Boy king on his own: President Bush held a news conference today that was intended to quell the trepidacious howling from his party’s lunatic fringe about the questionable idealogical purity of Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers.
After watching the news conference, Chris Matthews, on MSNBC, noticed that during the course of the President’s 55 minute blither he never once mentioned Vice President Cheney. The implication, of course, is that Cheney – who used to call the shots – was not involved in the decision to nominate Miers, who served as White House Counsel after Alberto Gonzalez moved to the Cabinet as Attorney General.
As we reported last month, rumors have been swirling about the deteriorating relationship between the President and Vice President, including this:
Cheney has been getting tired of being called upon to fix Bush’s mistakes. Cheney said Bush is almost incapable of making any decision. He waffles and waffles. Then, once he makes a decision, he refuses to change it. Because of his born-again faith, he says “It’s in the hands of G-d now” and washes his hands of it. Then Cheney is called in to repair the damage.
It sounds like Cheney’s withdrawal from decision-making forced Bush to come up with the Supreme Court nominee on his own. Faced with this tiresome task, what does Mr. Bush do? He repeats an earlier pattern and chooses the person in charge of vetting candidates. This time it was Harriet Miers who was vetting Supremes; in the earlier instance, it was Dick Cheney who was charged with vetting prospective VPs.
This half-assed decision-making suggests a high degree of impatience, an inability to focus and a paucity of imagination. Think about it. When the initial round of vetting is complete, Bush is given the resumes of the best and brightest Republicans in the land. Certain people – Condi, Mom, Dad, Jeb, Laura and others – have their favorites. But this is one for the history books. Who should he pick? The pressure is just too much.
So Bush makes a non-decision decision: He picks someone he knows – someone he’s “comfortable with.” Someone who’s been right there, all along.
This is the facile mind of the man who sits in America’s Big Chair.
Whether then-candidate Bush made the right decision in picking Dick Cheney is up for grabs.
Whether President Bush has made the right decision by nominating Harriet Miers will be made clear if she joins the Court and votes in a way that forfends proceedings against Cheney, Bush or other highly placed officials.
Reading this post only reminds me that we only have about one more week to write our elected representatives in Washington and urge them to do whatever necessary to ensure a transparent vote in the 2006 and 2008 elections or risk being forever stuck in this mode of pounding our keyboards complaining about just another Republican screwup. Remember folks, it’s who COUNTS our votes that counts! Write your representatives today or forever hold your peace.
Bush could just as well be shunning Cheney because Bush knows Cheney is going down with a bunch of others for PlameGate.
or he could be stacking the Supreme Court with his toadies to cover his own ass if he gets indicted along with Cheney and the rest of the crew.
The common wisdom has it that Mr. Bush ‘flinched’ in his pick of Harriet Miers for the Supreme Court. That faced with falling poles and hardening opposition George decided to avoid an ugly nomination fight and put forward a political cipher that wouldn’t offend anyone. Miers certainly seems like a safe pick at first glance. She has no Borkesque paper trail to be used against her and Democratic “leaders” apparently voiced approval for her prior to the public announcement. This view dovetails nicely with the perception that Bush has “lost his swagger” in the wake of Katrina, but I am unconvinced. For all that Bush has shed some of his cocky mannerisms in the face the devastation Katrina did to both the country and his image, George still has a great reservoir of will power and political cunning to draw on; Karl Rove
Rove may be keeping a lower public profile do to his involvement in the CIA leak case, but by all accounts he has retained his influence behind the scenes. The clearest evidence of this is that Karl has been put in charge of the reconstruction of the gulf coast, arguably the most important challenge now facing the administration. One of the traits Rove is renown for is his ability to plan ahead. His greatest skill is anticipating future political developments and prepositioning resources to address those developments. By now Rove is painfully aware of the fact that, baring a major screw up by the Democratic party, the Republicans will most likely loose control of one if not both of the houses of congress.
For five years the conservative controlled congress has covered for the Bush administration. We have seen massive election fraud perpetrated against the American people, but the conservatives in congress who are so eager to spread democracy abroad have ignored the attacks upon it here at home. We have seen Mr. Bush and his lieutenants give false statements to congress on a number of occasions in the run up the Iraq war and during the 9/11 investigations, but the conservatives in congress who were only too happy to impeach President Clinton “for lying” have refused to hold hearings. We have seen war crimes committed in our nation’s name, with the Secretary of Defense signing off on specific torture techniques, but the conservatives in congress who preach about morality have refused to investigate it. We have seen the identity of a CIA operative betrayed for the sake of petty political revenge, but the conservatives in congress who are so concerned about patriotism and national security have remained mute. And most recently we have seen the White House’s chief procurement officer arrested for corruption, but now the conservative leaders of the congress are too busy with their own indictments to investigate anyone else. Should the Republicans fall from power all of these chickens will come home to roost. Karl Rove knows this, and that is where Harriet Miers comes in.
Conservatives and progressives alike are complaining about Miers’ lack of a record, because without knowing her stance on abortion and other hot button issues they aren’t sure which way to jump. There is one thing we do know about her though, she is a devout follower of Mr. Bush. Indeed she followed him all they way from Texas to Washington, a journey of several hundred miles. Once in the nation’s capitol she served him loyally as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and as White House Council. She is famously quoted as say of George W. Bush, “he is the most brilliant person I’ve ever met.” That statement is only exceeded in absurdity by Mr. Bush’s own recent assertion, “she is the most qualified person for the job.” That claim is only true if you accept that her real job will be to do all she can to get George and his friends off the hook. After all if you, your followers and your political allies were facing trial for things ranging from money laundering to crimes against humanity wouldn’t you want at least one judge you knew would be on your side. As far as Bush and Rove are concerned the only qualification she needs is her fanatical loyalty.
“Borkesque” is absolutely my new favorite word!
I still think she’s cover for a stealth wacko. Rove ain’t done yet… not by a long shot
Even if the Democratic party wins a majority in the Senate and the House in 2006, I don’t believe that we will see the level of investigative hearings that SHOULD be dealt towards these criminals and liars in the Republican administration. I think there are too many Republic-crats and ball-less Dems who will just figure to “lay low” and try for the White House in 2008.
We are in deep doo doo, folks. Buy a gun and get ready. It’s gonna get ugly before it is all over.
Charlie L
Portland, OR
P.S. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t TRY to get rid of all the Republicans and give the Democrats a chance to show us that they are bought and paid for by the Corpos the same as the Reps.
No more liars.
No more thieves.
No more hipocrites.
No more Republicans.
Whos got what on who? Will Fitzgerald get knock off in a nonobvious way? If they could use the US military for a preemptive strike and in this process lie to the US citizens and the world, put nothing beyond them. How about a flu epedemic requiring a national emergency which results in martial law/quarantine and a suspension of elections. Wake up people! I hope I am wrong and this Bush/Cheney/Rove group get remove from office, but with Miers as the 5th vote guarantee to dismiss Fitzgerald’s charges on technical grounds, don’t count on it!
Otherwise, with the vote in 2006/2008, it is not how you vote or who counts the vote, it is the corporation(s) that control the software in the voting machines to make the results turn out the way they want them in enough precincts in enough states to ensure the continuation of the Bush dictatorship.