August 18, 2005
If He Only Had a Heart...
Bush's Emotional Incapacities
By JOSHUA FRANK
President Bush isn't having all that great of a summer. Sure his team ushered CAFTA through Congress and will most likely get a stamp of approval for their rankled Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts. But as the dog days of summer heat up, President Bush is sweating bullets as he lays low out in Texas.
Why the evacuation from Washington to Crawford? Well, his approval ratings are fast plummeting. Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist turned his back on Bush and came out in favor of stem cell research. Members of President's cartel may be facing federal indictments over the leaking of a CIA operative. Iraq isn't looking so good, either - soldiers are getting blown up daily. A few of their bereaved parents are even camping outside his plush ranch demanding an explanation for their children's deaths. Indeed there isn't much news the Bush administration can feel good about.
Apparently the President isn't taking all this too well. According to Doug Thompson of Capital Hill Blue, White House aides "describe a President whose public persona masks an angry, obscenity-spouting man who berates staff, unleashes tirades against those who disagree with him and ends meetings in the Oval Office with 'get out of here!"
Bush's more than frequent mood swings have been taking their toll on White House staff who now release "weather reports" which warn of Bush's current emotional state. "Calm seas' means Bush is calm," writes Thompson, "while 'tornado alert' is a warning that he is pissed at the world."
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http://www.counterpunch.org/frank08182005.html