News outlets are filled<\/i> with items emphasizing the new media [tag]narrative[\/tag]: [tag]Bush[\/tag] and the [tag]GOP[\/tag] have [tag]momentum[\/tag] and are on the [tag]upswing[\/tag]. Looking at the “[tag]evidence[\/tag]” of this not-so-dramatic turnaround is like living in a Twilight Zone episode.<\/p>\n
Knight Ridder<\/a> said Bush “is on a bit of a [tag]roll[\/tag].” Roll Call<\/a> reported that “Republicans are taking the past two weeks’ run of good news as evidence that the party’s political fortunes may be on the [tag]rebound[\/tag].” The WaPo<\/a> emphasized the “spate of positive developments” that may interrupt “the president’s months-long slide in opinion polls.” The New York Daily News<\/a> quoted a top [tag]Republican[\/tag] source saying, “We’ve got so much [tag]good news[\/tag] popping out these days I don’t know where to start.”<\/p>\n Please. I never root for bad news, but the recent events that have the GOP so excited aren’t indicative of a party — or an agenda — on the [tag]comeback[\/tag] trail.<\/p>\n * [tag]Zarqawi[\/tag]<\/b> — There’s no doubt that killing a top terrorist in Iraq is a positive development, but this was a victory for the country, not the Republicans. Besides, Bush had three chances to take Zarqawi out before the war began, and decided not to<\/a>.<\/p>\n * [tag]Plame[\/tag] investigation<\/b> — The White House faced a three-year criminal investigation that led to a top presidential aide getting indicted, the first time that’s happened in 130 years. Only a Republican could look at this and consider it good<\/i> news.<\/p>\n * [tag]Iraq[\/tag]<\/b> — One well-executed, substance-free photo-op does not a policy make. The civil war continues.<\/p>\n * [tag]Busby[\/tag]<\/b> — The Republicans narrowly won a House seat in a very conservative district they expected to win easily, and had to spend $5 million to eke out a victory<\/a> where the GOP enjoys a huge advantage. Why they’d find this encouraging is beyond me.<\/p>\n * [tag]Treasury[\/tag]<\/b> — After a series of top choices turned them down<\/a>, the Bush gang finally found someone willing to be the Treasury Secretary. I’m glad Harry [tag]Paulson[\/tag] is qualified for the job, which is more than we can say about most of the president’s personnel choices, but finding an elite Bush fundraiser to head the Treasury isn’t exactly a breakthrough.<\/p>\n * GOP agenda<\/b> — In the last week, Congress has defeated an anti-gay amendment and a repeal of the estate tax, and appears completely incapable of finding an agreement on immigration legislation. Lawmakers haven’t passed a meaningful bill in months, and may not even try again<\/a> for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n If these factors combine to highlight a GOP “[tag]resurgence[\/tag],” then the word has lost all meaning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" News outlets are filled with items emphasizing the new media [tag]narrative[\/tag]: [tag]Bush[\/tag] and the [tag]GOP[\/tag] have [tag]momentum[\/tag] and are on the [tag]upswing[\/tag]. Looking at the “[tag]evidence[\/tag]” of this not-so-dramatic turnaround is like living in a Twilight Zone episode. Knight Ridder said Bush “is on a bit of a [tag]roll[\/tag].” Roll Call reported that “Republicans are […]<\/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-7678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678","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=7678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}