{"id":6589,"date":"2006-02-10T14:53:09","date_gmt":"2006-02-10T19:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6589"},"modified":"2006-02-10T14:53:09","modified_gmt":"2006-02-10T19:53:09","slug":"another-week-in-bushville-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/another-week-in-bushville-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Another week in Bushville"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long time readers may recall that I sometimes like to put together Friday round-ups to take stock of what we’ve learned about the president over the last seven days. I haven’t done one since December<\/a>, but this week lent itself well to just such a post.<\/p>\n

Indeed, my friend Peter Daou, riffing off a post<\/a> I did in June, noted today<\/a> that this week has been unusually productive for those of us who chronicle the “over-abundance of stories that undermine the credibility and integrity of our current administration.” Borrowing from Peter, and using a few of my own, consider the week that was.<\/p>\n

* In an unprecedented action, the Environmental Protection Agency’s own scientific panel challenged the agency’s proposed public health standards<\/a> governing soot and dust. Scientists found that Bush appointees “twisted” or “misrepresented” their recommendations in an “egregious” fashion, and inserted language into EPA reports from trade associations’ lobbyists.<\/p>\n

* The White House really did expose the identity of an undercover CIA agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* The White House unveiled one of the most irresponsible federal budgets<\/a> anyone has ever seen and intentionally left out most funding for the war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* State Department officials appointed by Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives<\/a> who share the White House and Pentagon’s distrust of international negotiations and treaties.<\/p>\n

* The warrantless-search program Bush uses to capture bad guys isn’t actually capturing bad guys<\/a>.<\/p>\n

* The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East accused the administration of “cherry-picking” intelligence and misusing intelligence<\/a> “to justify decisions already made.”<\/p>\n

* The administration knew far more, far earlier about Katrina<\/a> than they’ve been willing to admit.<\/p>\n

* Jack Abramoff had far more, far closer connections to the president<\/a> than the White House has been willing to admit.<\/p>\n

* Scooter Libby told a grand jury that he was authorized by his “superiors,” including the Vice President, to disclose classified information to reporters<\/a> about Iraq’s weapons capability in June and July 2003.<\/p>\n

* The president boasted about thwarting a terrorist attack in Los Angeles, but a series of experts and administration officials suggest that Bush seriously exaggerated this threat<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Remember, for some administrations, this might be several months’ worth of controversies. And yet, it’s just another typical week in Bush’s America.
\n
\nOf course, it’s more than just making a list, depressing as it may be. Peter Daou sees a strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This half-decade tsunami of scandals has had the intended effect: overload the senses, short circuit the outrage, dizzy the opposition. How many times have Bush’s opponents simply thrown their hands up in disgust, overwhelmed by the enormity of the administration’s over-reach? How many times have bloggers railed against reporters for going about the business of burying scandals and muddying waters? How many times have Americans watched in amazement as a missing girl in Aruba receives weeks of blanket coverage while lies that led to war and law-breaking at the highest levels of government get a yawn from the media?<\/p>\n

From a purely sensory perspective, it’s natural to chase the flak. We’re conditioned to respond to incoming fire. It’s reflexive. But when the fire is coming from all sides, and coming relentlessly, the urge is to stop defending and curl up and give up. This is a process the Cheneys and Roves of this world understand all too well. It’s no accident that the scandals get more and more outrageous – after all, the whole point is to have the opposition frantically racing around, chasing stories, distracted and exhausted, wearing itself out like a kitten in a catnip-doused, mouse-filled room.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peter’s advice? Dems should put on the blinders and “drive one scandal home.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Long time readers may recall that I sometimes like to put together Friday round-ups to take stock of what we’ve learned about the president over the last seven days. I haven’t done one since December, but this week lent itself well to just such a post. Indeed, my friend Peter Daou, riffing off a post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}