Frank Rich: When Will Fredo Get Whacked? ...

[Veronica.Franco]

When Will Fredo Get Whacked?

By FRANK RICH

PRESIDENT BUSH wants to keep everything that happens in his White House secret, but when it comes to his own emotions, he’s as transparent as a teenager on MySpace.

On Monday morning he observed the Iraq war’s fourth anniversary with a sullen stay-the-course peroration so perfunctory he seemed to sleepwalk through its smorgasbord of recycled half-truths (Iraqi leaders are “beginning to meet the benchmarks”) and boilerplate (“There will be good days, and there will be bad days”). But at a press conference the next day to defend his attorney general, the president was back in the saddle, guns blazing, Mr. Bring ’Em On reborn. He vowed to vanquish his Democratic antagonists much as he once, so very long ago, pledged to make short work of insurgents in Iraq.

The Jekyll-and-Hyde contrast between these two performances couldn’t be a more dramatic indicator of Mr. Bush’s priorities in his presidency’s endgame. His passion for protecting his power and his courtiers far exceeds his passion for protecting the troops he’s pouring into Iraq’s civil war. But why go to the mat for Alberto Gonzales? Even Bush loyalists have rarely shown respect for this crony whom the president saddled with the nickname Fredo; they revolted when Mr. Bush flirted with appointing him to the Supreme Court and shun him now. The attorney general’s alleged infraction — misrepresenting a Justice Department purge of eight United States attorneys, all political appointees, for political reasons — seems an easy-to-settle kerfuffle next to his infamous 2002 memo dismissing the Geneva Conventions’ strictures on torture as “quaint” and “obsolete.”

That’s why the president’s wild overreaction is revealing. So far his truculence has been largely attributed to his slavish loyalty to his White House supplicants, his ideological belief in unilateral executive-branch power and, as always, his need to shield the Machiavellian machinations of Karl Rove (who installed a protégé in place of one of the fired attorneys). But the fierceness of Mr. Bush’s response — to the ludicrous extreme of forbidding transcripts of Congressional questioning of White House personnel — indicates there is far more fire to go with all the Beltway smoke.

http://wealthyfrenchman.blogspot.com/2007/03/when-will-fredo-get-whacked.html

[youngdem]

1. This 'wild overreaction' characterization probably ignores the underlying issue of all of this

Which is (I strongly suspect) Cheney, Wilkes and Foggo's corruption being exposed by Carol Lam, so they canned her. I think there are some VERY major stories that are being quashed by these firings.

Remember that the bribe that Cunningham got was from Cheney's office furniture contract - to the penny, and that Cunningham the very next day went out and bought a boat with every last penny of his bribe. There has to be so much more going on here, otherwise why would someone give a bribe that is the TOTAL value of the contract?

[The Count]

2. This is the key phrase:

His passion for protecting his power and his courtiers far exceeds his passion for protecting the troops he’s pouring into Iraq’s civil war.

[yurbud]

3. I thought the title was referring to the Fredo of the Bush clan--George W. Genetically impaired

[Doctor_J]

6. George Dubya isn't Fredo

remember - "Fredo has a good heart, but he's weak and stupid". W doesn't have a good heart.

[yurbud]

8. he had a good heart in the mafia sense, loyal to the family and wants to make a contribution

but like W, his only contribution was a turd on the new carpet.

[tblue37]

7. Fredo is W's nickname for Gonzales. (eom)

[bklyncowgirl]

4. Good column. I think Frank Rich is onto something.

Bush and Gonzoles have been partners in crime from way back. He is the total yes man.

George W. Bush may not know a great deal about foreign policy and even less about military strategy but he does know about politics and how to get and keep power. Gonzo and Rove are his left and right arm. This case threatens both of them and through them Bush himself.

George W. Bush may sound like a drunken hillbilly on crack for the sake of the rubes but he's a shrewd operator when it comes to his own power and image. Some of us saw through him in the beginning, more have come to see the real George Bush as time goes on but he still has that loyal base and it is to them that he is now playing.

[Demeter]

5. Is Bush Willing To Risk Jail for His Unitary Executive Principle?

We'll soon find out. Then he can be shipped to the Hague for War Crimes, stripped of Secret Service, pension, perks, assets, contacts, and power.

Fitzmas, the gift that keeps on giving.