The vaunted machine stalls

August 10, 2005

As far back as the 2000 campaign, there was near certainty that the next president would have a Supreme Court vacancy or three to fill. The Bush White House, with its reputation for political expertise and preparation, had nothing but time to get ready. Indeed, the conventional wisdom was the Bush gang had a short list and some cursory research already done, just waiting for a retirement.

Why, then, are they stuck looking like amateurs now?

Thrown on the defensive by recent revelations about Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.’s legal work, White House aides are delaying the release of tens of thousands of documents from the Reagan administration to give themselves time to find any new surprises before they are turned into political ammunition by Democrats.

Before Roberts’s July 19 selection by President Bush, there was no comprehensive effort to examine the voluminous paper trail from his previous tours as an important legal and political hand under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, administration officials said.

“No comprehensive effort.” Why not?

Yes, it’s troubling on its face that the White House is sitting on these public documents without justification. The Senate has a job to do and the Bush gang is interfering with the process, holding back records and denying requests for access. When Senate Dems start demanding more time for review in September, we’ll know it’s well justified.

But putting that aside, shouldn’t the Bush gang have started a thorough review of Roberts’ record before nominating him, instead of waiting to start the process three weeks after the announcement? Usually, they’re not this sloppy.

At this point, no one seems pleased with the way the White House is operating.

The Dems are wondering why the Bush gang is withholding materials to which they’re entitled, and the GOP is wondering why the White House doesn’t have its act together.

While the White House plays catch-up in studying Roberts’s past, it is facing complaints from some of its conservative supporters about what they feel has been a stumbling campaign for the nominee.

Sean Rushton, director of the conservative Committee for Justice, said in the days after the nomination “there was a drop-off of message and focus.”

“Merely saying ‘He’s a lawyer’s lawyer’ isn’t enough,” Rushton said. “This is the moment to explain why so many of us feel so strongly about the judicial system in ways that can change hearts and minds of swing voters who could be added to the Republican column.”

While Rushton said the White House has belatedly begun to “ramp up” its campaign, his complaint was echoed by several other conservative activists. They think Bush aides have reacted defensively about revelations highlighting Roberts’s role as an advocate for conservative causes rather than making an unapologetic argument that he was on the right side of these issues.

First, they flubbed the Federalist Society story. Then, they were caught off-guard by the Romer case. Today, many activists are probably displeased by Roberts’ comments about the Schiavo matter. And simultaneously, White House aides are reviewing Roberts’ past, wondering what in the world he might have said or done over the last 20 years.

A smooth-running political machine? Hardly. Maybe Rove & Co. figure, with 55 Republicans in the Senate, they can afford some over-confidence. Perhaps. But if there are some more embarrassing tidbits in those tens of thousands of pages, this vaunted operation may have to start working overtime to clean the mess.

“Starting” to look like amateurs?

*cough* Bernard Kerik *cough*

  • That the WH is having problems here shouldn’t be too surprising.

    Remember that Roberts was announced during when RoveGate was beginning to spin (heh.) out of control. I think the consensus was that his name was put forward much earlier than usual–suggesting quite a lot of hurrying in order to get the media to focus on something else long enough for the WH to figure out what to do to protect Rove & Libby et al.

  • The GOP has been screwing themselves by demanding right-wing orthodoxy over judicial consistency, particularly with the Schiavo debacle. No one will ever satisfy them because they are completely at odds with the entire judicial system. They want someone who will rule against the law, who will heinously damage the courts in order to attempt to turn this country into a theocracy. And the rest of the country will never allow someone who is willing to do that to rise to Supreme Court Justice. Apparantly even the president won’t go that far, thank goodness.

  • mr_teem beat me to the punch regarding Bernie Kerik. This administration may have a vaunted machine for message control, but it also exhibits hubris and incompetence in many things it does. However, this hubris and incompetence seems to rise to the level of sustained national discussion when Bush’s base is holding him to account. Those of us who are not part of his base can discuss his hubris and incompetence with regard to doing its homework and the “hard work” of building consensus until we are blue in the face (let’s just take all the pre-Iraq war rhetoric about the cost of the war as a single example). It just does not seem to stick. But, get the shorts of the right wing nuts in a knot and suddenly the vaunted machine is sputtering. IMHO, the solidarity of Bush’s base masks and effectively mutes discussion of the bumbling record of this administration.

  • This is absolutely the same playbook BushCo has used everywhere else.

    Consider: no planning for the aftermath of the Iraq war removed Saddam. No planning for how to actually change people’s perceptions about Social Security. No targeting of tax cuts to truly stimulate the economy, and a refusal to change the tax give-aways when the economy tanked and failed to generate any broad-based recovery. No planning on what to do when oil spiked to well over $60/barrel and gasoline approached $3/gallon. No planning on what we will do when oil runs out, and global warming completely swamps all but the highest elevations (already in process in the outlying islands of Alaska).

    It is simply standard operating procedure for these bozos (my apologies to Bozo and all of the real clowns everywhere): They believe their perception of the world IS in fact the reality as it exists for the rest of us. Remember the derogatory statement, publicized during the 2004 Campaign, that they make their own reality? That was not just so much hyperbole; it was a statement of their operating principles that the CCCP (Compliant Complicit Corporate Press) has almost without exception let them use without challenge or question.

    There is no study of the facts, and then adjusting policy to fit those facts. Instead, ALL of their actions have been trying to shape — or distort or ignore — the facts to fit their ideology and political goals. The problem this time is that there is so much at stake — in such a highly visible way — that the spotlight is shining for far too long a time for the rats to get out of its glare.

    Again, the CCCP is far too willing to give BushCo a pass, and is inclined to do so here, too. Unfortunately for BushCo, though, the “Devil” in Bush’s “Deal with the Devil” — i.e., the radical right wing nutjobs — won’t let Bush get off so easily. That can only add to Bush’s collective woes, and that can only be good for the rest of America.

    P.S. My reference to the radical right wing nutjobs as “the Devil” is merely a literary construct. I”m not saying they are, in fact, the “Devil” or “Satan” as appears in the Bible. Then again, I’m not saying they aren’t the Antichrist, either!

  • No, AL–you’re right.

    Raimondo over at Antiwar.com even put the lyrics of the Rolling Stones’ song Sympathy for the Devil in one of his rants & come to think of it, “Lucifer” really does about describe the people running the WH.

  • It might just be that George the Second planned all along to nominate a radical extremist to the bench, but was ambushed by his totally unexpected ( by him ) miserable poll numbers, total failure at home and abroad, and the outing of Karl Rove as a criminally incompetent traitor.

    That being the case, he may have turned to his list of candidates that he never seriously considered in the first place and just grabbed one that seemed at first glance to have the best chance of getting through the Senate with a minimum of fuss.

    So of course the WH staff have no clue about him. They never expected to have to use him so they’re only now doing the background checks that should have been done years ago. Ipso facto.

  • My theory is that only one thing counts with the Bushies and that is loyalty. Accordingly, the only thing that they screened candidates for was whether that loyalty exists – loyalty to Bush and the Republican party (check), loyalty to corporate America (check), loyalty in the fight against abortion (check). Once those things are checked off, not too much else really seems to count in Bushworld and pretty much everything else can be obstructed and hidden anyway. I bet the fact that so many of Roberts’ earlier writings could be or were released by the Reagan library and that other complexities of Roberts’ viewpoints might be considered never really occurred to these guys. They really do have blinders on.

  • As usual, I agree with AL. It’s that rare combination of arrogance and stupidity which have become the hallmarks of the Bush White House. I think they got used to being able to do whatever whenever after 9/11, when all they had to do was throw around phrases like ‘evil doers,’ ‘suiciders,’ ‘they hate us for our freedom,’ etc. People with real concerns got drowned out in a sea of flag-waving. Anyone who disagreed was labeled a traitor and BushCo rammed their evil agenda right down our throats without much trouble.

    But it’s a different world today. Iraq’s a mess of epic proportions and even those who thought it was a good idea three years ago aren’t so sure anymore. Gas prices are through the roof, there’s been no movement on health care or education; pretty much all these guys do is give hand-outs to the wealthy and erode our civil liberties. Now that the ominous “mushroom cloud” isn’t looming on the horizon, people are pulling their heads out of their asses and wondering what happened to their country.

    This administration doesn’t really know how to respond to legitimate questions regarding its policies and decisions; all they can do is spin, dissemble, delay and, of course, smear anyone and everyone (including spouses and children) who dare question their absolute authority.

    (And if that doesn’t work, raise the Terror Alert Level to Orange for a while…but even that’s losing its efficacy. Whatever will they do now?)

  • While everyone gloats about terrible planning, might I play the Devil’s Advocate for a second and suggest that every move these guys have made has been well planned (OK, except Kerik, but that was just a bone to throw to Giuliani for prostituting himself as a pundit at the Dem convention—nobody thought the guy would have an illegal nanny and actually accept the nomination). The planning was excellent, but the goals were different.

    Mess in Iraq? Not really, by neo-con standards. Halliburton: billions of dollars (inside dealing). Oil: more expensive (these guys trade oil!). US (international): imperialist superpower, creating enemies left and right (see next point). War on Terror: never ending (hello! Half these guys work for a defense company!). US (homeland): terribly in debt (can eliminate social spending, attack social security, etc.), split ideologically (abortion can be a major issue! Gun control is dead! Ye-haw!), and nobody is talking about corporate reform any more!

    They are right on track.

  • Good points Eadie –

    the only problem for the Bushies is that the GOP comes out looking like idiots and will be out of power for so long, their grandchildren will still hate the name of Bush.

  • We can hope that uptown is right, but that assumes we’ll see honest elections in 2008. My darkest fears are that the October 2008 polls will show the Clark/Clinton ticket with a double digit lead over Giuliani/Cheney, which will mysteriously disappear on Election Day in a morass of disenfrachised voters, unauditable Diebolt voting machines, and polling place dirty tricks.

  • I think Eadie and AL have nailed both
    sides of it – I don’t see a conflict in their views.

    This regime has carried arrogance beyond
    the dictionary. They regard themselves
    as omnipotent, omniscient and righteous.
    They believe in their neocon ideological
    madness as much as the evangelicals
    believe in that violent, imperious and
    tryannical Old Testament god.

    In fact, it’s hard to distinguish between
    this primitive deity and this neocon gang
    of thugs who think they can do no wrong.

    Such an attitude of invincibility and virtuosity
    leads to reckless behavior. And so, as
    Eadie says, they regard themselves as
    supremely successful, and yet, as AL
    observes, their brash and thoughtless
    policies have resulted in catastrophic and
    tragic blunders.

    But they don’t see that. They just run
    roughshod over everything in their
    path and characterize the godawful
    mess they leave behind them as
    total confirmation of their ideology.

    Too bad the real leaders of America,
    the rich and powerful, the corporations,
    don’t care about this stuff as long as
    they keep making obscene profits.

  • More succinctly, they are drunk on power,
    and no one has pulled them over to
    issue a DWI.

    And no one will.

    • Comments are closed.