Mary....I'm starting to like you.
Nice post.
Despite his fetish for physical fitness, in the form of clearing brush and riding his bike, Bush is a fundamentally lazy man. Maybe that's why, in one of his State of the Union speeches, he felt a need to assert that "we're working really hard!" several dozen times. It's as if he managed to figure out a few simplistic principles (at least to his own satisfaction) long ago and decided that he'd adhere to them inflexibly no matter what happens around him. And he has the conviction of the religious "true believer" that he'll finally be vindicated.
Posted by Geaghan at June 30, 2007 02:43 PMwait a minute. The late Molly Ivins warned us about Bush before he was selected. She and many other Texans said "this guy is a dud". His life had been one of failure after failure always bailed out by the BUSH name. Screw up after screw up, I mean...given a pro baseball team to own..he trades off a guy who just passed 600 home runs! He buys a "ranch" in Crawford, TX. It's not the nicest land in Texas, folks...by a bunch. For everyone to now have a revalation that George Bush is a shallow hal is the biggest joke of all. There is a reason, my fellow Americans, why Al Gore won the popular vote for President in 2000. That reason is named George W. Bush.
Posted by T2 at June 30, 2007 03:52 PMMary....I have always liked you.
Nice Post.
Remember, in George W. we are dealing with someone whose idea of a good time is to climb aboard a T-Rex at the Creation Museum and pretend he is Captain Creation, the Dino Decider of 6,000 years ago, while Dick the D-minus Designer is back at the office doing the "hoard work" of destroying the present day earth.
Posted by TIKI AL at June 30, 2007 04:15 PMCheney, along with the other invisible powers, whomever they may be, knew exactly what they were doing in getting Bush elected. It has been easy for Cheney to play the role of puppet master behind the scene, especially with someone who is such a dolt.
T2, Molly Ivins and Ann Richards told us for years about the boy from the East. In fact, as your all know, Molly made millions off her books about George W. Bush and the family. Both were right.
Cheney knows exactly how to play Bush, and because of his arrogance, is an easy mark. I have also wondered if he has found the relationship with Cheney that he never had with dear old Dad.
Posted by Judith at June 30, 2007 04:46 PMThank you so much for including the link to Josh Marshall's 2003 story--that was absolutely astounding. Even after I read "The Angler" series in the Post, the scope of Cheney's incompetence didn't quite hit me. Marshall's piece finally made it click. Dang.
And I don't think it's a sign of deep, comfortable self-confidence for W to go around calling himself the Decided, the Commander-in-Chief, and beating his chest while saying, "I'm the president! I'm the president!" Cheney may play him like a violin, but W still understands, at some level, that he's being played.
Posted by Vicki at June 30, 2007 06:59 PMYes, and who was "playing" the idiotic majority of voters of Murica in 04, which by all official accounts "re"-elected this psychological basket case of insecurities and his malevolent lawbreaking, constitution-hating puppet master "VP"?
Cheney's a monster, the republic is gone and the MSM is principally to blame. Along with monumental American ignorance, stubbornness and crap judgement.
Posted by euzoius at June 30, 2007 08:28 PMMary, thanks for the Josh Marshall article. How Cheney has fooled so many people is really amazing.
Posted by Judith at June 30, 2007 11:10 PM"Yes, as Paradox notes, the establishment is finally realizing how crazy this administration is..." -(Mary)
-This has been a recurrent trope throughout the Bush Administration, namely: "They are FINALLY recognizing how crazy these people really are."
The unwarranted faith in liberal institutions to FINALLY come around is truly amazing. How come you only know this know?
In another 10 months we will be hearing something exceedingly similar. The machinery goes on and, and on. There is no finality to this built in, structural obsequiousness. That is simply America being America.The cycle of repetition is endless.
The real point is how come this was not known before these fascists were 'elected?' What kind of people or politics would have 'elected' them in the first place? And finally, the understanding that NO ONE could be elected the President of the United States without assuming the same characteristics, in greater or lesser variance.
Think about the ongoing tradition of American economic and political style fascism and see the Bush Administration as simply a more virulent expression of the same old thing.
Our votes can change things? My ass they can.
I don't have to read Josh Marshall.
That's yesterdays papers...
Posted by Jill Bains at June 30, 2007 11:49 PM
I'm a big fan of John Dean but these two words should never appear together.
They are "Cheney" and "Genius".
(Also note that the word "Genius" should also never appear next to:
Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld or Neocon.)
A con man can be good at what he does but does that make him a genius?
Posted by mparker at July 1, 2007 01:17 AMmparker, evil would be a better description.
Posted by Judith at July 1, 2007 05:52 AMJosh's article is from January 2003
Posted by Katherine at July 1, 2007 03:15 PMKatherine, that was one of the points Mary was making. As far back as 2003, some people knew the fabric from which Dick woven. People just chose to ignore the truth about Cheney, but some people were writing about his incompetency as far back as four years ago, or longer.
Posted by Judith at July 1, 2007 07:05 PM