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President Cranky Pants

Jon Ponder

I read an account recently of the scene around George W. Bush when John Kerry conceded in the 2004 presidential election. Our macho el presidente broke down in tears and blubbered. He hugged everyone in the room except for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to the account I read.

Now, two years later, with a month to go before midterm elections, things are not looking good for his party’s continued control over the House and maybe even the Senate. How is the tough-guy-in-chief handling the bad news? Not so well:

[…]

Instead Messaging

Trish

Cute column by Daryl Lease in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Somewhere in cyberspace …

TheSpeaker: Thank you all for gathering on such short notice. I apologize for choosing instant messaging as the venue for our meeting, particularly in light of everything that’s happened, but it seemed the quickest way to get everyone together without attracting the media’s attention.

SpinMaster: = : O

TalentOnLoanFromGod: = : O

TheSpeaker: Oh, right. I almost forgot: I took the liberty of inviting Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh to join us for our strategy session today.

TheDoctorIsIn: Fine, but we have to use those dopey icons and abbreviations? Not all of us know the lingo.

TheSpeaker: Good point, Sen. Frist. As always, speak English; we’re in America.

FriendOfMacacas: And welcome to it!

TheSpeaker: Thank you, Sen. Allen. Now, if I may continue. I’ve also invited the president’s trusted adviser, Karl Rove, to lead our session. Karl?

TurdBlossom: Greetings, everyone. Let’s get right to it. As you know, our party is facing a major crisis just weeks before the midterm elections. We need to divert the nation’s attention quickly.

StraightTalk: So catch bin Laden already.

TurdBlossom: Thanks for the “suggestion,” Sen. McCain. We haven’t located Osama just yet, but we do have roughly 6,437 of his second-in-commands that we intend to capture or kill before Nov. 7. Anyone else have SERIOUS ideas on how to divert the attention of the American people?…Rush?

TalentOnLoanFromGod: One word: Billary. If the Clintons hadn’t lowered our moral standards, we wouldn’t be in the fix we’re in.

StraightTalk: I think I need a painkiller.

TalentOnLoanFromGod: Oh, so this is torture too, huh?

TurdBlossom: Boys, boys!

maf54: Heeey, what’s everybody wearing?

TheSpeaker: Foley! Get out of here! Right now!

(maf54 signs off.)

TurdBlossom: O’Reilly, what say you?

SpinMaster: FOX News plans to keep using that graphic misidentifying Foley as a Democrat as often as possible. We’re confident that’ll confuse our viewers.

TurdBlossom: That might help. Anyone else?

FriendOfMacacas: We could stuff a deer head in somebody’s mailbox. It’s a real attention-getter.

TurdBlossom: Thank you, Sen. Allen. But that’s just gross.

RepLaHood: I say we get rid of the page program.

StraightTalk: Oh, jeez. Here he goes again.

RepLaHood: Seriously. If we remove the temptation, we remove the problem.

…TheSpeaker: All right, that’s enough for today. Thanks, everyone. Good luck on the campaign trail. And, remember, before you kiss any babies, get the parents’ express, written permission!

The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is … George W. Bush

Jon Ponder

What if we had a president who inspired courage rather than inciting cowardice?

Fearmongering by politicians is a marker for despotic and fascistic tendencies. But I don’t think Pres. Bush is seeking a dictatorship — that would be too much work.

The politics of fear has been on my mind a lot lately, so I found Arianna Huffington’s column today to be very interesting. Huffington, who has a book out titled “Becoming Fearless,” sees a stark contrast between the Bush regime’s campaign of terror politics this season and President Franklin Roosevelt’s attempt to inspire courage during the Great Depression:

…Fearlessness, like fear itself, is contagious, FDR’s conviction that he and his fellow Americans could handle whatever challenges came their way ended up infecting — and buoying — the entire country. The Great Depression and WW II were certainly legitimate causes of fear, but Roosevelt’s mastery of his fear helped inspire millions to do the same. Just imagine how differently the current occupant of the White House would have dealt with these monumental crises — using them to stifle dissent, gain political and partisan advantage, smear critics, and browbeat a nation into compliance.

Instead of assuring us “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” W would have told us the only way out of the Depression is to waterboard the Constitution, put Lady Liberty in a “stress position,” and attach electrodes to the private parts of the Bill of Rights.

The paraphrase FDR, the only things we have to fear are fear itself — and those who use it for their own shameful purposes.

In dangerous times, we need leaders who inspire courage and hope, not fear and despair. What we have instead is the president and vice president barnstorming the country spreading messages of fear and slandering their opponents by suggesting they are in league with terrorists.

Enflamed fear is a like a free radical in the body politic. The damage it does is hard to predict and can lead to a break down of order. The British survived over a century of attacks by Irish terrorists. Israelis live with terror every minute. While politicians in both countries have been guilty of politicizing hatred, British or Israeli leaders have consistently depended on the courage of their people rather than exploiting their fears.

Why does he do it? Fearmongering by politicians is a marker for despotic and fascistic tendencies but it is hard to picture George Bush seeking a dictatorship — he’s looking forward to returning to Crawford in January 2009. The president has shorter term motives. If the Democrats win control of Congress, Mr. Bush will be forced to cede to the Legislative Branch the power the Constitution awarded it but which his cronies in the GOP have neglected to use. The Democrats would hold him accountable, finally; and he will do anything to avoid that.

Republicans Way Down, Democrats Way Up in Newsweek Poll

Trish

If we could turn back the hands of time to 2004: Can’t, but the next best thing is knowing that more of us share that wish. A new poll from Newsweek shows Bush & Co. held in the lowest esteem yet. And Democrats strong, strong, strong.

Democrats now outdistance Republicans on every single issue that could decide voters’ choices come Nov. 7

For the first time since 2001, the NEWSWEEK poll shows that more Americans trust the Democrats than the GOP on moral values and the war on terror. Fully 53 percent of Americans want the Democrats to win control of Congress next month, including 10 percent of Republicans, compared to just 35 percent who want the GOP to retain power. If the election were held today, 51 percent of likely voters would vote for the Democrat in their district versus 39 percent who would vote for the Republican…

Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has fallen to a new all-time low for the Newsweek poll: 33 percent, down from an already anemic 36 percent in August. Only 25 percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country, while 67 percent say they are not. Foley’s disgrace certainly plays a role in Republican unpopularity: 27 percent of registered voters say the scandal and how the Republican leadership in the House handled it makes them less likely to vote for a Republican Congressional candidate; but 65 percent say it won’t make much difference in determining how they vote.

Most of the participants in the poll seemed to have it right. Instead of magnifying the Foley disaster into a more generalized dissatisfaction with his party, those questioned correctly connected the dots from the Iraq disaster to everything else.

While 52 percent of Americans believe Hastert was aware of Foley’s actions and tried to cover them up, it’s part of a larger loss of faith in Republican leadership, thanks mostly to the war in Iraq. For instance, for the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll, a majority of Americans now believe the Bush administration knowingly misled the American people in building its case for war against Saddam Hussein: 58 percent vs. 36 percent who believe it didn’t. And pessimism over Iraq is at record highs on every score: nearly two in three Americans, 64 percent, believe the United States is losing ground there; 66 percent say the war has not made America safer from terrorism (just 29 percent believe it has); and 53 percent believe it was a mistake to go to war at all, again the first time the NEWSWEEK poll has registered a majority in that camp.

I saved the best for last.

Democrats now outdistance Republicans on every single issue that could decide voters’ choices come Nov. 7. In addition to winning—for the first time in the NEWSWEEK poll—on the question of which party is more trusted to fight the war on terror (44 to 37 percent) and moral values (42 percent to 36 percent), the Democrats now inspire more trust than the GOP on handling Iraq (47 to 34); the economy (53 to 31); health care (57 to 24); federal spending and the deficit (53 to 29); gas and oil prices (56 to 23); and immigration (43 to 34).

So why do I have this niggling doubt? Maybe it’s because somewhere along the road from 2000 to 2004, I lost faith in my country’s ability to hold honest elections. Maybe 2006 will restore an idea I never used to question — that our votes will be counted correctly.

Quote du Jour

Trish

“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.”

— Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady, diplomat, author (1884-1962)

Harris Employs Gays But Attacks Opponent for Lukewarm Opposition to Gay Rights

Jon Ponder

Florida Republican Senate candidate Katherine Harris, who has a gay person on her staff, is attacking Sen. Bill Nelson, her Democratic opponent because he does not oppose gay marriage enough:

Republican Senate hopeful Katherine Harris says Florida’s Democratic incumbent supports unchristian political policies.

Harris – whose comments were made on a Christian radio network and published Monday by Agape Press, a Christian news service – did not mention specific policies, but she has repeatedly berated Sen. Bill Nelson for not supporting a ban on certain late-term abortions and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The congresswoman has worked to attract Christian voters throughout her campaign. This summer, Harris told the Florida Baptist Witness newsletter that Christians should be involved in politics because otherwise legislative bodies would “legislate sin,” and that the separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told.” The comments caused a stir among Democrats and many Republicans, as well as some Christians.

In an effort to explain those remarks, Harris told American Family Radio News: “I was being specific in talking to them and differentiating myself from Bill Nelson, who claims to be a Christian and yet votes completely contrary to what we say we believe.”

…Nelson has said he voted against the ban on what conservatives call partial-birth abortion because the legislation did not have an exception for the health of the mother.

Nelson has also said that he is personally opposed to gay marriage, but that it is an issue that should be decided by individual states.

Casualities Spike in Iraq

Jon Ponder

Last throes, cont’d, cont’d…

The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest monthly level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.

Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.