President Bush today said that embattled World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz, currently embroiled in yet another BushCo scandal, “ought to stay” in his position. This comes hot on the heels of Bush’s show of support for buddy Alberto Gonzales, whose leadership at Justice has been such a festering embarrassment that even loyal Republicans are howling for his head.
This is all very good news for Democrats, although not all of them seem to fully understand the gift before them. They want Gonzo’s scalp, and Wolfie’s (actually, they want a lot of scalps, including those currently warming the noggins of Dubya and The Dick). Where the motivation is good governance, accountability and an end to cronyism and corruption, there’s no arguing the point. History will likely remember this scandal-infested administration as one of the dirtiest in history and the sooner we take a scrub-brush and some Lysol to things the better for the American people. Our recovery from the disease that is the Bush camp can’t begin soon enough.
However, there’s also the more utilitarian question of how to make sure the American public most fully understands issues as they really exist. As I noted in a comment on Robert Silvey’s earlier post, Americans never seem to truly learn from their mistakes, but if you push hard enough they will sometimes run the thugs out of town and replace them with their political opponents.
In this case, every day that Gonzo hangs on, every day that Wolfie keeps that World Bank chair warm, every subpoena that Condi stonewalls, every e-mail that Rove deletes, each and every one of these things hangs in the air like a stench that Americans can’t avoid breathing in. If Bush were smart – and at this point that’s almost too easy a cheap shot to even take – each new revelation of mis-, mal- or non-feasance would be quickly dealt with, and his Republican allies ought to insist on it because they’re the ones who are going to have to pay the price come Decision 2008.
So those among the loyal opposition calling for the heads of the corrupt, I say: speak loudly enough to be on the record, but not so loudly that your voice might actually get anybody fired. In the court of public opinion, folks like Gonzo and Wolfie are doing you the most possible good right where they are and Bush’s misguided loyalty is your best friend in the world.
Categories: Crime/Corruption, Politics/Law/Government
Progressive Culture | Scholars & Rogues 
Tell it like it is.
My first thought when hearing about the Gonzales affair and Bush’s response was–way to go, W, just keep on showing your loyalty to people who don’t deserve it!
“Bros before Hos.” It’ not exactly on point, but it’s illustrative of the Bush mind-set. He’s never left the frat house — he has more loyalty to his “brothers” than to any principle or duty or any other silly shit that might get in the way.
In the Shakespearean (and before that, Greek) theatrical tradition, every tragic hero has a fatal flaw. Bush’s is blind loyalty. Because he doesn’t have the intellectual heft to figure out whom he should keep on and whom he should cut loose. Because his first loyalty is to his buds rather than his country or his office or his legacy or even his party.
For all his manly six-foot Texan, boot-wearing, pickup-driving “I’m the decider” swagger, Bush is a kiss-ass. He has gotten where he is by cultivating relationships and calling on his daddy’s friends. Yeah, he’s a good-ol’ boy who went from Exeter to Yale to Harvard. Can’t get much more down home than that.
I can’t count the number of coal miners’ kids who got Harvard MBAs, because I can’t count down from zero. Well, I mean, I understand negative integers, but they’re not relevant here.
Back to the point.
W as been adept at dodging all the albatrosses around his neck,but he can’t run again. So Boy, someone’s gonna carry that weight. Carry that weight a long time.
when it comes to underhanded dirty administrations bush is truly out of his league against some of the democrat administrations which you know and i will not mention
Even if I buy the idea that some Dem administrations have been really dirty – and there’s no doubt about that – it’s hardly a contest you want your president trying to win.
And it ain’t over. He has another 20 months to catch and surpass anybody and everybody ahead of him on the list.
I love this Rep mentality, “Clinton did it!” Screw Clinton, he’s a dirtball. We get it. But this idea that because he did it that makes it okay for Bush to do it too is juvenile. It reminds me of a five year old caught throwing rocks at cars. “But Billy was doing it!” “Yeah that’s great but Billy isn’t my son, and I expect more from you.” Expecially after listening to all of this twaddle about “morality” and “values” for the past twenty five years.
It appears that the average Rep these days has the intellectual and moral depth of a half eaten turnip. God Save the Queen!
Oh, and the reason Bush supports these people is not out of loyalty to them, it’s because of their loyalty to him. They don’t talk and they don’t “name names”.
Notgruntled:
I agree, but the problem is that an especially corrupt pol screws the system for years. Nixon begat Carter – a good man, but not a great president – and that caused the pendulum to lurch back the other way, and we’re STILL paying the price. The gods only know how many decades it will take to recover from this band of thugs.
Bush “ought to” take a long walk off a short pier.
You know, it used to be that corruption plagued those who were elected to office (cough cough Delay), but now the members of Bushco have caught wind that unlike members of Congress, they don’t have anyone to answer to for unethical conduct. Bush has cast some of the most dispicable villains of our time in starring roles of the pathetic joke that is his administration.
I don’t believe they intend for us to recover. Remember that Wolfowitz and the other “neo-cons” are Utopians. They have a vision for this country and the entire world. Couple their fascist ideology with the hyper-religiosity of their constituency, and I think we are headed exactly where they want us to go.
Look how they control information and opinion. Global Warming, The Valerie Plame leak, Halliburton, The War, The Firing of US Attorneys, The Abramoff Scandal, Enron, etc etc etc. I understand they are not as popular as they once were, but some of the people supporting them are flat out lunatics. They dismiss everyone of these scandals, and fifty others I didn’t name, as nothing more than “liberal conspiracy”. They have some kind of symbiotic relationship with this administration and their fates are bound to one another. I’m convinced Bush could eat a baby on tv, and his supporters would blame the “liberal media” for airing it.
And counting on the Dems to save us is pure fantasy. The Dems laid down for almost six years while Bush did whatever he wanted. Bush already had a hard time accepting the word “no” before he was President, he has zero tolerance for it now.
Making distinctions between the parties is nonsense at this point. We have Sprite on one side and 7up on the other. Both are oh so lemon-limey.
I agree Bush is terrible in nearly every way. As to the manly swagger crap, remember this guy skirted (didn’t intend that pun but I’ll keep it!) Vietnam and then AWOL’s guard duty. Well, I suppose the skies of Texas were safe from the Viet Cong.
The Dems are also culpable. Remember most of them voted for Iraq, Patriot Act and Medicare Drug Act. That includes Makeover Hillary and Edward the Ambulance Chaser. You were misled? How about researching and thinking these things through? Isn’t that your serious responsibility?
The Dems are bankrupt ideologically. That’s why Bush managed to win twice. And poor spin of course. But what do the Dems have to offer? Their platform for decades has been Socialism, Litigation and Post-modernism. Pathetic.