Sunday Discussion Group – The Carpetbagger Report

He’s still good to laugh at, though.

Bush should be well beyond lame. Politically speaking, he should be a dead duck. Even now, only some repubs are distancing themselves from this walking (staggering?) debacle. If the GOP had an ounce of integrity – if it ever occured to them to place country over party – Bush would be more radioactive than Chernobyl. That he isn’t, speaks volumes.

To understand Bush you have to consider his entire life. His grandfather was ‘Hitler’s banker” during the ’30s and early ’40s. His father signed up for WWII duty to regain the family’s honor and survived a plane crash with medals (and lingering doubts about whether he “bailed out” on his friends). His mother “married down”, being the direct descendant of President Franklin Pierce (arguably one of our worst presidents). George Jr. was the least-liked of the third generation (the parents doted on Jeb, their choice for president). Aided by daddy’s business pals George tiptoed (or stumbled drunkenly) through a string of business failures (as MLB owner he traded away Sammy Sosa). His first foray into politcs got him the governorship of Texas (a very weak position in that State), during which he set a record, of sorts: executing more people than anyone else had. Next, through a gift of the Supreme Court (and Al Gore’s lack of street-fighting skills) came the Presidency, with the foibles, fumbles, and follies you list. Through all this George has remained unaware of his own failings. He still thinks highly of himself because all the sychophants around him kiss his butt all the time. They always have and probably always will. He is the eternal “bubble boy”.

Actually, this reminds me of something I just heard about: when Disney sold the Anaheim Mighty Ducks hockey team, since the “Mighty Ducks” name is, you know, such a hot property, Disney forbade the town from using it and left them with… the Ducks.

That’s what happened to us. We were told we were getting a Mighty Duck; but now, we’re left with the Mad Duck of Crawford, TX.

Lame duck is too kind.This duck is has been lame for his entire time on this planet.The fact that the whole republican party stands by this guy just shows how lame they are also.

The question, in response to the story Ed Stephan just told, is, How on Earth did he get as far as he did? It really is unbelievable, and if there were ever any needed evidence that the U.S. stopped being a meritocracy long ago, he’s it.

Less a lame duck than a white elephant: a huge, dumb creature that has been pampered all it’s useless life, and that for the sake of convention we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future, even though we know it’s inevitably going to utterly bankrupt us.

Doesn’t the term “lame duck” miss the point? I would argue (and have argued since he was appointed by the Supreme Court) that Bush is a figurehead, a bought and paid for face for the public. He is simply a model for the corporations that are now running our country. He’s Cindy Crawford putting a pretty face on whatever hell the powers that be have decided to inflict upon us.

I can’t remember if it was this site or another (gotta stop with the blogs) that listed all the times Bush was oblivious when things starting shaking – out riding his bike when the plane flew too close to the White House, screwing around with McCain during Katrina, not knowing that Cheney had shot a guy in the face, and now the Dubai/ports thing. There are more but I haven’t had my coffee yet.

Instead of the acronym POTUS, Bush should be listed as PINO (president in name only).

My concern is that despite the fact that the wheels appear to be coming off the car continues to slid forward. He has managed to place two consevative justices on the Supreme Court. They will be there to do damage for a very long time. Should Justice Steven’s retire before the end of the Bush’s term and we do not recapture Senate this year the damage will continue. In addition, although members of his own party are more willing to initially oppose him when a story such as snoopgate or the Dubai deal break, Rove typically manages to bring them back into line. Without significant bipartisan cooperation on oversight the likelihood that his naked power grabs will be stopped by Congress is at best small.

Only thing which will stop the cars forward momentum is for us to take back at least one chamber of Congress. This is where our energies should be focused. The 2008 presidential election is the next game. Let’s keep our focus on the current one.

Ok, I think that the threshold for a congress-critter to get elected in ’06 should be, they have to sufficiently distance themselves from Bush.

So take anything from CB’s first paragraph:

By any reasonable standard, 2005 was not only an embarrassingly bad year for President Bush, it was also one of the worst years any president has had since Nixon was forced from office in 1974. In just one year, the war in Iraq grew significantly more costly in both blood and treasure; the response to Hurricane Katrina was a nightmare; a growing body of evidence suggested the administration knew its pre-war claims were nonsense but repeated them anyway; a top White House aide was indicted on criminal charges for the first time in 135 years; the Harriet Miers nomination was laughable, and the signature domestic policy initiative of his second term — privatizing Social Security — was a debacle for the ages.

You say, “Bush has done X and X.”

Then, you find the most brainless sycophantic Bush-servant quote you can from the congress-critter candidate in question, and offer it up for our consideration.

Then you ask: “Congress-critter X: dangerously conservative?“

“Lame duck” has got to be tongue in cheek for what
this guy has done. I vote for Mr. Magoo as the
proper metaphor for this jackass, stumbling blindly
through his presidency, breaking and destroying
everything he comes in contact with, and remaining
blissfully unaware of the havoc he has wreaked.

Years from now historians will have a field day
comparing the Clinton and Bush presidencies.
In a way, they are mirror images of each other.
The first was a good president, a centrist, who from
the very beginning became the object of a vicious
witch hunt, or lynch mob, whose enemies were
the opposition party, the press, and an astonishing
number of American people. They all wanted to
get him, hunt him down, even though he hadn’t
done anything. Finally they got him in a sensationalist
circus act that we all should be ashamed ever
happened in this country. For God sakes, lying
about sex. That was sicker than the O.J. spectacle,
which at least involved a real crime.

Then along comes Bush, who campaigns as
a compassionate conservative, a uniter, a trustworthy
straight shooter who will restore integrity and
honor to the presidency (how in the name of God
did Clinton’s affair gain the reputation of
besmirching the office?) but who, instead, is a
bungling, lying, incompetent, far right fool and tool who wrecks
everything he comes in contact with and whose
policies are diametrically opposite to the goals
and desires of the American people.

And what happens? He skates through every
scandal, every mess, completely untouched,
unfazed, unblemished. No opposition from
the Democrats, a complete pass from the MSM and
press, no cries of outrage from the American
people, nothing. Just a mediocre approval
rating of 40%.

Amazing. No one looking back will ever
believe this could have happened. That is,
if there still is an America after the right
wing revolution gets done with us.

The ideal quote is the one that’s both the most clear delusion from the Repub, and also the repub’s remark of public record most directly supporting or commenting on one of Bush’s famous screw-ups.

rege: I absolutely agree. There is an underlying control the administration still holds on the Senate and the House and it is a disturbing situation. Either so many of the GOP are a part of the corruption and they have to band together like a street gang or the upper levels of the administration and those controlling them (oil co’s, other large corporations)have become so powerful that they have become the governnent. If the current scandals are based on what we know, what is happening that we don’t know about.

Successfully spinning negative events has certain practical requirements that are rapidly being eroded by the cumulative weight of bad news stories summarized on this thread.. The Rove public relations machine is breaking down as more and more voters are seeing through the game and the lobbyist shakedown racket is being exposed.

There are too many bloopers coming too fast with shrinking resourses just before elections with sinking credibility.

The more desperate the polititical situation becomes where Bush Co is facing loss of elections and exposure, the more we will see the dark unlawful manipulation of events. These guys are hardwiring the presidency for “unitary” power that they don’t intend to hand over to the opposition. Ruthless is just another word for nothing left to lose.

Does anyone remember Chevy Chase’s character, the affable Clark Griswold, in the National Lampoon movies. Griswold would be involved in some seemingly disastrous dilemmas, and yet be unaware, and still come out unscathed. With the exception that in the movies Griswold was a good guy, I think that Bush somehow has the Griswold effect. Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie where after 90 minutes we get out of our seats and return to the world pretty much as we left it.

So in answer to the question, Bush is a lame duck, but he will never realize it.

Wooden decoys don’t limp. They just float.

George Bush is living proof of how badly we need divided government, a balance of power and the two party system.

If Congress had been controlled by Democrats for the past 5 years – one of two outcomes – Already impeached (Bush and Cheney), or weak and feckless instead of powerful and feckless.

Now I understand what Bush means when he says he is a “uniter” not a “divider”. ..an end to divided government and the 2 party system…or else he is telling us he doesn’t understand how to do long division math.

Sure Bush has had some terrible PR over the past year (about time!) but I would argue that his political power is still pretty much intact and will be until the day after the mid-term elections. For example, Frist just reversed himself on the Ports issue – as has MD governor Ehrlich. The Republicans in the Senate have neutered themselves on the wiretap issue (remember that?). The meda has finally woken up, but political-power-wise Bush (or Rove or Cheney or whoever is really pulling the strings) still seems to have the power intact. If Bush was really a lame duck, that power would be gone and the GOP would be doing their best to distance themselves from him. That will begin to happen come November – but not before then.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people my age claim to have been at Woodstock. But, in reality, the event was simply not large enough for all of today’s claimants to be telling the truth. – IE, they weren’t, but they wish they were.

20 years from now I wonder how many people you will be able to find who will still openly admit that they were Bush suporters. I get a little depressed that his numbers don’t seem to be able to hit 35% – but I’m hoping it is the self-denial crowd still sticking to anger instead of acknowledging that they jumped in the pool with a 55 gallon drum of bullshit and evil chained on their necks.

-jjf

The wheels are off but the momentum carries it forward is a good analogy of the Bush condition. The damage done by putting evangelicals on the supreme court will live on when the nightmare is long forgotten. There’s an alternative.

A not widely known fact is that a researcher has uncovered proof the Bible is a hoax. This news is so unexpected that it’s nearly impossible to believe. The evangelical strangle hold on every aspect of American life makes publiching the story equally impossible. The internet is the only answer at this time.

http://www.hoax-buster.org

has the story. It’s not all that well presented but makes the point. The Bible is the outcropping of ignorance. Perhaps widespread knowledge that it is a hoax will dampen the blow of an evangelical supreme court. Let’s hope the new justices can read. Well, at least look at pictures.

If a stranger or a possible Democrat (or someone like a pollster with a fast, bored, disapproving voice on the phone) asks a Republican if s/he supports Bush, chances are s/he’d say yes. But then there’s a good deal of social conformity on the Republican side,even more than on the Democratic side.. If everyone at a party is Republican and the talk is about separating from Bush’s mess, the very same person who just told the pollster s/he’s a Bush supporter will now join with those saying Bush should be impeached.

PS. I was polled by Zogby the other day. It reminded me about polls: they don’t go for nuance. Are you for “choice”? Well, I, uh, sort of… Should the troops be withdrawn before June? That’s kind of, uh, well, I… Bored pollster reiterates: “Yes or no!”

The Bush presidency (was it ever really a presidency to begin with?) passed beyond the lame-duck mark last summer, with the Katrina debacle. It’s past the point of crutches being of any use; it’s far beyond a motorized wheelchair serving any functional benefit. Personally, I think it needs an iron lung these days, just to keep the up the belief that there’s still some raw, ethereal semblance of life remaining within it’s mangy shell….

The problem is that while the Bush/Rove Republicans are both terrible at governing and not particularly interested in doing it, they are idiot-savants in the field of politics… and our Democratic Party is pretty much the opposite. Clinton’s presidency, in which few Great Deeds were accomplished but the country enjoyed almost unprecedented peace and prosperity, should have cemented the Democrats’ standing as the Party of Competency and (as Clinton tried to do through his policy priorities) the party better aligned with the everyday values of the American people.

But Gore’s insistence on running from Clinton probably cost him the presidency and possibly the chance to re-institutionalize a Democratic majority; instead, we got the spectacularly inept Bush, who isn’t an ideologue but is an extreme partisan, working hand-in-glove with an artificial (through gerrymandering) Republican congressional majority that’s even more viciously partisan.

Is he a “lame duck”? In the sense that his transformative goals (dismantling of the New Deal, permanent aggressive unilateral engagement abroad, huge political inroads into traditionally Democratic constituencies) are all dead in the water, yes. In the sense that he remains able to pack the courts, erode regulatory structures and strictures through executive appointments, and do further damage to our international reputation, the sad answer is no.

I think it’s pretty clear that history won’t look kindly on Bush. But Democrats probably now need to leave history’s verdict aside and concentrate on a forward agenda and building a case for taking back the reins of government.

Im with Hark on this but I hope Kali is right. Unfortunately, I dont see it. We get a little excited with each new screwup that the teflon coating this administration has has finally worn off, but then a couple of ugly weeks pass, the mess is swept under the rug, and onward recklessly we careen. I see no reason to think that we wont have more regularly scheduled debacles which nothing will come of. Until the supine Congress makes a bigger stink out of any of these issues, nothing will change, and the only way that happens is if the Dems score big in November. Judging from their cajone-less efforts so far in all of this, Im guessing they manage to find a way to mostly lose out this fall. If they do, God help us. This country is on a very ugly path, and Im not sure it can afford three more years of this. But heck, in three years, the chance of us getting through without a major financial crisis is probably about 10%, and while this will be blacmed on some foreign scapegoat, the fault will be the ridiculous policies of this inept administration.

The bitter fruit produced by the current administration over the past 5 years: … A destroyed economy …spending out of control ($1.5 billion on propaganda alone)… soaring out of control federal debt…defense spending pumped up by more than 40 percent …massive trade imbalance … federal debt mortgaged by Communist China … failed and costly energy policy ($7 billion in royalty concessions)… Pay-off to Enron’s Kenneth Lay as biggest republican campaign fundraiser was appointment to the Energy Department transition team. Enron’s boss names two of the five members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, who looked the other way while Enron rigged California’s energy prices and looted billions right out from the pockets and pocketbooks of Enron employees and California’s citizens…Exxon Mobil posted $36 billion in profits in 2005 … gasoline and home heating bills at an all-time high …a shrinking middle class …rising cost of health care, pharmaceutical drugs, housing and higher education …distribution of wealth to the rich and leaves others starving, homeless, unemployed and sickly…urban and rural communities are languishing in unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, growing insecurity, and fear…once more a Gilded Age …tax cuts for the wealthy bankrupting America…. a failed education system … reading and math tests for15-year-olds in America ranked 24th out of 29 nations …racism and poverty on the rise with deeper racial and class divisions …37 million living under the poverty line … world’s costliest health care system …46 million people without health insurance… rampant overpricing of pharmaceutical drugs … 43rd in the world infant mortality rankings among developed countries… highest infant mortality rates in the developed world …tarnished Medicaid/Medicare system in disarray… a diseased environment …corporate scandal at the highest levels … a destroyed, understaffed military force …disgruntled young military officers …military atrocities … “Mission (Un)Accomplished” … Afghanistan supplying 90 per cent of the world’s heroin … A 3 year, $6 billion a month invasion of Iraq, poorly planned, clumsy strategy, unwinnable and unending failure…no WMD somebody lied …55% believe Colonel Klink’s bogus Iraq war was a “deadly mistake”…Iraq now spiraling toward civil war with 138,000 U.S. troops caught in the middle… a degraded Bill of Rights … a degraded quality of life …personal savings missing for many …’05 individual spending greater than savings… bankruptcy “reform” bill written by credit card companies … political impaired CIA…abuse of intelligence information for political purposes … new spying and eavesdropping technologies abused by intelligence-gathers… politicization of intelligence and fabricated intelligence failures …corporatocracy …detaining citizens without due process … warrantless spying on Americans …very low presidential job approval rating 39% …fear and loathing …no imagination …failure of leadership …crippled and tone-deaf leaders…63% of Americans believe leaders of other countries don’t respect Bush… loss of respect from most foreign countries…54% of Americans dissatisfied with the position of the United States in the world today … international reputation as a overindulging rogue nation …loss of manufacturing/industrial jobs to Chinese sweatshops…Wal-Mart largest employer, lowest wages …Increased corporate crime and backroom deals … corporate executives jailed for cooking the books and looting billions… rampant corporate malfeasance and greed and the destruction of the retirement plans of millions of small investors …no sense of fair play…loss of moral and political authority …complete economic collapse of small family-owned farms… eradication of rules on meat inspection … Pederasty … an orgy of cronyism, corruption and incompetence…lack of humane responses to natural and man-made disasters …negligent government…public officials doing the bidding of mercenaries… open and frequent disclosure of classified information …open national borders…corrupt and sleazy practices by congress and lobbyists… contribute to Republicans only and hire Republicans lobbyists only… registered lobbyists more than doubled since 2000… lobbyists fees increased by 100% since 2000 to $200 million per month…Reed humping in $4 million in corporate accounts…Reed touts his pal Abramoff to Enron top lobbyist as “arguably the most influential and effective GOP lobbyist in congress…U.S. Family Network political fundraising scam one more cog in the money-laundering machine… Abramoff influence-peddler and bagman for Republican money machine and causes…retail clothing industry – Levi Strauss, The Gap, J. Crew, Eddie Bauer, Reebok, Polo, Tommy Helfiger(Walmart), Nordstrom’s, Lord and Taylor, Jones New York, and Liz Claiborne – apply “Made in the USA” labels on the clothes and import them to America, while paying the Marianas Islands sweatshop workers practically nothing. …Abramoff received nearly $10 million dollars for lobbyist services to the Marianas Islands to maintain US sweatshop conditions… Conservative intellectuals and journalists, for hire at rates considerably above the women sweatshop workers on the islands, also signed up for expense-free trips to the Marianas…U. S. Family Network laundered money from Russian oligarchs to congressman… 60 congressmen and senators bribed…public trust is a cynical joke…70% of Americans believe lobbyists bribing members of Congress is the way the system suppose to work…native American tribes robbed blind…republican activist code named “Pac man” advances apartheid… incompetent officials perpetuating lies, fraud and deception …unlawful and dysfunctional cabal…officials guilty of high crimes and treason …widespread dishonesty, injustice, greed, graft and scandal … Attorney General sounds more like a mob mouthpiece …cynical hair-splitting, obfuscation, disinformation and stonewalling …uncontested, stolen billions carved up in no-bid contracts awarded to politically-connected firms via sole source contracts …war profiteering…Americans bilked of billions by war profiteering contractors …Deadeye Dick drunken shootout … meaningless ballots … the rape of our republic … huge risible and cynical propaganda ministry with “fake news”…fear-mongering propaganda …party-fed line of crap.…narrow-focus, special-interest fed agenda… deregulation of the telecommunications sector led to cable industry price gouging and an undermining of news coverage …faux media poodle,… death … torture… uncaring … incessant lying like diarrhea … demoralized and disconnected from reality…paralyzed with shame, embarrassment and fear… public doubt … unrestricted sociopath … tyranny … disregard for the Constitution … an outright assault on the Constitution …a complete disruption of the rule of law … lawlessness – no checks and balances… Washington a one party state ruled by money…no debate… no policy administration… failed bankrupted foreign policy…unilaterally discards treaties … the list could go on and on as you know. Over the past five years, America’s sense of itself – its pride in its power and authority, its faith in its institutions and its belief in its leaders – has been profoundly damaged. Over 68% of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track, but can you do anything to change direction? Search your heart and help do something to change this condition! In the words of Louis Brandeis, one of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices: “You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both.” Our Liberties watch in disgust waiting for “We the People” to wake up. Bushit said “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” This may be the only time Bushit told the truth to the American people.
Again, while trying to defend the selling off of yet another piece of what little remains of America — the port operations deal with the United Arab Emirates — George W. said: “The more people learn about the transaction that has been scrutinized and approved by my government, the more they’ll be comforted that our ports will be secure” (Associated Press, Ted Bridis, 02/23/06)…. The US government is the peoples’ government of, by and for the people not Bushit’s government.

I think Andy makes a good point regarding the mid-term. I’ll go further and suggest that the outcome of the mid-terms will determine whether Bush is a lame duck or an impeached duck.

He’s that bad, and the Republicans know it. If they suffer with the mid-term — even slightly — they know that Bush’s remaining in office will spell doom in 2008.

For the time being, he is simply the “same duck” president.

Alibubba — I think there is a lot of truth to what you’re saying about the Republicans knowing how bad Bush is. I have a school friend that works in the office of our U.S. representative. My friend has made a few off-hand remarks about what the congressman thinks of Bush, it didn’t sound to flattering. Another surprise. I found out a few days ago that the guy who cuts my hair also does haircuts for my Republican state rep. I was surprised that the state rep. really dislikes our Republican governor. I know this is all second-hand info, but I don’t think that the Republicans are all one big happy family like they would have us believe.

K-Man, That’s only the shit we know about so far. Wait until Bushturd is out of office for a year or so. Hopefully that will happen and not require a revolution to dethrone “His Lowness”.

Let’s not go overboard here: Clinton was a decent, responsible, centrist president, and he was Abraham Lincoln compared to the incumbent dingdong. But he was a damn fool who set himself up for a lot of his own (and our) misfortunes.

The comparison isn’t exact (when are they ever?), but it can put one in mind of Lloyd George and the British Liberals–an enoromously skilled and constructive public person who, by his own character flaws, virtually destroyed his own cause.

K-man-
Thanks for the panoramic view of the devastation known as Bushland. How can all this information be made relevant for an election? I think your post would make a heck of a t-shirt by filling the front in fine print listing all the many reasons we need a regime change.

What’s almost a depressing as K-man’s list is the number of Americans who don’t have a clue as to the magnitude of what is being done in the halls of government in this country, and probably won’t even bother to show up and vote in the next election. I’m not giving the media a free pass, but the number of people I encounter on a daily basis who have no idea of anything outside the narrow focus of their own lives is downright scary.

K-man, I cut and pasted your post into a file for latter reference. I hope you don’t mind.

I have 4 kids – ages 10 to 15. Each one knows bush is an asshole. Even my 10 year old knows you don’t solve problems by killing innocent people.

Yeah, like someone above cites (too lazy to look it up) – who in 35 years or so will freely admit to being pro-bush? I look forward to the time where being probush will be the acknowledged mark of the dimwit, the doofus, the dumber-than-rocks shit-fer-brains.

And, damn, I hope that day is next Tuesday…

So only one question remains:

What shall we call him from now on- His Duckness or His Lameness?

CB– lil help, brother!

GWB’s favorite restaurant: McDonald’s, or Medieval Times?

He still has enough power to push the port deal through in the face of overwhelming opposition. Bush won’t truly be a lame duck until November when that overwhelming opposition bites his party in the ass.