One of those days

March 6, 2007

I’m trying to imagine what the mood is like in the West Wing right now.

Scooter Libby, the first high-ranking White House official to face criminal charges in over a century, has been convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, stemming from a smear campaign he and the Vice President worked on together.

Nine Americans were killed in Iraq yesterday, and suicide bombers killed 93 people in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims this morning in coordinated attacks.

The Walter Reed scandal dealing with mistreatment of wounded veterans has become a massive embarrassment for the Bush gang, and the White House is struggling to avoid responsibility.

And the prosecutor purge scandal is hitting its stride today, as Senate hearings expose a massive and systemic fiasco in which the Justice Department and the White House fired U.S. Attorneys, without cause, for political purposes and then lied about it.

All of this has unfolded over the last 24 hours. What’s more, this presidency was largely in free-fall before this week and seemingly had no where to go but up.

I’m hard pressed to imagine things getting any worse, but then again, I’ve thought that before.

Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure a pretty woman will go missing or crazy or something shiny will….look over there.

  • Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of crooks.

    I think everyone would feel a lot better if they just resigned.

  • Not to downplay the crimes of the Bush White House, but didn’t some high-ranking White House officials face criminal charges in the Nixon White House?

    I know the last 6 years seem like an eternity, but the 1970’s wasn’t a century ago.

  • This seems like a good time for another round of Fred Barnes and David Broder “Bush comeback” stories.

  • I guess you can be optimistic about all the lies seeing the light of day and this administration finally getting its just desserts. However, these guys have made their careers by getting out of tough spots using more lies, shady lawyers, officials, scapegoats, etc.

    I have to wonder if anything substantive will happen. Namely, justice. These guys cannot get away with their crimes.

  • The ability of the Dem’s to hold these hearings have really turned the political tide. Before Congress was able to PR their way out of these situations but now the spotlight shines brightly. A huge turn of events and could not happen to a more deserving group of people working for the White House.

  • I’m hard pressed to imagine things getting any worse, but then again, I’ve thought that before.

    Well, then again, Henry Waxman has been compiling evidence of Republican misdeeds for several years and we’re only about seven weeks into the 110th Congress.

    I think we’re just at the starting point. Here’s to a death-of-a-thousand cuts to the conservative movement.

  • [D]idn’t some high-ranking White House officials face criminal charges in the Nixon White House?

    Technically, Scooter is the first top White House aide (senior advisor to the President or higher) to face criminal charges in 130 years.

  • I thought that too (re Nixon officials) but actually every high-ranking official who has been indicted (from Cisneros in Clinton to Donovan in Reagan to all the Watergate gang) had resigned their offices BEFORE they were indicted. Libby was the first one to hang on to his job until the indictment actually came out since Orville Babcock, Ulysses Grant’s chief of staff. As for the White House, they have proved themselves so insulated and delusional, do you think they notice anything anymore? (Brits leaving Iraq shows success!) Another 9 dead American troops in Iraq? Did they notice many of the first 3,000 or so? The Walter Reed scandal? It’s just “a political problem,” or so Brit Hume says. Fired U.S. attorneys? “Too much inside baseball. No one will notice.” Dubyaland exists in a universe with little connection to our own.

  • Don’t sell these guys short. I’ve been astonished many times by their ability to drain even more water out of a seemingly empty pool.

    Despite every bad thing you can say about Nixon, he eventually resigned. I don’t believe we’ll see that same last shred of decency from anyone in this WH.

  • ***…this presidency was largely in free-fall before this week and seemingly had no where to go but up.***

    No. They can go deeper into the barrel. They can go deeper than the barrel is deep, because the blogosphere shall take its trustworthy collection of sharp implements (knives, a few machetes, several axes, a collection of rusty razor-blades, and a really big chainsaw) and cut the bottom out of the barrel.

    Let the era of the sharp cutting implements begin….

  • I’m hard pressed to imagine things getting any worse, but then again, I’ve thought that before.

    Hmm, let’s see, ignorant arrogance (or is it arrogant ignorance), fear of brown people and nuclear weapons, shake well, and voila!

    Instant Armageddon!

    -GFO

  • I’ve always wondered what the absolute nadir will be, in the polls. I’d assume that with his base, he can’t really drop below 30 percent. So the question is, What will it take for him to lose the base? Dump Cheney would certainly be up there. Raise tax (obviously won’t happen) would be a killer. A questionable Supreme Court nominee (Gonzalez?) if, say, the Stevens seat opens up. Short of that, his base has stood by him through Iraq, scandals, etc.

  • What impresses me is what good citizens the jury were — responsible, painstaking, and methodical — so very different from the people responsible for this mess. Scooter Libby — a damn fool to lie — carries the can for the White House. And once Libby lied, Fitzgerald (who doubtless knew much bigger game was/were responsible for the leak) had to prosecute and suffer — himself — the slings and arrows of furious conservatives.

    No questions left about the venality of this presidency. What worries me is that its enablers and protecters — many members of the media — are running around free and still enabling and protecting. The media came out of the trial looking a lot worse than LIbby and closer to the administration on the scale of moral disorder.

    And then as Marcus Alrightus points out, there’s Henry Waxman. Does he have a food taster?

  • Yes, GuyFromOhio. Bomb Iran. It’s a 3fer. The neo wet dream. The perfect diversion. Playing catalyst to god’s vision.

  • Not to downplay the crimes of the Bush White House, but didn’t some high-ranking White House officials face criminal charges in the Nixon White House?
    I know the last 6 years seem like an eternity, but the 1970’s wasn’t a century ago. –Comment by Common Knowledge

    I keep having a little jingle in my head about “Halderman, Erlichman, Mitchel, and Dean” but I think even those creeps resigned under pressure. In terms of actual crooks going to jail, I bet Nixon has the record, but probably Carpetbagger knows better than I. I know it was a huge relief when Nixon resigned.

  • Just one more little tidbit to add. From what I read about CPAC this last weekend there was a conspicious absence of any mention of Bush at the convention. Hardcore conservatives seem to be abandoning Bush in droves. We’re not done dealing with the radical right-wingers, but we’ve gotten in some major body blows on the leader.

  • I’m hard pressed to imagine things getting any worse, but then again, I’ve thought that before.

    Live boy, dead girl, comatose barnyard animal?

    May I borrow the tinfoil hat? Thanks.

    I’ve been wondering if another direct hit on the US would make things better or worse for ShubCo (TM). On the one hand they’ve spent the past five years saying that only Commander Codpiece and His Justice Fighters of Authoritah can protect us from evil furriners. Colonel Dicky Clot said the fact that there have been no additional terrorist attacks* in the US proves that the war on Iraq is stopping terrorists over there before they get over here. So a terrorist attack would, stick a fork in their reputation especially if CC has another My Pet Goat moment when he gets the news.

    On the other hand. We know they don’t give a fuck about anyone who makes less than 800K a year. These whack jobs might close their eyes to warning flags under the theory that it will distract people (certainly) and they can always blame it on the DemoncRAT majority in both houses. Plus, it would allow CC to invoke all sorts of neato emergency powers.

    I guess it all depends on how one defines “worse.” Reasonable people know what it means but are we dealing with reasonable people?

    [Removes tfh] OK, I’m done.

    tAiO

    *Anthrax and gun-toting whack jobs excluded.

  • The White House knew the verdict was coming. They were all in the same operation, so the verdict should come as no suprise to them. If anything their lawyers are furiously filling out the paperwork to appeal the verdict, and that’s it.

    They’ve also dealt with major attacks in Iraq like item #2 before.

    So I doubt either of these affect their mood very much.

    So they’re left with the Walter Reed and prosecutor purge scandals and they’ve been well-known for a while. Situation normal for them, no doubt.

  • Frankly, I think the White House — specificially G-Dub and Deadeye Dick — could care less what’s happening in the real world. They don’t, after all, live there and it has no bearing on their beliefs or actions. They’re above all (especially that little something for ordinary people…you know, The Law or whatever it’s called these days). Thus, it just doesn’t apply to them.

    Life is just one big signing statement, in other words….

  • Sympathy for the Cheney (with Apologies to the Rolling Stones)

    Please allow me to introduce myself
    I’m a man of wealth and waste
    I’ve been around for a long six years
    Stole many American bucks and faith
    While I was invoking jesus christ
    Had no moments of doubt and pain
    Made damn sure that Gonzales
    Washed his hands of attorney’s fates
    Pleased to meet you
    Hope you guess my name
    But whats puzzling you
    Is the nature of my game

    I stuck around ole Walter Reed
    When I saw it was a time for a deal
    Cut taxes outsourced all the facilities
    Families, screamed in vain
    I shot a face
    Broke generals’ rank
    While the OIF raged
    And the bodies stank
    Pleased to meet you
    Hope you guess my name, oh yeah
    Ah, whats puzzling you
    Is the nature of my game, oh yeah

    I watched with glee
    While your press and TV
    Fought for air time
    For the celebs they made
    I shouted out,
    Who killed the government?
    When after all
    It was W and me
    Let me please introduce myself
    Im a man of wealth and waste

    And I laid traps for ambassadors
    Who got leaked before they reached Niger
    Pleased to meet you
    Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
    But whats puzzling you
    Is the nature of my game, oh yeah, get down, baby
    Pleased to meet you
    Hope you guessed my name, oh yeah
    But whats confusing you
    Is just the nature of my game
    Just as every Dem is a criminal
    And all Republicans saints
    As win is lose
    Just call me Dick Cheney
    cause I’m in need of some restraint
    So if you meet me
    Have some courtesy
    Have some sympathy, and some taste
    Use all your well-learned politesse
    Or I’ll lay your life to waste, um yeah
    Pleased to meet you
    Hope you guessed my name, um yeah
    But whats puzzling you
    Is the nature of my game, um mean it, get down
    Woo, who
    Oh yeah, get on down
    Oh yeah
    Oh yeah!
    Tell me baby, whats my name
    Tell me honey, can ya guess my name
    Tell me baby, whats my name
    I tell you one time, youre to blame
    Ooo, who
    Ooo, who
    Ooo, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Oh, yeah
    Whats me name
    Tell me, baby, whats my name
    Tell me, sweetie, whats my name
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Ooo, who, who
    Oh, yeah

  • i know it was a lot of years ago, and my memory isn’t what it used to be, but isn’t the sound of the bush white house starting to implode, eerily similar to the sound of the nixon white house falling apart?

  • CB – You forgot Wall Street’s little correction, the Treasury official that said our indebtedness is about to drive our economy off a cliff, gas prices having climbed $.40 a gallon higher since the year began … and that’s just off the top of my head.

    There’s plenty of more bad news that could, can and will come out that will bury the Bushies. There has to be a tipping point for all the Bush apologists, like the Broders, the Friedmans, The Brooks’, the WSJ editorial page and others who have tied their own personal reputations to being Bush patsies that will one day look at the mountainous pile of crap Bush chained them to and finally turn against him. Republicans rode a wave from 1994 through 2006 because the general impression was that they were winners. And Everyone likes to be associated with a winner. But an avalanche of losing will turn everyone against them. I’m still waiting for that dam to burst completely.

  • You’d think there’d be a tipping point by now, but has’nt happened.

    Wouldn’t the Libby thing, for most presidents, be the height of scandal, the worst possible thing that could have happened to them? I mean, I think of it this way:

    For Reagan, Libby would have been worse than everything except Iran-Contra.
    For Poppy Bush, it woulda been the worst.
    For Clinton, the worst — worse than Monica, although less tawdry.
    For Carter, the worst, easily. Same with Ford.

    But for Bush, it ranks what, 5th, at best?

    1. Abu Ghraib
    2. Gitmo
    3. The attorney scandal
    4. Jack Abramoff

    And pepper in your choice of the fumbles in Afghanistan, not getting bin Laden, that minor security breach of Sept 01, the failures of New Orleans, Terri Schaivo…I mean, it’s almost like there’s so much crap, they want to stun you into stupefication with their terribleness.

  • Dude, it’s my feelings of senselessness of purpose mixed with equal parts introjection therapy and hamburger Gestalt Helper, now with knuckles and femurs. And just like a voyage of innovation unto unexplored territory, I remember the first time I opened an owl pellet. What a world of discovery! I had stumbled across a Barn Owl roost in an abandoned nun’s dildo one spring afternoon while skipping along the banks of the river Dung. Below the chute where all the naughty bits did their disgusting and unsightly business away from the prying eyes or our lord, was a small pile of damp, furry boluses (soft masses of chewed food). I examined each one, picking them up and carefully placing them on an old sack that belonged to the kindly old flatulent Father Flannigan, for what use had he of such underused apparatus. The fact that they were tough enough to survive the long gestation within the nun’s perch left no impression of sin nor the eternal torment and suffering me and my loved ones were now damned to eternity for, as essentially my sinful transgression not only cooked my goose but all the assholes I lived with at the time. This was my finest discovery to date, and I treated the pellets with care and respect like those Egyptian artifacts I had watched archeologists excavate on T.V. But then I said fuck it and put on “Cranked up really high” by Slaughter and the Dogs and awaited Sister Ann Daniel with a handy 5 iron and an uncontrollable urge to tee off her fucking skull.

  • We only have two years to get the electronic ballot scandal straightened out or we may face more of the same.

    • Comments are closed.