Anyone want to hear Bush’s latest attack on Democrats?

October 3, 2006

Last Thursday, the president made some headlines by lashing out at Democrats with some unusually bitter rhetoric. “We know the enemy wants to attack us again,” Bush said, whereas Democrats “offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing.”

It was an odd time for the president to question Dems on national security — we had just learned that that the war in Iraq is making the terrorist threat worse not better — but Bush seemed to enjoy it. He tried to turn up the overheated rhetoric a little further yesterday.

President Bush, on a campaign swing in the West, is telling voters that the Democratic Party is weak-kneed on national security and shouldn’t be trusted to hold the reins of Congress.

“If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like — it sounds like — they think the best way to protect the American people is, wait until we’re attacked again,” Bush said Monday at a $360,000 fundraiser in Reno, Nev.

The funny thing, at least to me, is that no one seems to care. Dems didn’t fire back, no press releases were issued, and most progressive blogs barely lifted an eyebrow. Bush’s comments barely registered. In most instances, allowing attacks to go by without a response is a mistake, but in this case, it’s kind of amusing.

In a way, it makes Bush appear small.

The president says controversial things like this to get attention. Given the week thus far, Dems have better things to do than worry about whether ol’ George is calling them names again. You can almost hear Dems saying, “That’s nice, Mr. President, but we have an election to worry about.”

Indeed, if you’re plotting the Dems’ strategy right now, where, exactly, would Bush’s demagoguery fall today? With Foley, Rice, Frist, and Woodward dominating, who cares whether the president thinks Dems are “trustworthy”?

I almost expect Bush to mention how he’s still relevant.

“Hello? Don’t you understand? Dems are weak! Doesn’t anybody want to hear me say mean things about the Democrat Party?”

“Is this thing on?”

Of course Clinton did rebound from the “I’m still relevant” nadir of his administration in early 1995 (or was it late 1994?) to getting re-elected pretty comfortably in 1996.

Re 2006, though…. how refreshing and more encouraging that this upcoming Congressional election might become a referendum on not just Bush, but on the Republican Congress as well.

  • I think there is a calibration of rhetoric involved. You can only turn the rhetoric up so high and then it reaches a point of shrillness and bombast. You’re right CB it doesn make him look small. Definitely not presidential material.

  • As sad as it is to hear the President sound like some deranged commenter on Free Republic.com, I think the recent revelations simply corroborate what we’ve known all along—the big decisions about the war and terrorism policy are handled by Cheney/Rumsfeld and to a certain extent Rice (shudder), while Junior is trotted out to put a happy face on the unparallelled mess they’ve created. He’s simply not relevant to the inner workings and decision making of this administration.

    Pelosi or Reid hit the right note last week while commenting on more rabble-rousing by Bush—the man simply has no more credibility left on national security. That is the only response merited by his ridiculous, transparent, and increasingly desparate, trash talking.

  • We know the super rich and the super ignorant, what makes up the 30% that still supports Bu$h, will vote Republican no matter what. It is the independent voters that will decide this election (Diebold concerns set aside). Given the revelations about the war in Woodward’s book, the NIE’s scathing report on security failures as well as Iraq, Foley’s predatory pedophelia, anyone who still votes republican has simply lost their minds.

  • Herr Bush is like the Black Knight in Monty Python’s “The Holy Grail.” The Dems won’t pay any attention to him; neither will a fairly solid majority of Americans. His comments are so-ooooooo similar to:

    You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what’s coming to you! I’LL BITE YOUR LEGS OFF!!!

    Like I said—he’s just a small, little pipsqueak of a man now; a “political quradriplegic….”

  • As I stated on a prior post today: “Bush is now out banging the drum, using the Dems’ terror votes to slam Dems as wanting to “wait until we’re attacked again before responding to threats.” What, like he, Condi, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft did by ignoring Tenent and Black and their crystal clear warning of July 10, and the following week? Or how these same folks ignored the August PDB that bin Laden was going to attack? These criminals had not one but at least two bites at the apple and still waited until we were attacked, at the expense of the lives of almost three thousand people and their families, before they started any kind of response.”

    Man, the Dems should be ALL OVER Bush’s claims

  • citizen_pain, I agree.

    But, there’s nothing worst than too much money and too little brains.

  • Doesn’t it seem like a case could be made that Presidents shouldn’t participate in partisan fundraising events? He uses our long-time “brand” to raise money, he uses the time that the people of the United States pay him for and he uses the resources of the government to do all this fund raising. Oughta be outlawed.

  • Dale, especially in a time where we are facing WWIII, as Bush and Co want us to believe. Shouldn’t the president be focused more on these huge threats?

  • all I can say is and I quote” there’s an old saying, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice (big hesitation here) you can’t get fooled again” It’s a pitiful display out there now!

  • All Bush has ever done since he took office (and took is the operative word since he didn’t win office) has gone on vacation and campaign. He has always been irrelevant. It just took a little longer for everyone to catch on. Use the hard earned tax dollars to campaign? Sure will. After all, he “got the job” and he can steal anything he wants to steal.

  • And don’t forget this: In August of 2001, he spent a lot of time on the fundraising trail after he received the big warning of Osama’s intent to fly commercial aircraft into buildings. Bush likes the distraction of campaigning to avoid the hard work.

  • Boy George II’s credibility is so low, that we should welcome every attack he makes. America considers him a habitual lier. And why shouldn’t they?

  • Dale, especially in a time where we are facing WWIII, as Bush and Co want us to believe. Shouldn’t the president be focused more on these huge threats?

    Comment by bubba

    Interesting point. Especially since the Repubs have a huge war chest of money already. Either the threats do exist and he shouldn’t have free time or they don’t exist and he’s just lyin’. I guess we know the answer is both. There are big threats AND he’s lying. Is this a usable campaign issue?

  • Sure will. After all, he “got the job” and he can steal anything he wants to steal.

    Comment by GRACIOUS

    Goodness, Gracious, that’s seems to be exactly what he thinks. Remember how wrought up they were over some silverware they accused the Clintons of taking when they left office. The list of tangibles and intangibles Bush has stolen from US, boggles the mind.

  • No matter how small Bush looks, that will never be as small as he truly is.

    Comment by PeterG

    🙂 So true. And objects will appear smaller in the rear view mirror of history.

  • Bush likes the distraction of campaigning to avoid the hard work.

    Comment by lou

    I think you’re right lou. Especially with the bubble they’re built for the boy. He just goes out, eats the food, shakes the hands and says whatever his speechwriters have written as best he can.

  • There’s an infamous Reagan line from the presidential debate that might be appropriate for the Dems to use on Bush when he goes off like this. “There you go, again.” I could never figure out what the heck that meant, but the right thought it was brilliant, so I’m guessing it’s a smart-ass put-down.

  • Even Dubya knows that with a Dem majority, he will loose his rubber stamp congress and quite possibly defend his administration in congressional hearings. If he is already showing signs of desperation, who knows how far he’ll go before the election. Perhaps he’ll just loose it at some fund raiser and whole world will see what a head case he is.

  • Slightly OT but related nonetheless is the fact that just two months AFTER Rice, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft were briefed on this imminent threat Ashcroft sought to cut the budget associated with fighting terrorism. Yes, they, including Bush, took this seriously, no?

  • It’s a shame Dems are letting this slide because Bush just set himself up so easily with this one:

    “If you listen closely to some of the leaders of the Democratic Party, it sounds like — it sounds like — they think the best way to protect the American people is, wait until we’re attacked again,” Bush said.”

    It begs the response: “Like what you did with 9-11, Mr. President?”

  • I especially like Steve’s take on Shrub as the Black Knight.

    You know the Refuglycans go down on their knees and pray for another attack. That’s about the only thing that would tear our attention away from GOP/Sex/Kids/Iraq/Afghanistan/Corruption/Incompetence. I’m sure Herr Rove has a plan to blame the Democrats if there is another strike. Speaking of which: How’s that October Surprise coming, Karl?

  • I wouldn’t take such a nonchalant view of all this. Remember, local elections are won and lost locally. The national media may be ignoring Bush at the moment, but a Presidential visit – especially to an out-of-the-way place like Reno, Nev, is a very big deal locally, and you can be sure that his every word was reported several times by local news. And the biggest consumers of local news – the elderly – are also the biggest voting bloc, especially in non-presidential elections.

    Read a history of the 1968 campaign – the national media scoffed at Nixon, but he went around the country granting “exclusive” interviews to local newscasters, who ate it up. In that election, and every one since, Republican presidential candidates have done better than the national media expected, at least in part because of their mastery of local media, which is where most actual voters (still) get their news.

    Remember, the Republicans are lousy at managing the economy, conducting foreign policy, waging war, or maintaining ethical standards. But, as I posted here on Sunday, they’ve figured out politics.

    The strategy now is to wait for the Foley thing to blow over (outrageous as it is, with Congress out of session, the Christianists will swallow their pride yet again and it will all be out of the headlines in a few days). Meanwhile, keep hammering away at the Dems as weak on defense, weak on terror, weak, weak, weak. Do this, along with the usual arsenal of vicious personal smears, under the radar in small towns and cities. A week or two before the election, we’ll probably see terror back in the news – maybe a Bin Laden tape will mysteriously “surface”, or maybe a “terrorist plot” will be dramatically “foiled”. Remember, 35% of the electorate backs Bush, no matter what. With the right propaganda, the right fearmongering, and the right GOTV, that’s more than enough to win an off-year election.

    Democrats have to hit back, and hit back hard. Ask why Bush hasn’t protected our ports. Ask why he hasn’t protected chemical plants. Ask why he hasn’t found Bin Laden. Ask why he thinks Iraq is a “comma”. Ask why he didn’t think Iraq was important enough to send enough troops, or to be serious about reconstruction. Ask why Rumsfeld is still in office. Ask why Rice is still in office. The President is never irrelevant! Fight back, dammit!!!

  • I’ve been thinking for a couple months now that the Democrats–or, maybe better, an independent liberal group–should shadow Bush whenever he campaigns across the country, to do two things:

    1) Use the heightened level of Democratic/progressive disgust at having that prick in town to raise some coin for the local opponents of whoever Bush is fund-raising for

    2) Do “War Room”-style rapid response to get our message into the local press and rebut the inevitable lies and half-truths that Bush’s monkeys pen for him to spout.

    What say you all?

  • You have to understand the language the RepubliCons speak. It’s not the same as ours. They speak in opposites.
    When Bush says this:

    “We know the enemy wants to attack us again,”

    He means he wants to attack us again. He’s the enemy and the entire world knows it. Waiting for the “October Surprise”

  • Last week we learned that Rice was given an urgent warning about al Qaeda on July 10, 2001 and ignored it. Bush then has the audacity to say,

    “We know the enemy wants to attack us again,” Bush said, whereas Democrats “offer nothing but criticism and obstruction and endless second-guessing.”

    One should add that you also knew during the summer of 2001 that the enemy wanted to attack us and you did nothing. That isn’t second guessing. That is a statement of fact.

  • BC #25.

    The president may have never been irrelevant before but the president was never so unhinged and delusional before. Bush is one of a kind and is programed to perform one function only. Ignoring him is exactly what needs to be done. Take away the bully pulpit. Make the election about Dems taking Congress to counter balance a rogue executive.

    Gimme an “L”
    Gimme an “A”
    Gimme an “M”
    Gimme an “E”
    Gimme an “D”
    Gimme an “U”
    Gimme an “C”
    Gimme an “K”

    What’s that spell?

  • Yesterday Andrew Card, baby-boy’s ex Chief of Staff, confirmed on national television that he had indeed been speaking to Laura Bush as reported in Woodward’s book.

    How many here think Card didn’t call and talk to Laura before saying that, and that had she said “please don’t” he would have gone ahead?

    Bush says he’ll stay in Iraq even if his only support is “Laura and Barney.”

    As of now, it’s down to Barney, and if I was baby-boy, I wouldn’t be trusting Barney not to bite me.

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