Will Bush get the blame?

October 13, 2006

The last several election cycles, after Democrats lose, party activists and leaders debate why things went poorly. Fingers are pointed, strategies are blamed, solutions are discussed … it’s all fairly routine.

Republicans, meanwhile, who are not necessarily accustomed to losing, get angry. When they assign blame, they’re not just talking about a tersely-worded op-ed; they’re thinking about recriminations that last a while.

And right now, Republicans are starting to look askance at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. (thanks to reader A.W. for the tip)

Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7 — a concern aggravated by the president’s news conference this week.

“They aren’t even planning for if they lose,” says a GOP insider who informally counsels the West Wing. If Democrats win control of the House, as many analysts expect, Republicans predict that Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

“The Bush White House has had no relationship with Congress,” said a Bush ally. “Beyond the Democrats, wait till they see how the Republicans — the ones that survive — treat them if they lose next month.”

This item, from U.S. News & World Report’s Kenneth T. Walsh, reflects some real internal bitterness among Republicans towards Bush.

GOP insiders are upset by Bush’s seeming inability to come up with new ideas or fresh approaches. There is even a heightened sensitivity to the way Bush talks about advisers who served his father.

At the president’s news conference on Wednesday, allies of his father complained that the president seemed dismissive of former Secretary of State James Baker, who remains close to his dad and is cochairman of a bipartisan panel studying the war in Iraq.

“I think it’s good to have some of our elder statesmen — I hate to call Baker an elder statesman — but to go over there and take a look, and to come back and make recommendations,” Bush said. Baker fans felt this made the former secretary seem part of a bygone era. There is also considerable criticism of Bush for making little or no news in his 63-minute encounter with the press.

“He had nothing to say at the press conference,” says a prominent GOP insider. “My question is, why call it?”

If the elections go as badly for the GOP as the polls suggest, Republicans are going to need someone to take the blame. Right now, the leading candidate is the president.

“He had nothing to say at the press conference,” says a prominent GOP insider. “My question is, why call it?”

And Democrats who have been asking that same question for the past couple of months are still considered unhinged.

  • In some ways this is so unfair. If the Congressional Republican’ts had just practiced oversight on the Bushties, if they had not embraced Earmarks like a pork-addict, if they had not used the floor of the House and Senate to bring devisive and pointless legislation that would never get passed, if they had talked with the Democrats and allowed them into conference committees and allowed amendments,

    If they had just not been such a f**king rubber stamp when the country needed real leadership,

    then they might not be about to lose control of the House and the Senate.

    That said, it’s amusing that this Bush Ally has noted the lack of relationship between the Bushites and the Republican’t Congress, much less the Democrats. Maybe, just maybe if they had insisted on real communication in Washington the near future would not appear so gloomy to them.

    Of course, it could just be that Rove knows some Dieboldic facts that we don’t 😉

  • “They aren’t even planning for if they lose” – the story of this administration in a sentence.

  • “The Bush White House has had no relationship with Congress,” said a Bush ally…”

    Huh?

    I thought Rove could make or break you career as a future lobbyist?

    Pray tell what am I missing here?

  • You think this brigade of Bible-banging bastards would know: Ye shall reap what ye sow.

    If they’re just now noticing what an unmitigated disaster they’ve inflicted on the rest of the country it only proves they’re too stupid to be in charge.

  • Look, the guy has fucked up everything single thing he’s even been involved in: Harken, Arbusto, the state of Texas, Iraq, the United States of America . . . the list goes on and on. Why is anyone surprised that he’s also fucked up the Republican party? Par for the course, I’d say.

  • “They aren’t even planning for if they lose.”

    Same plan as for Iraq. It speaks to that idiotic assertion you hear from time to time: “Failure is not an option.” Well of course that’s true, in that no one would ever choose to fail, but failure is always a possibility (see: Iraq, Katrina, etc.) and you damn well better be prepared for that possibility. The arrogance of this administration is beyond belief.

  • Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.

    I better start drinking gallons of water so that I’m prepared to “mark” Chimpy for the next two years.

    ;-P

  • “Beyond the Democrats, wait till they see how the Republicans — the ones that survive — treat them if they lose next month.”

    The ones that are left will be the ones MOST likely to vote “aye” in an impeachment hearing. Don’t forget that. What’s left of the GOP will *have* to clean house, from basement to attic, in order to win back votes.

  • “My question is, why call it?”

    Because they knew the media would cover it and rebroadcast snippets for days. And it gave Bush another chance to lecture the country while demonizing Democrats.

    “Republicans, meanwhile, who are not necessarily accustomed to losing, get angry.”

    True, but I think they’ll go after the Dems more than Bush. Every time the Dems question W or launch an investigation, they’ll go nuts talking about how a Dem lead Congress is a do-nothing Congress.

  • Remember what happened when Clinton won? They went on a tear, doing everything in their power to destroy him. The Republicans honestly believe that they are the natural governing party, and anything else is an affront to god. If you think that they are nasty now, wait until after they have lost. A leopard does not change it’s spots just because it’s lost an election. 🙂

  • wait till they see how the Republicans — the ones that survive — treat them if they lose next month

    By God, that sentence made me smile.

    That’s an angle I had not considered before.

    Schaden-what-a? What’s that now?

  • 1) “Some Republican strategists are increasingly upset with what they consider the overconfidence of President Bush and his senior advisers about the midterm elections November 7… They aren’t even planning for if they lose”

    Overconfident and not planning for other outcomes – this approach sounds familuar.

    2) “He had nothing to say at the press conference,” says a prominent GOP insider. “My question is, why call it?”

    This is obvious. With the way things have been going, he had to try and draw attention away from other issues and towards himself to attempt to control the political conversation. And he used it as his way of (not) addressing the nuclear test in NK.

    3) “There is also considerable criticism of Bush for making little or no news in his 63-minute encounter with the press.”

    That in itself is news – or should be. Just another reinforcement that the man is clearly an intelectual light weight who can not accept responsibility for his own behaviour and policies and reacts to critisisms like a spoiled child lashing out at all reason with redicluous statements if he does not get what he wants.

    Lets hope those that still swing the R way are starting to feel the shame of embarassed parents.

  • I think Lance and Liam J are right. The Rubber-stamp Republican did it to themselves. And the Scaife-funded bastards will practice Amish-schoolhouse massacre politics on the Democrats, rather than accept that “their way” is the wrong way for the American people.

    Bush has many busts. The three that come to mind–that self-sabotage his presidency–are: Iraq, Katrina, and the campaign to privatize Social Security.

    What a smacked ass.

  • @17 sknm:

    I’d like to add the desperate struggle to keep Terry Schiavo (sp?) locked in her body to your list. I think Shrub was honestly surprised that more people were disgusted than impressed with his last minute “heroics,” and that includes The Base.

    It also made his non-reaction to Katrina even more despicable. As that disaster unfolded, many people pointed out that he swooped in from The Ranch to sign a half-arsed bill for one person because he cares so much about human life, but when an entire region of the country turned into a big slice of Hell, he had to be dragged away from his 384th day of vacation. And of course because he’s slightly less alert than Ms. Schiavo was in her last days, he got his presidential briefs in a knot when some people said racing around to save one Caucasian and scratching his ass when many African-Americans were dying made him look a bit of the sheet wearer. Gosh, don’t know where people got that idea.

  • Am I the only one who feels a queasy sense of deja vu here? Remember how Dear Leader stopped days early and retired to rest his empty head when campaigning for the pResidency. I hope to god the Rethug massacre we all expect will come. But it’s just as likely Rove and Co. know the polls don’t matter. “Miraculously”, they will win come election day. The “Diebold factor”, in all its many machinations from machines to i.d. checks to voter roll purges, may be in play. And they may know it. These people will stop at nothing to stay in power. And nothing has been done to ensure fair elections. Nothing. And, yes, my tin foil hat becomes me.

  • “”They aren’t even planning for if they lose,”

    Making hay while the sun shines.

    Liebold will bail them out, with the help of corrupt State Secretaries of State, like Blackwell of Ohio — who is overseeing his own (s)election for governor, or Macpherson of California — who just short-circuited a special election by using a ‘provisional certification’ that was issued BEFORE the votes were counted and the election challenges heard, so that Rapepublicans could swear in the candidate and ignore the state’s laws. That candidate was on hand to vote for the Bush Coronation Bill three weeks ago.

    “Miami – A Florida law that bars exit polling near voting places violates the press’ rights under the First Amendment, a lawsuit filed by The Associated Press and five television networks alleges.” — AP, today

    Ohio and Florida bar any use of paper ballots. Florida and Nevada bar exit polling. California is set to use Liebold touchscreens that have been PROVEN easy to hack (and virally hacking one machine can change ALL machines).

    The Shitehouse isn’t worried? Because the FIX IS IN, and after they role out Bin Laden’s body in a few weeks, they will blame the SUDDEN POLL TURNAROUND on that Victory Lapdog. Mission Accomplished?

    Houston, we still have a problem. After Dems get done stroking their long beards with gratification, will somebody PLEASE notice that your arses are on fire?

  • Bush will indeed get the blame for Republican for a mid-term loss. For good reason. The Bush brownshirts have no interest in anyone but themselves. Not Congress, not their party, not the country.

    I’m not looking forward to a Democratic victory in November. I’m looking forward to a Democratic victory with a lot of blood on the floor. I think it’s still possible that the country, and certainly the Republican party, will turn on Dubya to the point of impeachment. Notice the kind words Republicans have for Mark Foley. He has too much time left in office for the GOP to take chances.

    To date, the most encouraging sign of a big Republican loss is that both Bush and Cheney are out campaigning hard. That’s like an endorsement from Charles Manson.

  • “Republicans predict that Bush’s final two years in office will be marked by multiple congressional investigations and gridlock.” — US News and World report, via CB

    And, so? Even if we spend the entire 2 yrs on investigations (which I doubt; there are some other pressing matters to be taken care of), we’ll have achieved more than the “do nothing Congress” currently warming up their GOP bench-seats. We’ll have, at the very least, opened some windows and let out the stink of corruption…

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