Maureen Dowd (NYT): From Swagger to Stagger

[Dudley_DUright]

On one channel tonight, we can watch the iconic side of the Bush presidency. In the risibly revisionist Showtime movie "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," George W. Bush is Vin Diesel-tough as he battles terrorists. "If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come get me," the fictional president fictionally snaps on Air Force One after the 9/ll attacks. "I'll just be waiting for the bastard."

On network channels at the same time — W. is pre-empting himself! — we can watch the ironic side of the Bush presidency. Even though Bush the Younger has done everything in his power not to replicate the fate of his dad, he is replicating the fate of his dad. Only months after swaggering out of a successful war with Iraq, he is struggling with the economy. His numbers have fallen so fast, Top Gun is now tap dancing. He will address the nation to try to underscore the imaginary line that links the budget-busting pit of Iraq to the heartbreaking pit of 9/11.

Just as the father failed to finish off Saddam, so the son has failed to finish off Saddam. Just as the conservatives once carped that the father did not go far enough in Iraq, now the "cakewalk" crowd carps that the son does not go far enough.

"We need to get Iraq right and we're trying to do it a little bit on the cheap," Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor, chastised on "Nightline." "I think we could use more troops; we could certainly use more money."

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/07/opinion/07DOWD.html

[Rowdyboy]

1. You tell the truth, Maureen, and the truth...

may, yet, set us free...

[CatWoman]

2. Tell it like it is, BitchElla

Tonight will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare, with Old Europe making him beg, North Korea making him wince, the deficit making him cringe, the lost manufacturing jobs making him gulp; with the hawks caving in to the U.N. and to old Saddam Baath army members who want to rebuild a security force; with Representative David Obey demanding the unilateral heads of Rummy and Wolfie, so that "Uncle Sam doesn't become Uncle Sucker"; with the F.B.I. warning that more Islamic terrorists who know how to fly planes may be burrowing into our neighborhoods.

[kskiska]

3. This is interesting…

These realpolitik veterans of Bush 41 say that Bush père, an old-school internationalist who ceaselessly tried to charm allies as U.N. ambassador and in the White House, "agonized" over the bullying approach his son's administration used at the U.N. and around the globe.

Some of the father's old circle are thinking about forming a Republican group that would speak out against the neocons. "What's happening in Iraq is puzzling," said one Bush 41 official. "The president ran on no-nation-building. Now we're in this drifting, aimless empire that is not helping the road map to peace."

[CheshireCat]

4. Ms. Dowd has opened her eyes!

People are really waking up. For the least few weeks, I have actually been feeling hope!

[Merlin]

5. MoDo, ya done good!

This is a fine piece of work.

[Skittles]

6. Try as I may, I cannot forgive her

Maureen played the media whore bit good to get this murderous f***er elected. No matter what she writes now, she can still go to hell.

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Neither can my nephew

or me.

Nephew got a one way ticket to Iraq and got his spinal cord severed by a bullet.

Now he is a quadraplegic.

Al Gore would not have done this. Maurenn lied any lie to defeat Al Gore, and now Jon is paying the price for the rest of his life...

Thanks, Maureen!

[tom_paine]

8. So sorry to hear that, Zanti

So many lives ended and injured and scarred for the rest of days...

Such a tragedy, all around...

[SnohoDem]

10. Zanti, I am so sorry. n/t

[VolcanoJen]

9. kick!

:dem:

[ablbodyed]

11. Administration's motives

You can not separate these actions from the lunatic christianity that they espouse. They believe that they are in place through divine intervention to bring about biblical prophacies. The cowardly and self-serving religion is the key. Peel back enough layers of the fundamentalist persona and you get to their innermost self: rat droppings.

[Lugnut]

12. So...

He didn't want to emulate the old man. He also didn't want to follow through on the previous administration's policies. That brings us full circle right back to the POS frat boy screw-up who succeeded at nothing. Way to show up the old man!

/sarcasm