When the wheels come off

November 11, 2005

The last week in October was described far and wide as “the worst week of George W. Bush’s presidency.” There was plenty to warrant the description — Scooter Libby was indicted, Harriet Miers’ nomination came to a humiliating end, the war in Iraq produced its 2,000th U.S. casualty, the polls showed Bush’s support in freefall, and consumer confidence fell. It was, by any reasonable measure, an awful week for the president.

Two weeks later, Bush purports to be on the comeback trail, in large part because, unless he’s impeached, he has nowhere to go but up. So, how’s this week gone for the beleaguered president? Let’s see…

* The Republican House rejected Bush-backed spending cuts.

* The Republican majority of the Senate Finance Committee rejected Bush’s capital gains tax cuts.

* The Republican House rejected Bush’s demands to drill the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

* A growing, bi-partisan consensus emerged to ignore Bush and curtail the Patriot Act.

* The Republican Senate rebuffed the White House on torture and the Republican House is poised to do the same.

* The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said Bush’s call to make his first-term tax cuts permanent has practically zero support.

* Bush’s drive to privatize Social Security was declared dead.

* Bush’s trip to the Summit of the Americas really didn’t go well.

* And voters in a reliably “red” state rebuffed the president and elected a Democratic governor, fairly easily.

If this is Bush on the comeback trail, I can’t wait to see what the political landscape will look like when he hits another rough patch.

Absolutely brilliant re-cap, CB. You made my day with this one.

  • Never underestimate the harvest of incompetence.

    The Bush criministration has only had 5 years to sow at the Fed level, but they’ve had a whole life-time of incompetence with which to practice.

  • And on a slightly whimsical note, Muhammad Ali thinks Bush is either an idiot or a wimp. Of course, even Bush knows he’s an idiot, but that wimp insinuation has to hurt a guy who seems to believe he’s a cowboy. Apparently, Ali gave Bush the “crazy finger twirl” during a ceremony where he was awarded the Medal of Freedom:
    “Bush, who appeared almost playful, fastened the heavy medal around Muhammad Ali’s neck and whispered something in the heavyweight champion’s ear. Then, as if to say ‘bring it on,’ the president put up his dukes in a mock challenge. Ali, 63, who has Parkinson’s disease and moves slowly, looked the president in the eye — and, finger to head, did the ‘crazy’ twirl for a couple of seconds.
    “The room of about 200, including Cabinet secretaries, tittered with laughter. Ali, who was then escorted back to his chair, made the twirl again while sitting down. And the president looked visibly taken aback, laughing nervously.
    “Was Ali making a political statement? In his remarks about the fighter, Bush mentioned the Olympic gold medal, the grit, ‘the Ali shuffle, the lightning jabs . . . the sheer guts and determination he brought to every fight.’ He did not mention Ali’s very public opposition to the Vietnam War, which led the prizefighter to lose his boxing license for three years when he refused to serve in the Army.”

  • Yeah, but … can you say “Invade Syria”? Because a diary over on Kos suggests that that’s what these thugs are cooking up next to wipe the scandals and plummeting poll numbers off the front pages and get people good and scared again. Sadly, it seems eminently plausible.

  • This country “needs” a good long time, with a weakened, despised President, to regain its capacity for self-governance. The Congress grows stronger and more independent with each passing day, and that can only improve the long-term prospects for the Republic, after the most sustained authoritarian assault since Woodrow Wilson.

  • Ali’s greatest challenge to the American war machine was a simple assertion of why he wouldn’t pick up the gun for LBJ’s Indochina war:
    “No Vietcong ever called me nigger”.

  • Who gives a flying fuck? We’re supposed to be tying Republicans to these failures, not advertising splits. If I see another post that says “Bush rejects Congress’ blah” or “Congres rejects Bush’s blah” I’m going to puke. Please, stop laughing at the infighting and start packing this waste of a leadership together, destined for the dump. Now, NOW is the time to start advertising their unity, because they are united in failure. When they fail, unite them – when they succeed, divide them. Of course the trick is to unite with backhanded compliments…. 🙂

  • Bush gave an angry speech today to veterans — not so much nice clean anger as pissy, pay-you-back-you-Dems talk. I’m not at all sure Ali was making a political statement (more likely he was indicating to Bush, jokingly, that Bush would be nuts to take him on), but I can well imagine that Bush has begun to realize that, in the Rove-less, unprotected world beyond the White House, people really don’t think much of him and some are, in fact, laughing at him behind his back and now to his face. Horrible realization that your personal currency wouldn’t buy you even the most insincere smile when you’ve believed you were a slick, successful, powerful little king for four years….

  • Muhammad Ali may be frail in body but not in spirit. Even now, he still has the heart of a champion.

    • Comments are closed.