Robert D. Novak: A President All Alone

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/25/AR2007032500912.html

A President All Alone

By Robert D. Novak
Monday, March 26, 2007; Page A15

Two weeks earlier on Capitol Hill, there was a groundswell of Republican demands -- public and private -- that President Bush pardon Scooter Libby. Last week, as Alberto Gonzales came under withering Democratic fire, there were no public GOP declarations of support amid private predictions of the attorney general's demise.

Republican leaders in Congress, who asked not to be quoted by name, predicted early last week that Gonzales would fall because the Justice Department botched the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. By week's end, they stipulated that the president would not sack his longtime aide and that Gonzales would leave only on his own initiative. But there was still an ominous lack of congressional support for the attorney general.

"Gonzales never has developed a base of support for himself up here," a House Republican leader told me. But this is less a Gonzales problem than a Bush problem. With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress -- not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.

Republicans in Congress do not trust their president to protect them. That alone is sufficient reason to withhold statements of support for Gonzales, because such a gesture could be quickly followed by his resignation under pressure. Rep. Adam Putnam (Fla.), the highly regarded young chairman of the House Republican Conference, praised Donald Rumsfeld in November only to see him sacked shortly thereafter.

But not many Republican lawmakers would speak up for Gonzales even if they were sure Bush would stick with him. He is the least popular Cabinet member on Capitol Hill, even more disliked than Rumsfeld was. The word most often used by Republicans to describe the management of the Justice Department under Gonzales is "incompetent."

more...

[Demeter]

1. Et Tu, Novak?

Has the last rat left the sinking ship? The Cheesy President Stands Alone, (sing with me)

By the way, haven't heard much about pardoning Scooter lately, either!

[babylonsister]

2. That's why I posted this! Novak is throwing him under the bus?

:wow:

[whistle]

3. Bob Novak has thrown Shrub* under the bus because he knows the bus

...is still parked, there is now retreat yet!

[guruoo]

4. So, who's "isolated" now, baby?

'Many more say today's problems by the administration derive from yesterday's mistakes, whose impact persists. The answer that is not entertained by the president's most severe GOP critics, even when not speaking for quotation, is that this is just the governing style of George W. Bush and never will change while he is in the Oval Office.

Regarding the Libby-Gonzales equation, unofficial word from the White House is not reassuring. One credible source says the president never -- not even on the way out of the Oval Office in January 2009 -- will pardon Libby. Another equally good source says the president never will ask Gonzales to resign. That exactly reverses the prevailing Republican opinion in Congress.

Bush is alone.'

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200703/COM20070326a.html

on edit: Added quotations to subject line

[liberal N proud]

5. That is HUGE!

Is whore 1 throwing bu$h to the wolves?

[babylonsister]

6. Sure seems that way. Will be interesting to see if other r/w

'journalists' follow suit.