From one Bush gang to another

August 26, 2006

As it turns out, it’s probably a good thing Bush is reading Hamlet (or at least pretending to), because as Maureen Dowd noted today, there’s a Shakespearean drama being played out behind the scenes.

Increasingly, the current president seems to be blaming Bush pere “for policies that led to 9/11 and the rise of Osama and Middle East terrorism.” Indeed, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow recently told reporters that “when the United States walked away, in the opinion of Osama bin Laden in 1991, bin Laden drew from that the conclusion that Americans were weak and wouldn’t stay the course, and that led to September 11th.” And I think we know who was president in 1991.

Moreover, Bush has personally blamed his predecessors for what he saw as a misguided belief that “stability is more important than form of government.” Dowd translated this to mean, “Dad cuddled up to the corrupt Saudi monarchy and other Middle East dictators and let Saddam stay in power and was tough on Israel. I got rid of Saddam to establish a democracy and uncritically sided with Israel, a democracy.”

It’s gotten to the point in which the Bush 41 team is starting to push back.

The Bush I inner circle whispers that W. and Condi are “in over their heads,” as one told me, and that without 41, Jim Baker and Brent Scowcroft around, there is no one to “corral” Dick Cheney from his hard-line craziness.

“They misread history,” said one Bush I foreign policy official. “43’s born-again background and lack of experience and simple view of the world made him think it was easy to define who the enemy is. But hope is not a policy — hoping to win, hoping to make a democracy. They came in with the philosophy that the U.S. was the most powerful country in the world and they could remake the world any way they wanted. Condi and others assumed that the Middle East would fall apart peacefully, the way the Soviet Union did, if given a chance. But the Middle East is a totally different place.”

Dowd suggests Sr. grab his “stubborn, shuttered scion” by the windbreaker and talk some sense into him, but I don’t see it. The funny thing about unqualified, incompetent people who get “in over their heads”? They rarely realize it until it’s too late. In this case, six years too late.

Then again, Sr. could shadow Jr. a bit, and whisper reality in his ear, but then the Hamlet connection would be a little too obvious, wouldn’t it?

The funny thing about unqualified, incompetent people who get “in over their heads”? They rarely realize it until it’s too late.

Excellent insight. And it takes them even longer to admit it.

  • I was reminded of Ron Suskind’s Oct 2004 NYT article “Without a doubt”, where he quotes “a senior Bush official” as saying: ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore. We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”

    Sure sucks when the reality you’ve created is all in your head.

  • Bush is a psychotic, and his psychosis is most evident in his relationship with his dad. He’s gone out of his way to humiliate Poppy. As I recall, he once challenged dad to a fist fight. To me, this says a great deal about W’s character, his spiteful, immaturity. That he has bogged us down in a senseless, costly war — just to one-up Poppy — is appalling.

  • A lot has been made of Bush 43’s attitude toward his dad. I choose to imagine Bush 41, snickering at what a screw-up that little snot turned out to be.

  • Bush II really thought that he had to emulate Reagan. But he screwed up big time and did Johnson instead. Something about Texas. Big men of action. Small men of thought.

  • Team Dumbya has it half right: Bush pere is to blame for our current mess. But not for what he and his administration did in 1991. Rather, it is because of what he and his cronys did in 1998, 1999 and 2000: make it possible for Dumbya to get elected. Bush pere is a bright enough guy — he had to have known running the country was seriously beyond the reach of his Boy Blunder. Maybe he secretly thought Clinton had done such a great job that the next 4-8 years would be so easy no one could screw it up. He misunderestimated his son’s ability to overachieve at ruining everything he touches. Without help from The Family, Bush fils could never have made it this far. Daddy got his ultimate revenge on America for our rejecting him at the polls for some hick from Arkansas for God’s sake! If he’s finding that once the monster is out of the lab it is a little hard to control, well, its hard to feel much sympathy for anyone except the American people.

  • I did not read Mo’s column, but wouldn’t she have made a better argument if she had pointed out Reagan’s withdrawing of the troops from Lebanon after the terrorist bombing of the Marine’s barracks. Tony Snow could have made the same argument instead of dredging up the old saw about not getting Saddam after the Gulf War. But Reagan is much more of a conservative icon than Bush the lower father and criticizing Reagan would not win points with the base.

  • Increasingly, the current president seems to be blaming Bush pere “for policies that led to 9/11 and the rise of Osama and Middle East terrorism.”

    what the fucking fuck? since when isn’t everything Clinton’s fault anymore? is the preznit on drugs?

    oh, wait.

    never mind.

  • It would likely be too hard for 41 to grabv 43 and “talk some sense” to him, since 43 studiously avoids nearly every occasion to be around dear old dad. Dad, it appears, was the one in the family whose life was constantly being thrown in 43’s face as an example of 43’s oafish stupidity and lack of ability to achieve squat. This is “the revenge of the kitten who should have been drowned at birth.”

    It’s going to be interesting to see what happens with the commission the Bush consigliere, James Baker, is heading up to try and resolve what Iraq strategery is and should be. It was forced on 43 by Congress, and my bet is the Deciderer will decide to ignore it whatever it is.

    Watching Condi this past 6 weeks with the Israel war-of-choice (which Cheney cooked up) has been the very definition of someone “in over their head.”

    Here’s an interesting thing I ran across last night, looking through the article archives for a magazine I am contributing editor to. The article was written back in 1999, and was detailing how the Navy was going to be up the creek for real aerial offensive capability when the F-14 left the fleet (which has now happened, and the article reads even more presciently when one considers that the main Navy airplane, the F-18, is a boondoggle that gives new meaning to the perils of the MICC, the military-industrial-congressional-complex – even in it’s “super” version, the new F-18E, still doesn’t meet the original specifications issued 32 years ago). Anyway, back in 1991, when the F-14 was starting to show its age, and there was still nothing with the same capability in development to replace it, it was decided that the further production of items to keep the F-14 going was a waste of time and money,so it was ordered that production would end and all production jigs and drawings would be destroyed, and all spare parts ordering would cease. The result was that in 2005, the Navy finally ran out of ways to keep the F-14 in the air, and it is now gone.

    Guess who made that genius decision? Why none other than “the brightest Secretary of Defense ever,” Dick Cheney!! Shortly after that decision, Grumman – heretofore the major supplier of airplanes to the Navy for 70+ years – was gobbled up by Northrop, a company that in 60 years had never produced a “major type”. Guess who owned a lot of Northrop stock (and still does)?????

    So, for sure 41 doesn’t get off without blame – being the one who first made Cheney prominent in a way that led to his current position – but I find myself, after six years of sonny-boy, actually missing both he and Nixon, who – whatever their faults – actually had a clue about some of the things they were doing. As opposed to sonny-boy, who has no clue about anything.

  • he had to have known running the country was seriously beyond the reach of his Boy Blunder.

    Zeitgeist, I’m not sure the Bush I is a very good judge of character. Recall that his vice-president was Dan Quayle and he was the one responsible for Clarance Thomas. Bush pere seems to have a soft spot for soft heads.
    Alibubba, I also thought about that incident to which you alluded. Here how the WaPo described it in 1999.

    By the end of 1972, Bush’s father was mulling over a new job offer from Nixon – to be chairman of the Republican National Committee. With his parents back in Washington, Bush went to stay with them for the holidays and was involved in one of the most notorious incidents of his “nomadic” years. He took his 16-year-old brother Marvin out drinking, ran over a neighbor’s garbage cans on the way home, and when his father confronted him, challenged him to go “mano a mano” outside.

    There was no fight, and Bush was apparently able to mollify his father with the news that he had been accepted for the following fall at Harvard Business School.

    I was wondering if Bush pere had an intervention planned this weekend for Bush the Lesser and if it would result in another mano a mano moment.

  • It’s gotta be rough growing up in the Bush Crime Family household. Prescott “Hitler’s Banker” Bush (who robbed Geronimo’s grave of its skull). Barbara “Direct Descendant of Franklin Pierce” Bush, who believes she “married down” and still thinks she’s a Queen and should be treated as such (not to mention her belief that Black people love living in a football stadium). George Herbert Walker “Carlyle Group” Bush, who pardoned all the Iran-Contra crooks. Uncle Prescott (Jr.) who sold satellite technology to the Chinese in violation of the US embargo. Neil “Silverado Savings and Loan” Bush. Jeb “Smuggle Clothes and Jewelry from France” Bush. George W. “How Low Can You Go?” Bush, about whom it would far more than this comment window just to scratch the surface.

    It’s a textbook case of f***ed upedness.

  • re ‘mano a mano,’ let’s face it–for all his phoney ‘ah’m a war preznit’ talk and his other ersatz macho crap, /i/ could take him and i’m only a little grrl (5′ 2″).

    i’d prolly wouldn’t even have to touch him (ugh) cause i’d begin by, um, micturating on The Optimistic Rug. then i’d move on to his lit-tle pilly (as he calls his damn special pillow, w/o which he won’t travel).

    yes i have a very vivid and puerile imagination. but damn, would i love the chance. just sayin’.

  • Bush II really thought that he had to emulate Reagan. But he screwed up big time and did Johnson instead. Something about Texas. Big men of action. Small men of thought.

    That’s hardly fair to Johnson. Civil rights legislation? War on Poverty? Immigration reform? All big ideas with a great deal of thought and empathy behind them. Additionally, Johnson had expressed some regret and reservations privately about his Vietnam policies.

    Besides Bush isn’t a Texan, he’s from Connecticut.

  • “people who get “in over their heads”?”

    It’s called the Peter Principle and our government is infected with scores of employees with that affliction.

  • 49.9% of you and the soupreme coat are to blame for the failures of dumbya, That what you get when you vote for someone you want to have beer with instead of a competent and knowledgeable leader. Dumbya is now reading books he should have read in college instead of now pretending to be intellegent. What a dope! Now some of you 49.9% need to help make a change in November 06 before Dumbya and Macaca Allen destroy America and the world. If you voted for Dumbya you are an enabler and you are part of the problem and must change. Lincoln said, you can fool some of the people some time, but can’t fool all of the people all of the time. You 49.9% that was fooled durng the last several elections, please wake up before dumbya and rethuglians destroy the country and the world. He is truly over his head and will take all of us down the tube him. The terroists are in their caves smiling because never in their wildest dreams did they think the response to terror would in their benefit.

  • LOL on rimone’s Lebowski moment with George’s rug.

    Be careful. I believe George wanted to follow Kaufman as the World Inter-Gender Wrestling Champion. He might take you down on that soggy mat for the count. He might be one of those fightin’ bullies.

    PS I just realized that Bush didn’t even read The Pet Goat. The kids read it to him. He just followed along. So his reading list is less one title which would make it -1.

  • This quote by the Bush 1 official is pretty interesting.

    “They came in with the philosophy that the U.S. the most powerful country in the world and they could remake the world any way they wanted.”

    Discussing the status of the United States as the most powerful country in the world in the past tense is very telling. Even the low lifes from the Reagan/Bush era realize that junior has pushed the country past the point of no return. The days of American hegemony in world affairs are coming to an end.

  • PRM: Re being unfair to Johnson!
    My comments comparing Bush with Johnson pertain to the subject of this post — war and Middle East policies. Bush and Johnson both took us to war on the basis of lies and deceit. There is no mitigating this history by any of Johnson’s domestic legislation, no matter how good the results. The consequences of Viet Nam and Iraq are just too catastrophic. Sure Johnson had his private doubts and regrets, but publicly, it was all lies.

    And in his mind’s eye, Bush clearly identifies himself as a Texan, right down to the Texas swagger that Bush calls “walkin”, but Al Franken classically depicted as just “being an asshole”.

  • There was a tag problem in the above quote and I lost the important verb.

    “They came in with the philosophy that the U.S. “WAS” the most powerful country in the world and they could remake the world any way they wanted.”

  • Dale: …Lebowski moment…

    What in God’s holy name are you blathering about? 😉

    Alibubba: …the Lorena Bobbitt option.

    that’s another thing i blame them for; before 12. dec 2000, i very rarely had a violent thought. but 9/11 changed ever’thin’!

  • It is a testament to the utter disastrousness of Bush 43’s incompetence and Cheney’s warped world view that so many of their enablers are trying to bend history to try and avoid being tarred by the brush of connection. I do not believe that history will allow them to escape, but they may be able to assuage their guilt and the harsh judgement of contemporaries by distancing themselves as quickly as they can. Those who gave Bush 43 and Company a sheen of legitimacy (e.g., Colin Powell), or declared his advisor/handlers as “grown ups” (e.g., George Schultz), or – as others have pointed out – thought the poster boy for arrested development that is George W. Bush should be President of this nation (e.g., his father) are culpable.

    As for me, I am willing to concede only that Bush 43 has been (by far) the most damaging of a very damaging tandem (dynasty) of family Presidents. That his father and his advisors begin to look good in contrast to Junior and friends cuts no mustard with me. In my eyes, their sniping in anonymity only increases their share of the blame and highlights their cowardice. I give Brent Scowcroft credit for owning his criticism; others need to be willing to do the same.

    As for Poppy, I might give him some love if he decided to publicly bitch-slap Dubya, otherwise, not so much.

  • TuiMel: Good points. Might be worth pursuing just how many of those handlers and enablers who first recruited GW to run for president, had huge business investments and partnerships with Saudi Arabia. Follow the money.

  • Lou and TuiMel make good points. I think Bush and his handlers are actively worried about being charged with war crimes. There is something in the desperation which they say stuff like “nobody in my administration ever claimed Hussain was behind 9/11” that makes me think they are trying to rebut charges that are going to be made possibly in a trial.

  • when the United States walked away, in the opinion of Osama bin Laden in 1991, bin Laden drew from that the conclusion that Americans were weak and wouldn’t stay the course, and that led to September 11th.”

    This, of course, overlooks that OBL wanted to goad the US into striking at a Muslim country. Apparently, al Qaeda thought the attack on the Cole would do it. And when we didn’t do what they wanted — Clinton was not willing to hand his successor a war — they planned something that in their view we would not be able to ignore. (I can’t recall whether it was Larry Johnson or Ray McGovern who wrote about this recently.) Boy, they sure had us pegged! And the fact that the Muslim country we chose to attack just happened to be at the top of bin Laden’s Christmas list just sweetens the deal.

    That said, we really can blame Bush 41 for 9/11, at least in part. After all, he brought the incompetent moron into the world who allowed it to happen with absolutley no interference from us.

    Good job, Poppy! Go ditch another plane to celebrate.

  • Totally OT, but I wanted to share…

    Went to our Community Festival today, specifically to find the local Dem booth (they’ve moved from their old headquarters and I couldn’t find them via the Internet). They were all showering blessings on our own (Virginia) fake cobwoy (also known as Macaca Allen). Apparently, he continues to campaign for Webb in his endearing way:
    http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/26/8117/20526

  • By providing such an execrable comparison, Bush the Worse makes Bush the Awful seem like a wise president, Reagan a hands-on president, and Nixon a compassionate and liberal president. The Reagan and Nixon administrations even look capable and corruption-free in comparison. Since none of those impressions are in the remotest bit true, they testify to the unparalleled disastrous of the current administration.

  • George W. the carpetbagging PO(tu)S. Surely the strongest endorsement, and poster child for retroactive abortions. Normally I would limit them to age 21, but in his case it’s never to late.

  • I don’t know if this has been obvious to everyone else all along, but doesn’t it seem clear that one of the reasons Bush settled on Cheney as his Veep pick was because he wanted an anti-Quayle? Yet another way of rebelling against his father.. and perhaps the decision we have the greatest cause to regret.

  • ” was wondering if Bush pere had an intervention planned this weekend for Bush the Lesser and if it would result in another mano a mano moment”

    Bush the Elder to win every time.

    He was head of the CIA, he’ll know the location of every pressure point in Junior’s body and will be able to kill him with little more than a touch.

    Either that or he’ll laser his face off with his ex-Director of CIA gold spy-watch.

  • I hate to tell Dubya, but if it wasn’t for his father, he not only would never have been governor but he would surely never have been president. Don’t bit the hand that feeds you Dubya.

    Though if I was his father I might be glad for Junior (if not the words dissing previous presidents) – he is totally rehabilitating his father.

  • I think there’s enough evidence to make the argument that 9/11 could have been prevented. Remember the 8/6/01 Presidential Daily Briefing titled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack in the United States.” Certainly, there should have been greater recognition by the administration that a 9/11-type attack was a significant risk and there should have been a greater level of awareness and vigilence. Anyone out there read “The Looming Tower”? The dots were all there; we just needed someone competent and engaged at the top to help get them connected. GWB was neither.

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