Is Bush being brought down by his own party?

[boston bean]

Well, I don't know the full answer. But what I do know is that Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice did not go to his rescue. Sure they went to the Gulf Coast but only briefly. You have barely heard one of them speak about it after their visits.

Also, why wasn't bush out in front of this earlier. I don't buy the excuses that the staff was afraid to tell him. For some reason, they are just not helping.

We all know he was never the real president, or the one in charge.

So why are the ones who are really in charge not defending him, protecting him.

It's like he's all alone out there, blowin in the wind (excuse the pun).

[malaise]

1. It looks that way but guess what

in 20 minutes he made a mockery of their entire philosophy which suits me just fine. So if the plan was to bring him down, he's carrying all of them with him.

It's popcorn time.

[boston bean]

2. I agree, I think there is a brutal internal fight going on between him and

them.

[FreedomAngel82]

4. I think so too

I don't know and it is very strange indeed. Usually they trout out Rice and the rest of them but they haven't. :shrug: They did an appearance or whatever but that was it. :shrug: I don't know but it makes one wonder. This isn't helping them though for 2006. But I do agree about the popcorn. Good thing I'm stacked up.

[movonne]

14. Maybe they want Cheney...didn't I read that Cheney distanced himself

from bush...

[JAbuchan08]

3. I don't think any of those guys are capable of looking more empathetic

than Bush. Better he twist in the wind than Cheney come down and try to pretend to care.

[Cleita]

5. That's what Republicans do. If they don't out and out stab you

in the back when you outlive your usefulness, they leave you fluttering in the wind. They have a history of it. All the other Bushbots really better watch their backs because when they screw up, all the rats leave a sinking ship.

[asjr]

6. Maybe they have decided the puppet is expendable.

It was through Cheney that Brown was removed. When they are all removed I will feel much better.

[boston bean]

9. here, here... nt

[malaise]

17. Maybe he heard them refer to him as

the lame duck. Watching this play out with all their other problems is the best soap opera in town. Rove in deep trouble; Cheney - a permanent hospital patient, Imelda Rice out shopping for shoes; Iraq in a total mess. They must turn on each other. When the arrogance of power turns sour, it's like watching male lions fight.

It's over. Down they go and all the electoral funny business will soon be public knowledge. The Dems now need to vote by party against Roberts. Then someone will have to remove the fan as the $hit starts flying all over the place. Dean needs to pounce now and bring young Kennedy with him.

[politicaholic]

7. Republicans throw each other under the bus all of the time...

it's a national conservative past time.

[pretzel4gore]

16. what about the mediawhores?

who cares about rumsvelt or cheney or even bush? what about the real murdering pigs in this story, les blitzer. limbah, owhorely, brite hum, tony snow, krauthammer, fred barnes, woodward, friedman, brocawcaw, jennings (oh yeah) murdock, mellon scaife, bob sheiffer, '5 in the noggin' gibson, tucker carlson, chris mathews, imus, judith miller, novak ny times ed board, clearchannel management and so many more....they created reagan bush, and they should pay....

[despairing optimist]

8. I think it's the reverse: Bush brought his party down

The Republican party, when it was controlled by more rational, moderate types, was the place to go for bedrock conservative values such as thrift and self-reliance. There was even room under the tent for more freethinking types such as libertarians. Then the ideologues and lunatics took over by bullying and dirty tricks, and the rest is sadly US history for the past 30 years.

If the moderate voices in the party manage finally to marginalize their lunatic, neocon fringe, it may be able to redeem itself. In this sense, yes, you're right about the party distancing itself from Bush perhaps prior to purging the neocons. We'll have to see. I just hope there's time to do so before NYC or DC or SF or LA or Chicago gets hit in some awful way.

[PATRICK]

29. Too kind to the GOP

The big money snobs needed the addled thugs and as far as anything goes they have hurting the nation pretty much in same ways without the nuts, whether by untimely hypocritical pacifism while supporting our enemies' corporate RW, partisan witch hunts and red herrings, red flag issues over substance or big money corruption. The GOP corrupted Conservatives and the more dizzy Libertarians with their century and a half search for corporate plutocracy. The "respectable" elite disdained the grass roots Conservatives and religious right but it played them like suckers by putting its own at their head as the perfect replacement for tougher ways to obtain power- like having a big hero at the top(Eisenhower) and the myths of fiscal responsibility and tax cuts.

Except for the anomaly of Teddy Roosevelt it has been a march to rule by the privileged money elite with the peculiar lack of conscience. The Democratic Party is more checkered than its own leaders will admit and is a work in progress because power attracts those who really wanted their GOP proxies and complacency in being the only party reasonably representing the people's interests. But a people easily divided and conquered politically when they take the people even a bit for granted.

Bush is the apotheosis of everything wrong, of every fault revealed and still pretending to be concealed. Any outbreak of sanity or sudden 20-20 vision and their house of cards comes down. One mustard seed of common sense. One flare of justice.

[bread_and_roses]

33. excellent post! As my "Roosevelt Dem" mother always says....

...the Republican Party is for the Rich, and no poor or working person ever has any reason to vote Republican. (She was out protesting the illegitimate fraud when he was in my home city, btw - at 73 :) )

And I love your last line - very stirring -
" One mustard seed of common sense. One flare of justice."

Indeed.

[despairing optimist]

36. Okay, I'm kind to the "old" GOP because I know some old GOPers

and they're not monsters, or at least not more than some Democrats (mostly DLC people who are controversial to DUers as well as to many other grassroots Democrats).

Your comment cuts to the heart of the problem, that the Democratic party, while not as much damaged goods as the GOP, is still damaged goods. One need only consider the third-party efforts over the years and their allure to alienated mainstream voters in order to sense the unease with which workaday Americans regard politicians. They may rise from the common soil, but once they reach the corridors of power, sooner or later they become virtually indistinguishable from one another. Party affiliation is a mere technicality.

The explanation I've heard over and over in NY for why the Bushistas won last year was that Kerry presented no clear alternative. There's a reason for that, and it's not just because he aimed his appeal at the same voters as Bush did. It's also because he sprang from essentially the same soil as Bush did, and I say that not to bash Kerry. He's a good guy. But no one gets to the top of either major party without passing through the gatekeepers at the top, and both parties have essentially the same gatekeepers and power brokers representing the same moneyed corporate interests. There's a reason for Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, John Anderson, Henry Wallace, and all the other third-party candidates: they tap into the need for Americans to speak truth to power and express their dissatisfaction with the sham that the American electoral process has become.

The same privileged elite runs both parties. The Dems play the good cop with smiles and a few crumbs to keep the masses happy, while the GOP plays the bad cop--in your face, arrogantly claiming like Barbara Bush that the poor never had it so good and they'd better know it, all the while trying to take back what little relief the Democrats give to the poor and the middle class.

As far as manipulation of public opinion goes, the Republicans divide and rule by fear, ignorance, and bigotry as needed, and the Democrats offer government with a conscience, a pledge toward fair sharing of taxation, and fixing the mess that the mean Republicans always leave. The formula has worked for generations, but it's getting old now, and I fear even this illusion of choice is about to give way to open statist authoritarianism on the part of both parties. It doesn't matter to the people in this country who really call the shots whether a Bush or a Clinton is in the White House as long as the main business of the country goes on undisturbed. Given that, it is essential for those who want progressive change to disturb, arouse, annoy, shout, scream, and raise the discomfort level of the elites to the point that a new deal must be brokered, another progressive movement coopted.

So when you write about an outbreak of sanity or clear vision bringing down the GOP's house of cards, I would say that all the cards belong to one deck shared by both major parties, and that if both of them aren't careful, they'll need to show their hands once and for all--put up or shut up. It's at that moment when the American public has got to choose between grabbing the deck and shuffling out a new game or walking away from the table once and for all.

It's not just a question of Bush's bringing down his party. It's vital that the leaders of both parties stop bringing down the country, and it's up to us to act.

[PATRICK]

37. Good point

They defend their leaders in much the same way we do ours, though with less raional justification in my book but its not far enough off to condemn traditional Republican rank and file who seem right out of the Gilded Age.

Then again when good Republicans, even officials I have known get principled and fed up they get their walking papers- and no one waves goodbye.

[DistressedAmerican]

10. I Think It Is The Other Way Around. Bush Is Bringing The Party Down!

He is like an albatross around their necks. Must really piss them off that they chose him as the mouthpiece...

[boston bean]

13. Yeah, i agree. Either way, he gets the axe, which is good for us.

I just can't grasp the reasoning behind it or why, or what happened. But I think it's obvious something is going down.

[Booster]

24. Personally, I think the neocons are bringing the Republican party

down, and the sooner real conservative Republicans realize that, the better off we'll all be. I really don't think the average Republican would go along with what the neocons really want because they aren't included in their plans any more than the Dems.

[MissWaverly]

11. Please explain the writing with orange marker

the practical joke where someone wrote on his forehead with a marker while he was asleep on Air Force One before he went on a tour of New Orleans, if they are so afraid of him that they get "dry heaves" after he has a tantrum, what was that
all about?

In the picture, apparently one of the President's aides has used a neon orange highlighter pen to scribble a rescue/damage assessment upon his forehead. The terminology would indicate that Bush had been assessed on 09-12-05 by a K.R., who found that no one was home, and the structure was condemned.


http://www.unconfirmedsources.com/index.php?itemid=1179

[parasim]

20. Apparently...

you failed to note that the site you linked to was a parody.

or...

Apparently I failed to note that your post was.

[MissWaverly]

27. Its a real story, it's been posted over at Daily Kos

Bush Flies into Rage with Staffers
by Dood Abides
Tue Sep 13th, 2005 at 17:09:51 PDT
New Orleans, LA (APE) - President Bush yesterday became enraged over a practical joke played upon him by a staffer aboard Air Force One. White House spokespersons are remaining closed mouthed about the incident. Bush reportedly has stated that he will be conducting an investigation himself and will get to the bottom of it. The incident occurred as he was in route from Washington, DC to the flood ravaged city of New Orleans.

http://grushka.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/13/20951/8887

It doesn't look photoshopped to me.

[stepnw1f]

12. This Could Explain Cheney's Heart Problems

Sorry... I couldn't resist.

:evilgrin:

[DemInDistress]

15. Late Saturday,August 28 The Hurricane Center

described the disaster to the Bush Crime Family and the potential of
New Orleans being flooded.What did the idiot son do? Stayed on vacation he did !! He had an obligation to America that required him to head back to DC and prepare FEMA get them ready for immeadiate re-
lief to the Gulf Coast but no,that fucking scumbag lounged around the
Lazy W Ranch until Tuesday/Wednesday before heading back to DC.First he had to make a couple of fund raisers,guitars and cake while many
drowned.I curse the Bush Clan.I wish misery and hardship will haunt
them forever..BTW,Jeb's son was arrested last night.Breaking laws run
in the Bush Family.

[Wizard777]

18. In true Republican fashion. They are all putting on their flip flops.

Because they only have to out run Bush when the Grizzly Bear goes on the rampage in DC.
:rofl:

[Tesla]

19. They didn't even tell him his shirt was buttoned wrong.

Conspiracy?

[boston bean]

21. LOL He certainly can play the part of an idiot well.

[soleft]

22. I said this two weeks ago

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4550514&mesg_id=4550624

[MissWaverly]

28. I have been thinking this too

not only the guitar incident but the cake episode as well, and I
think that he is used to being managed and would not question what
they asked him to do, after all, he wrote that message to Condi at
the UN about the bathroom break.

[GayCanuck]

23. He's a lame duck

and they must be plotting the next stolen election.

[nevergiveup]

25. Chimpy is not a good "anything"

He isn't a good conservative, he isn't a good neo-con and he certainly is not a good fundamentalist. He isn't bright enough to understand any of this. He is a figure-head who at this point is dangling in the winds of Katrina. The most important photo of all is the one of him looking out the window of Air Force One as it flies over the Gulf. It is the defining moment of his presidency. He will never totally recover.

[hootinholler]

30. How about a fall guy? Pretty good at that.

Kinda like a pet goat.

-Hoot

[Brother Buzz]

26. I think the men behind the curtain are getting ready...

to roll out a new and improved product.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

31. Avoidance of revolution.

People are talking...

The 3% margin of victory is talking to the 8% of his defeat.

[Ikonoklast]

32. The Rethugs up for election in'06

will have to run just as fast as they can away from this disastrous administration. I am sure that they can read the polls and the mood of the nation has turned against them and the lies, thievery, gross incompetence, ballooning debt, intolerance, greed, and war that they now represent.

I can just see it now, "Oh, no, I never supported Preznit Bush. I was just following what my constituents wanted." Won't wash.

[loudsue]

35. The republicans ARE NOT WORRIED!!! Why would they be writing

more criminal legislation (such as the trashing of the election reform), EVERY TIME a bill is starting to get "slipped through" congress. They are doing things right out in public view that are CRIMINAL, IMMORAL, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, and they are doing it without remorse.

Why?

Because they simply don't care! They KNOW they control the election machinery, from the boards of elections to the vote counting machines. They are untouchable.

Republicans ARE NOT WORRIED about 2006 or 2008. Even if they do allow a Democrat to be elected to the presidency, it will ONLY be so that they can blame the downfall of the U.S. economy on a Democrat. They will STILL retain enough seats in the House and/or Senate to keep any democrat from being effective, or from allowing a Democratic majority in both houses....and they will do this KNOWINGLY and DELIBERATELY through the voting mechanisms they have in place.

Until THIS problem (elections), and the problem of media ownership, is address, this country will have to live with a criminal legislature.

What has happened, via republican total rule, is that all the freak-o's are now EMPOWERED by the neoconnazis. It's going to be HELL getting that toothpaste back into the tube. It's going to take a huge revolution that will make the Civil War look like a practice run.

:kick::kick::kick:

[Loge23]

34. I disagree

I don't see any signs of dissension in the ranks.
Cheney was sent to N.O to assess the situation and take action. He did. The idiot "brownie" was fired the next day. Is there any doubt that "big dick" has been leading the charge all along?
Yesterday, the machine attempted to prop up the idiotson once again. From most media accounts, it worked.
Let's face it, we hate this guy and this entire administration and have done so since pre-2000. But nothing will change without significant legal action. If Fitzgerald doesn't return high level indictments (and I'm beginning to loose faith in this also) than we're cooked. The idiotson and his cronies will survive and thrive.
The big problem as I see it is that we still - weeks after Katrina - do not have a formidable alternative.