Time's Joe Klein questions whether Bush has lost control of WH

[dutchdemocrat]

Bushco is coming apart at the seams... it seems.

------------------------

Dick Cheney, Hard-Liner in Chief
Turf wars, temper tantrums, mysterious leaks—has Bush lost control of his own government?


Saturday, Oct. 11, 2003
George W. Bush gave yet another speech last week defending his Administration's war in Iraq. Actually, it was the same Old speech—the same Western aw-shucks-isms ("We're on the hunt"), the same complexities avoided. The President is beginning to sound pretty defensive—with good reason: he's been playing defense since July. As he said last week, "Wars are won on the offensive." So are second terms.

The President's rut reflects a gathering dysfunction in his Adminis- tration. The White House seems paralyzed, unable to stanch the political, diplomatic and actual bleeding over Iraq. There are turf wars everywhere. The CIA is at war with the White House; the Pentagon is at war with the Staate Department and the National Security Council (nsc); some elements of the uniformed military are furious with the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, partly for launching the attack against Iraq in the first place without enough allied support. The fault lines are largely between moderate diplomatic and military traditionalists and more aggressive neoconservatives and nationalists.

The Administration's exposure of a covert CIA operative, Valerie Plame, was unprecedented, but at last week's Cabinet meeting, the President shrugged and said he didn't think the leaker would be caught. His apparent nonchalance is outrageous. Plame was integral to the CIA's effort to suss out the movement of weapons of mass destruction—ground zero in the war on terror.

http://www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,517704,00.html

[Sinistrous]

1. Perhaps the "drip, drip ,drip" we have been describing here on DU

is becoming a drizzle?

I agree with Kline's assessment of *'s nonchalance re: the Plame affair: it is certainly outrageous, and given the * demeanor, possibly indicative of complicity.

Edited to add:
Returning to my darker worldview: Is this the beginning of a movement to grease the skids under Cheney and change the Retrog ticket for 2004 to make it more electable? After all, in this regime, everything is all about power.

[KG]

2. this assumes the chimp ever had control.

really, anyone with a working brain knows the moron-in-cheif doesn't have the mental capacity to think farther than his next PB&J sammich. the global and long term implications of what he has done is something he can't be bothered to comprehend.

cheney is the real power in the WH and that evil, lying bastard is dying of a heart condition, his physical and mental abilities impaired.

the rest of the maniacs that make up this adminstration have personal agendas that trump even their politcal ones.

no wonder there's diarray in the WH, you can bet it started the first day the shitheads moved in.

because lets face it, what is best for this country is last thing on the minds of most of the those assholes.

[goldilox369]

3. it's times like these

that i start singing "the egg" in my head. (from the musical 1776)
i'm waiting for the chirp, chirp, chirp of an eaglet being born...
I hope America can rebirth itself into a new glory.

[pretzel4gore]

6. the bald faced lies!

remember the 'clinton vandalism' story pushed by ari fleecer? just read franken's book and .....feel so hopeless. goddam bush inc never had a mandate, and they destroyed a century worth of over overcoming injustice....for nothing but the transient pleasure of gloating over the damage they did.
crooks, petty ones

[Noordam]

4. And more telling is that some Dem Senate seats are

are NOT being contested as of now.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=162779

[shockingelk]

5. I'm feeling a twinge of schadenfreude n/t