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Will Bush wriggle out of this one? (Rove and the 'blame' game')

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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 10:08 AM
Original message
Will Bush wriggle out of this one? (Rove and the 'blame' game')


http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/09/10/will_bush_wriggle_out_of_this_one/

ROBERT KUTTNER
Will Bush wriggle out of this one?

By Robert Kuttner | September 10, 2005

IT'S AN ILL wind that blows no good. But how will the political winds shift as the enormity of the Katrina disaster sinks in?

We face two opposite prospects. The first is that Americans will finally grasp that what connects the catastrophes in New Orleans and Iraq is a witches' brew of self-delusion, deliberate deception, cronyism, and staggering incompetence on the part of the Bush administration. Republicans, meanwhile, will desert a president who is becoming a plain embarrassment even to his staunchest backers.

But there is a darker possibility. The Karl Rove team is gradually getting Republicans back ''on message." The message: There's no point in playing a ''blame game," as Scott McClellan said 15 times at Thursday's press briefing. The New Orleans disaster just proves the unreliability of government in general rather than this feckless president in particular. We should be looking forward to rebuilding -- with the private sector taking the lead.

If we aren't alert, Bush will not only wriggle out of political responsibility for diverting funds from New Orleans's flood defenses, eviscerating FEMA, and bungling the response, just as he evaded responsibility after Richard Clarke's testimony that the administration ignored warnings about Al Qaeda's plans for a 9/11 style-attack. Katrina could even be a political windfall, promoting the campaign to cripple government, permanently displacing some reliable Democratic voters from the swing state of Louisiana, causing the faithful to rally 'round their beleaguered president, and knocking even more unpleasant news off the front pages and network TV....
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acmavm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 10:13 AM
Response to Original message
1. Look, KKKarl can say that there's no point in playing the 'blame game'
but it is human nature to look at a situation and say to yourself, if so-and-so had done this, or if that had (or hadn't happened), then things would be different.

So keep putting that message out there folks. People love blaming someone for something. And if you give them legimimate cause, and truthful and logical and most of all PROVABLE reasons, well watch human nature take over.
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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 10:24 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. "a witches' brew of self-delusion, deliberate deception, cronyism, and"

love the witch's brew phase!

......We face two opposite prospects. The first is that Americans will finally grasp that what connects the catastrophes in New Orleans and Iraq is a witches' brew of self-delusion, deliberate deception, cronyism, and staggering incompetence on the part of the Bush administration. Republicans, meanwhile, will desert a president who is becoming a plain embarrassment even to his staunchest backers.
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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 10:25 AM
Response to Reply #2
3.  a few repugs will desert, but i will count too many.


..... Republicans, meanwhile, will desert a president who is becoming a plain embarrassment even to his staunchest backers.
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melody Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 10:46 AM
Response to Original message
4. not a chance - they've hit the iceberg of destiny
Edited on Sat Sep-10-05 10:47 AM by melody
Actually, they steered into the mother themselves.

No "blame game" Rovean horseshit will undo this damage - primarily because they are themselves playing the "blame game" by blaming Blanco and Nagin.

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freeplessinseattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Sep-10-05 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
5. actually they've been saying "it's not ~Time~ for blamegame
so they can't put off accountability-er, blamegaming for much longer.
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classysassy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-19-05 12:34 AM
Response to Reply #5
15. The bush gang
there are so many of those clueless freaks,I was watching the Atlanta Braves and one of their sportcasters,stated the rethug party line,"this is not the time to play the blame game"I bet he was ordered to tell that bold lie.( fu--you Skip Cary).
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Catfight Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 09:24 AM
Response to Original message
6. Katrina is hurricane Terri Shiavo. If bush could run back to Washington
to save a brain dead, living dead person but can't save old women and men drowning to death in nursing homes...I'd LOVE to see and hear how Rove can spin that ugly reality.

"I'd rather hear the ugly truth than a beautiful lie." I think Gandhi?
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Burning Water Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 10:34 AM
Response to Original message
7. There is no doubt
in my mind that Bush will wiggle out of this one. If the war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich, violations of human rights, etc., all the things he has been charged with so far have not brought him down, why should this??

Somebody answer me, please. There has to be a reason, or the world does not make sense.
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esvhicl Donating Member (123 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 12:32 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. This is what they want
They want to "re-claim" New Orleans. The SS (disguised as Blackwater Security) is already in there taking people from their homes. New Orleans is a good strategic city for them to have-major port and oil wells, they can strangle the surrounding areas. This is our CIVIL WAR, folks. Fascism HAS arrived.

They just can't wait for an earthquake to hit Los Angeles... Then they'll take us over to with their martial law and dragging people from their homes.

Think about it---right they are forcibly taking people from their homes---even the ones who weathered the storsm, and for how long???
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WhiteTara Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 12:39 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. me thinks you guessed it...the world doesn't
make sense. imho, one has to learn how to live in the groundedness of one's own being. There is nothing to hold on to, so finding my personal center and living from that is what keeps me going, because there sure isn't any easy street that I can see. :shrug:
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Skittles Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Sep-14-05 08:40 AM
Response to Reply #7
14. most people don't care about sh** until it affects them
you'd have to be sociopath to see what we saw on TV and not be affected - it is much harder to spin what people see with their own eyes
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daydreamer Donating Member (503 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
10. Bush can get away with anything
unless we take back the media.
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ElectroPrincess Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-11-05 03:14 PM
Response to Reply #10
11. No truer words were ever typed !
"Bush can get away with anything unless we take back the media."

The above is so damn true that it makes me want to cry out of sheer frustration. The Whorish National Media will NOT EVER stop carrying water for their "corporate masters" and it pisses me off.

Still, what can we do until we "break up" these corporate monopolies?
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daydreamer Donating Member (503 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-12-05 08:27 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. All I can think of for myself is to support media outlet like Air America
Edited on Mon Sep-12-05 08:46 PM by daydreamer
Radio. Ted Turner might consider buying back CNN or create another network. I also fight freepers in forums whenever I get a chance.
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PurityOfEssence Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-13-05 09:50 PM
Response to Original message
13. Life's cumulative and interconnected; it won't ruin him, but it'll hurt.
Spin as they may, he has taken a major hit on what is the very core of his appeal, that of being a decisive leader. His vaunted cocksure swaggering approach to things that has so many clay-footed suckers in awe was really shown for what it is: posturing.

It won't take down the presidency, it won't bring total rout and resignation, but it chips away at the myth of his manly personality, and that's gonna hurt. Good. Couldn't happen to a nicer fella.

It's probably best for both parties to move on from this. Massive damage has been done, and mild reminders and careful sniping will do plenty more damage to him, whereas a full offensive on the subject probably won't do much more than has already been done. The right needs to drop it because when tough guys who never make excuses (okay, SAY they never make excuses) go into blame and quibbling mode, they look doubly silly.

He's taken a serious hit for this, and it's a hit that'll keep dogging him. Spin, bury or divert attention to something else, the right got mighty roughed up on this, and Junior looks like the inept soul of vagueness and obliviousness that he is. The mean part also shows through, and that's going to chill many people.

I just want to take the House in '06 and start some inquiries; I'd love to see Captain Queeg under oath.
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