Tag: Worst President Ever
Bush Caught on Tape Lying about 2003 SOTU ’16 Words’ – Media Yawns
Pres. Bush with then-U.N. chief Kofi Annan addressing reporters in the Oval Office on July 14, 2003.
Prevaricator-in-Chief: The media is ignoring the revelation yesterday that it was Vice Pres. Cheney who knowingly inserted a false statement about Iraq’s nuclear program into the 2003 State of the Union speech.
They are also apparently uninterested in reporting that both Pres. Bush and his spokesman Scott McClellan lied on the record in July 2003 about how the infamous 16-word statement — “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” — came to be included in the speech.
Putin Not Feeling the Love for W Anymore
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s blast at Bush policies is going largely ignored in this country, what with more urgent subjects for Americans to debate. You know, like who is Anna Nicole Smith’s baby daddy?
Still, we enjoyed Putin’s unique perspective at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, in which he said the White House should examine its own responsibility for Iran and others not trusting us.
“Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law,” Putin told the gathering.
Putin said it was “the almost uncontained hyper-use of force in international relations” that was forcing countries opposed to Washington to seek to build up nuclear arsenals.
“It is a world of one master, one sovereign. … It has nothing to do with democracy. This is nourishing the wish of countries to get nuclear weapons,” he said.
“This is very dangerous. Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law,” Putin told the gathering.
Putin did not mention the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, but he voiced concern about NATO’s expansion plans as possible challenges to Russia.
“The process of NATO expansion has nothing to do with modernization of the alliance or with ensuring security in Europe,” Putin said. “On the contrary, it is a serious factor provoking reduction of mutual trust.”
John McCain, who was at the conference looking presidential, rushed to condemn Putin’s speech, nearly falling over as his knee jerked out from under him.
Oddly, new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was more circumspect and actually waited a day to respond. When he did, he focused on the United States’ need for help in Afghanistan, which is going almost as badly as Baghdad.
He struck a familiar theme — one he pressed during a NATO defense ministers meeting this week, when he urged the allies to follow through on their promises to help secure and rebuild Afghanistan.
“It is vitally important that the success Afghanistan has achieved not be allowed to slip away through neglect or lack of political will or resolve,” Gates said. Failure to muster a strong military effort combined with economic development and a counternarcotics plan “would be a mark of shame,” he said.
Bring shame on a neocon initiative? Sounds like a job for George W!
George Bush is Not Our Commander in Chief
You might have missed Garry Wills’ recent brilliant reality check, so we are excerpting it here as a public service.
We hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.†The word has become a synonym for “president.†It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.†It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.â€
But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army.
Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order.…The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. He is not even commander in chief of National Guard troops unless and until they are federalized. The Constitution is clear on this: “The president shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.â€
…The glorification of the president as a war leader is registered in numerous and substantial executive aggrandizements; but it is symbolized in other ways that, while small in themselves, dispose the citizenry to accept those aggrandizements. We are reminded, for instance, of the expanded commander in chief status every time a modern president gets off the White House helicopter and returns the salute of marines.
That is an innovation that was begun by Ronald Reagan. Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order. (George Bush came as close as he could to wearing a uniform while president when he landed on the telegenic aircraft carrier in an Air Force flight jacket).
…Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s prescient last book, “Secrecy,†traced the ever-faster-growing secrecy of our government and said that it strikes at the very essence of democracy — accountability of representatives to the people. How can the people hold their representatives to account if they are denied knowledge of what they are doing? Wartime and war analogies are embraced because these justify the secrecy. The representative is accountable to citizens. Soldiers are accountable to their officer. The dynamics are different, and to blend them is to undermine the basic principles of our Constitution.
Why Is George Bush So Incompetent?
How did Geroge W. Bush — a man born into wealth and power — become the Worst President Ever? One theory is, One theory: his father’s shoes were too big:
Bush’s defenses have included alcoholism, clownish behavior, emotional bullying, and Christian salvation.
As with many other aspects of the president’s sometimes odd behavior, the root of this new self-subverting plan [to escalate the war in Iraq] lies … in a psychological twist that begins with his long and well-documented history of failure (and his sense of his own failure) within his family of origin.
Where his father was a standout as a scholar, athlete and businessman, the son, following with remarkable fixedness in his father’s footsteps, stumbled repeatedly. In November 2006, the father’s emissary, James A. Baker III, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, came to deliver what must have been a familiar verdict: “The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating.” Read, Son, once again you failed.
To protect his psyche against humiliating feelings – inadequacy, isolation, incompetence, guilt – Bush has developed during his life several defenses that suppress, disguise and deflect those feelings. These defenses have included alcoholism, clownish behavior, emotional bullying, and Christian salvation. Six years ago, Bush found what must seem to him the near-perfect defense (though it was also a trap): The “presidential defense” allows him to avoid any feelings of humiliation by presenting himself as the plain-spoken, divinely inspired “decider” whose choices can’t be seriously challenged as incompetent or inadequate, because only distant history (or a guiding Divinity) can judge a president’s actions.
But Bush’s lifelong feelings of inadequacy clearly haven’t gone away. They appear in his nervous laugh and awkward smile – the smile of a man who seems not quite certain of himself but is intent on convincing you that “there’s no doubt in my mind” (a favorite phrase).
He constantly reminds us — and himself — that he is president. “I am the decider,” he says one day. “I am the decision maker,” he says another time. His mountain bike bears a presidential seal.
There is another layer to this father and son saga. George H.W. Bush also grew up in the shadow of famous father,Prescott Bush, a U.S. senator from Connecticut and a Wall Street Banker.
As a young man, George the elder, used his family connections — and, to be fair, a heroic stint in World War II — to get elected to two terms in the U.S. House, and then to move up the ranks from UN ambassador to head of the Republican National Committee to ambassador to China to director of the CIA to vice president of the United States.
The current president had all the advanatages of his father — money, the family name and a sense of entitlement. What he lacked was a personality suited for public life, and the intelligence to understand he should have followed other pursuits.
As a result, the younger Bush’s reach has exceeded his grasp to such a degree that tremendous damage has been done to the country. The extent of the damage remains to be seen. But let’s just hope we’re at the end of the last chapter of the Bush family drama that will be played out on the world stage.
H/t Judy
Rice Refused to Take Iran’s Call in 2003
Nobody home Iran reached out to the incompetent Bush diplomatic team in 2003 but its calls went unreturned by the worst president ever’s worst diplomats.
Conjuring deja vu all over again in congressional testimony this week, Secretary of Narcolepsy State Condo Rice said the Iranians just didn’t make it clear enough for her or her predecessor, Colin Powell.
“We had people who said the Iranians went to talk to you, lots of people who said the Iranians want to talk to you,” Rice said
Rice told Congress she does not remember seeing the 2003 Iranian proposal, which suggested Iran was ready to discuss its disputed nuclear program, support for militant groups that the United States labels terrorists and the acceptance of Israel…
The document, faxed to the State Department in the early days of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, proposed direct talks, perhaps in Paris. Iraq was at the top of the proposed agenda, with Tehran proposing “active Iranian support for Iraqi stabilization.”
Like the infamous “Terrorists are Going to Hijack Passenger Jets and Fly Them into Skyscrapers” memo that Rice’s National Security Council couldn’t quite parse out the meaning of, the Iranian fax will go down in history as one of the biggest missed opportunities since Capt. Smith said, “Icebergs? Who cares about icebergs? This ship is unsinkable!”
“We had people who said the Iranians went to talk to you, lots of people who said the Iranians want to talk to you,” Rice said during an exchange with Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla.
“But I think I would have noticed if the Iranians had said, ‘We’re ready to recognize Israel,'” Rice said. “I just don’t remember ever seeing any such thing.”
Well of course you don’t, Condo, and therein lies the problem. The Bush team’s idea of diplomacy is sitting back and waiting for the other side to wave a white flag and say, “O.K., we’re giving you everything you want and a few things you haven’t thought of yet! And would you like that gift-wrapped?”
To them, it’s a zero-sum game. Gone are the days of give and take, back and forth, and agreements all parties can live with long-term that win Nobel Peace prizes. Now it’s just threaten sanctions, impose sanctions, and send Cheney off to the bunker to await the explosion.
“This administration, out of some combination of ideological blindness and incompetence, couldn’t be bothered to explore whether this opportunity was as serious as it looked on paper,” [Rice’s former National Security Council Aide Flynt] Leverett said Wednesday…
The Bush administration has resisted suggestions, including from the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, that it should engage Iran to try to improve security in next-door Iraq.
And these idiots want us to take their word for it when they tell us now that we might possibly need to go to war with Iran? Don’t!
Bush: Saying ‘Democrat Majority’ in SOTU Was Unintentional
As if more proof were needed that George W. Bush is a congenital liar, he’s now claiming that his use of the phrase “Democrat majority” in the State of the Union speech this month was a slip of the tongue:
“I didn’t mean to be putting fingernails on the board. I meant to be saying, Why don’t we show the American people we can actually work together?”
“That was an oversight,” Bush said in an interview Monday with National Public Radio. “I’m not trying to needle … I didn’t even know I did it…
“I didn’t mean to be putting fingernails on the board. I meant to be saying, Why don’t we show the American people we can actually work together?”
That excuse might be marginally believable if he hadn’t been reading from a script that said “Democratic majority.”
Here’s what we know for certain: Anyone who uses “Democrat” as an adjective is an asshole. Here’s proof:
the term became controversial as far back as the 1950s. Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) famously used it to deride Democrats during his hearings investigating whether Communists had infiltrated the U.S. government.
It isn’t like we Democrats are disappointed when jerks like the president and others in his party use the term to needle us.It is what we have come to expect.
What is disappointing is that this president feels no compunction about using the State of the Union speech to extend one hand in bipartisanship while ussing the other slap us in the face — and then saying it was a slip up.
Go peddle it somewhere else, GOoper.
Hagel: What’s the Bush Administration Afraid Of?
Don’t miss the amazing interview with Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) in GQ. You’ll see why the Bush White House is so upset with this guy, and why there is such a remote chance he will ever drink the Kool-Aid.
A sample:
GQ: What would it take to secure Baghdad?
Hagel: It’s not ours to secure. We have never understood that! We have framed this in a way that never made sense: “Win or lose in Iraq.†Wait a minute! There is no win or loss for us. The Iraqis will determine how this turns out. We can help them with our blood and our treasure and our standing, but in the end they have to deal with the sectarian problems. That is what’s consuming that country. It’s not Al Qaeda. It’s not the terrorists. That’s not the main problem over there. It’s a civil war!Hagel: “If Bill Clinton had invaded Iraq and after two years he was having the same problems, do you think the Republican Congress would have put up with that? I don’t think so”GQ: The administration doesn’t call it that.
Hagel: They won’t call it civil war. Everybody calls it a civil war! Of course it’s a civil war. The generals call it a civil war. And it’s even worse than a civil war, because in addition to the sectarian violence, you’ve got Shia killing Shia. We have ethnic cleansing of major proportions going on in Baghdad. It’s reminiscent of Bosnia. A truck pulls up and Uncle Joe is put inside; his body is found in a dump two or three days later, arms bound, usually tortured—one of the favorite deals is to drill into their head a little bit while they’re still conscious and then shoot them. We can’t solve that!GQ: If we can’t win and the public wants out, isn’t it the responsibility of Congress to check the power of the president?
Hagel: Sure.GQ: But it seems Congress has been ineffective at that.
Hagel: Well, we have. We’ve abdicated our responsibilities. That has to do with the fact that the Republican Party controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate. When that happens, you get no probing, no questioning, no oversight. If Bill Clinton had invaded Iraq and after two years he was having the same problems, do you think the Republican Congress would have put up with that? I don’t think so.…GQ: Does being a veteran also make you sensitive to the administration’s approach to interrogation and the use of secret military prisons?
Hagel: It does, because that’s not who America is. We have always, certainly since World War II, had the moral high ground in the world. But these secret prisons and the treatment at Guantánamo destroy all of that. We ought to shut down Guantánamo. There shouldn’t be any secret prisons. Why do we need those? What are we afraid of? Here we are, the greatest nation the world has ever seen. Why can’t we let the Red Cross into our prisons? Why do we deny they exist? Why do we keep them locked up? What are we afraid of? Why aren’t we dealing with Iran and Syria?…GQ: You don’t hear very many politicians say that both sides of an issue are reasonable these days.
Hagel: We are living through one of the most transformative periods in history. If we are going to make it, we need a far greater appreciation and respect for others, or we’re going to blow up mankind. Look at what zealotry can do. Religious zealotry has been responsible for killing more people than any other thing. Look at the Middle East today. It’s all about religion. We need to move past those divisions and learn to be tolerant and respectful. If we go out there full of intolerance and hatred, we’ll never make it.
Read the whole interview. When the Rovian attacks start on Chuck Hagel — and they will — at least you’ll know what he really said.
Bush Just Keeps Saying the Same Thing: “Trust Me”
“Some are condemning the plan before it even has a chance to work.”
I don’t know about you but comments like that by Bush and his henchmen Cheney, Limbaugh, and Lieberman are really getting on my nerves. Not to mention this chestnut:
President Bush…said Friday “I’m the decision-maker” about sending more troops to the war.
He still expects us to give his latest idiocy the benefit of the doubt, a chance to work. Try it out, see how it goes. What the hey?
Bush still doesn’t get it. Even after his “thumpin’,” even after congressional Republicans hulked up and started acting like people again by voting their conscience instead of their party, and even after 70 percent of the American people said they disagree with him, he still takes umbrage when his ridiculous conclusions are questioned.
Well wake up, decider, we aren’t taking your word anymore.
White House veterans and analysts say the signs suggest a bunker mentality for a White House frustrated over its efforts to govern and pursue a broader agenda when the administration seems to face criticism of the Iraq War at every turn…
White House insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity, say an intense sense of war fatigue has set in.
Some cite a sense of regret and self-recrimination among White House officials who have evolved from a sense of being unjustly persecuted to a sense that the administration itself made critical mistakes in the conduct of the war that have contributed to the media and public lament.
I would say that from Day One this president has asked us to trust him while presenting nothing but evidence that we should do the exact opposite. I would say that, except he hasn’t asked us to trust him, he’s simply ridiculed and bullied and threatened those who don’t. He’s demanded blind faith while demonstrating incompetence and duplicity and the poorest judgement of the 21st century.
And he still expects us to give his latest idiocy the benefit of the doubt, a chance to work. Try it out, see how it goes. What the hey? After all, what’s really at stake? Only 21,500 men and women with families and loved ones and jobs and futures. Come on, America, just roll those dice. W is. And the only thing bothering him about it all is having to answer to you for it.
More Rumors That Cheney Is Out, Condi Is in as VP
We have been suggesting for a while that Vice Pres. Cheney would step down early this year — due to “health problems” or boredom with government. Now there’s a new swirl of rumors going around.
Rice is unelectable as president. For one thing, the GOP can’t win without taking every Red state Bush won in 2004. Where there are Red states, there are racists who would never vote for a black candidate, especially a female — especially an unmarried female about whom there are gay rumors. Secondly, she’d never get votes from independents because of her deep involvement in the failure of the Iraq war.
Our prediction has been than GOP graybeards and powers-that-be would force Pres. Bush to appoint a Republican politician as vice president who would be an electable presidential candidate in 2008. The obvious choice would be St. John McCain, in spite of the fact that Bush and McCain famously loathe each other.
But the new vice president mentioned consistently in the rumor mill is Sec. of State Condoleeza Rice.
It makes sense that Bush would choose the worst possible person for the second-highest job in the land (after all, he’s done it before). Rice has proven to be a disaster in both roles she has played in the Bush Administration. She was the national security adviser who ignored an intelligence report from August 2001, titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.†As secretary of state, her diplomatic efforts have had lackluster results.
With that record of incompetence, a Medal of Freedom is not sufficient. This woman deserves a promotion!
Rice would be a “Harriet Miers” sort of choice for vice president — someone Bush is “comfortable with” but who is wholly unqualified for the job.
But Condoleeza Rice is unelectable as president. For one thing, the GOP can’t win without taking every Red state Bush won in 2004. Where there are Red states, there are racists who would never vote for a black candidate, especially a female — especially an unmarried female about whom there are gay rumors. Secondly, she’d never get votes from independents because of her deep involvement in the failure of the Iraq war.
If Cheney resigns, Bush is going to face intense pressure from GOP senior election officials, strategists and big donors to replace him with the person whom they believe to be the most electable candidate out there. Despite Rudolph Giuliani’s high polling right now, in the Beltway Republican mindset, the frontrunner is John McCain, so I still believe that’s who they will push.
Of course, there’s a compromise candidate out there, waiting in the wings. Someone who’s got the experience, who left office with a high approval rating, despite his last name — someone who might appeal both to the boy king and his mininons and courtiers:
Jeb.
