Dropping the pretense about Bush’s last two years

June 9, 2007

Just two weeks ago, U.S. News reported on how happy presidential aides were for a change. After having a rough time, Bush’s West Wing finally believed they’d turned a corner and were optimistic about the future.

Relieved White House officials say President Bush has finally broken the cycle of bad news and political setbacks he has endured for months.

The officials say the bipartisan agreement on immigration…is seen as a sign that times will get better for Bush as he pursues his second-term agenda. “Immigration cleared the air,” a senior White House official told U.S. News.

Oops.

As Jim Rutenberg noted today, in case there was any doubt, the lame-duck period has officially begun.

[E]arly euphoria only made the grand bargain’s grand collapse on Thursday night all the more of a blow, pointing up a stubbornly unshakable dynamic for President Bush in the final 19 months of his term: With low approval ratings and the race to succeed him well under way, his ability to push his agenda has faded to the point where he can fairly be judged to have entered his lame duck period. […]

Rich Bond, a former Republican Party chairman and deputy White House chief of staff for Mr. Bush’s father, said of the president, “He’s in a greatly weakened state, and he’s playing the best hand he can.”

Which isn’t saying much. On immigration, the president couldn’t rally support from members of his own party, a failure which ultimately did the legislation in. This was the one major, sweeping policy area in which the White House and congressional Democratic leaders are at least near the same page. With this legislation falling apart, Bush appears to have lost his only shot at scoring a major legislative victory in the 110th Congress — and he won’t be president for the 111th.

Bush can thump his chest and declare “I am the president!” as much as he wants, but that won’t change the political reality. If he looks like a lame duck, and he quacks like a lame duck….

Looks like the deciderator is finally ready for the incinerator.

  • The only problem is that a lame duck doesn’t usually have a wild hare up their ass looking to frame-up an excuse to use a nuclear weapon.

  • Well said Ed Stephan, though I’d rather see him with the Incarcerator.

    After having a rough time, Bush’s West Wing finally believed they’d turned a corner and were optimistic about the future.

    After all the Democracy Freedom and a Pony is Just Around the Corner talk those cretins spewed out about Iraq, you’d think BushCo (TM) would stay the fuck away from corners.

    I think the euphoria wasn’t based on reality (‘natch) but it is a function of dealing with the Enfant Terrible G43. When things go wrong, he’s unhappy and throws a fit. When he finally settles down everyone is so relieved the smile like idiots and praise him for shutting up. But then the little lip begins to wobble and Waaaaaaah! It’s back to trying to figure out how to make it all better or at least shut him up.

    Either that or they’re all a bunch of psychos who expect whatever is happening at the moment to become the status quo (provided they like what’s happening).

  • Is there any sign that W. actually tried to get this bill passed? I mean, aside from that speech where he insulted the people who were opposed to it, just making sure they weren’t inclined to compromise?

    My memory of presidents who actually wanted bills passed is that they stayed in the office, working the phones, having meetings, sweet-talking and strong-arming to the best of his ability, coordinating with allies in the Congress on the vote count. Not dropping rhetorical bombs, then jetting off to drink near-beer in Europe.

    I’m willing to believe that W. has next-to-no power to sweet-talk or strong-arm anymore, but is there any evidence that he actually even tried? I didn’t see anything that convinced me he really cared about passing this bill, despite the rhetoric.

  • Junta Boy became a lame duck the day Cheney picked Cheney for VP.

    As I tell students, Jared doesn’t run Subway. Some guy you never heard of runs Subway. Jared just makes the commercials.

  • How does this lame-duckiness affect his previous lame-brain status?

    They’re like beaten boxers hoping for a knock out. Desperate.

  • Letting the Commander Guy run the country is a lot like letting a 3 year old drive a monster truck.

  • I wouldn’t dismiss him yet.

    He is still the commander of the armed forces.

    He could yet do something disastrous like, say…., bomb Iran.

    Furthermore, I don’t think there would have been much a Democratic congress could have done differently to keep Bush from royally screwing up Katrina.

    That fool can still wreck havoc on the country even if his ability to do so has been somewhat limited by his lame duck status.

  • I agree with Mark. He may be a lame duck, but he can still veto, nominate judges, change the rules, and anything else he chooses to do including pardon Scooter. He is still a very dangerous man, perhaps more so because he know he does not have to stand for re-election, or explain himself in any way. Too bad impeachment is off the table because that is the last weapon we have against his madness.

  • biggerbox — he’s had that weird Louis XIV thing (“L’etat, c’est moi”) going on since the beginning. He thinks he just has to declare that something will happen, and it should happen. Sometimes Rove’s people would do the arm-twisting to get things passed, but Bush has always considered that sort of thing beneath him.

    Perhaps the strangest example was the money he had “pledged” to combat AIDS in Africa, which he cited repeatedly in speeches in ’04, despite the fact that he’d done nothing to actually get the pledge funded.

  • ***Well said Ed Stephan, though I’d rather see him with the Incarcerator.***
    ————–“His Royal High Orange-fulness”

    The Incarcerator costs money. Investigations, indictments, pre-trial motions deep enough to suffocate everything from here to Orion—and then there’s the obscene cost of keeping his loyal groupies (“the Base”) away. Incineration, on the other hand, is cheap. We could fly him to China (I understand the CIA has expertise in these kinds of things) and throw him into one of those shiny new coal-fired power plants. He’ll generate a few nano-watts at the most, but at least the toxic smoke should fall to earth before it reaches Hawaii.

    Hey—for the thousands who’ve died in Iraq for that heinous little rodent, it’s the least we could do….

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