOP well expresses my take on it, excerpt:
Contrary to what people believe, Bush’s executive has been all about the long term, and managing enough of the short term to prevent anyone from stopping the long term from happening.
Hence the goofy “I’m the decider” and all the other smiley face appearances. These clowns know that there is nothing that can be done about it until November 2006 or 2008 at the earliest. And they act as though these are minor problems, and so they’ve dispatched Karl to take care of it.
Comment 13
Donna, his gait is like his Mother’s
EXCEPT
His BALLS are just too damn big and that’s the problem!
I don’t think Bush realizes nobody is listening. On television he seems as swaggering as ever…
What struck me is how the media pays attention to this guy, even though there’s not much there. All Bush sees are the cameras. Psychologically he doesn’t know or care if anyone is listening, as long as he’s got the power.
Let us all work with Governor Dean to get the Dems back in control of the House.
Then let’s impeach Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney…why not…
Then let’s turn him over to the I.C.C. for crimes against humanity.
As far as I’m concerned that will get our nation headed in the right direction.
We will still be guilty, every one of us, of being a nation of torturers and killers. But at least we will have started to make amends.
Well, I wish Scotty McCellan the best on his new road to adventure, wherever it might lead him. I was moved by his emotional farewell sentiments to our Commander-in-Chief,….” I gave you my all”..Isn’t that touching? After all, it’s true, what more can a man give than his dignity?
what more can a man give than his dignity?
His manhood?
#16.Steve M, I disagree with all four of your points. When I read them, I realized that you listed these four points as fact…..which is a neat confidence trick if one can get away with it [as Bush did for far too long]. If you “agree with most of the posts here’, and also feel assured of your ‘facts’, then maybe you need to meditate on the following three concepts: 1] congruency and 2] self-fulfilling prophecy and 3]defeatism.
Scotty is probably going back to Texas to help his Momma’s run for office.
Republicans (the elected “workforce”) should realize by now that the best way to distance themselves from Bush’s failed presidency is to join a bipartisan effort to impeach him. They should also demand Cheney’s resignation.