The win-at-all-costs president -Fineman

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - Here are two stories about young “Georgie” Bush that you may not have heard, but which are worth recounting as he travels the globe as a world leader.

As a boy in Maine, he was the oldest of many cousins, and would set the rules for summer games at the family compound. “If he was losing he’d change the rules – or take the ball and leave,” one cousin told me. Then there was the time when, as a new kid, just up from Texas at his prep school Andover, Bush was tripped and mocked early in an intramural soccer match. He waited for a chance to exact revenge – then blindsided his foe so viciously he nearly broke the boy’s ankle. “He spent that match angling to take me out,” said the Andover alum, now a successful businessman. “And he did.”

I was reminded of these adolescent tales by the recent disclosure of Doug Wead’s surreptitious tapes........

Predictably, commentators poring over this Rosetta Stone have focused on the hieroglyphics about drug use in the Sixties (Bush is a little more candid in private than he was in public) and his careful (but not too public) wooing of evangelicals.
Far more revealing are the glimpses into the combative, even arrogant heart of Bush’s character – and that of the Bush Clan. These are people expert at boarding-school blasé, at hiding a seething need to win behind a veil of bumbling nonchalance.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7017489/

[CBHagman]

1. He sounds vindictive, sadistic, selfish, and highly insecure.

Truly he has one of the ugliest souls it has ever been my displeasure to learn about, at least as far as public figures go.

[PCIntern]

2. Fineman wrote that?

He's even worse than *. He is a sniveling going-with-the-program (or pogrom) arrogant ass who picks now to 'reveal' what we've all known ...forever.

I hate the Press who coddled these guys even more than those "(s)elected" since they have completely abandoned their collective responsibilities and allowed these guys to take over in toto.

[grumpy old fart]

3. Just a sick, sick man...eom

[fooj]

4. Don't forget the brat used to chase his brothers with a loaded BB Gun

...he'd give them a few seconds to run and then he'd chase them and SHOOT them with the BB's! What a dick!

[NYCGirl]

5. Great article. The Democrats often underestimate GWBush, treating him like

a bumbling fool — but he's dangerous.

[blm]

6. Bush is dumb about policy, but, clever & vicious about political strategy.

The media ignored the fact that Bush was a dirty trickster political strategist for MOST OF HIS LIFE.

I have no doubt that he works hand in hand with Rove on ALL the dirty dealings and twisted strategies that are used to manipulate constituencies.

He lets Cheney and Rumsfeld handle the actual policy while he and Rove deal with the best way to manipulate the public into supporting it.

[NYCGirl]

7. I don't think he cares about policy; he's like the student who only gets

good grades in the subjects he likes.

[Supersedeas]

9. wouldn't classify a dumb * cheap shot bully as clever-just a lil

vindictive piss-ant

[blm]

10. Clever, in that he knows exactly who will buy his schtick.

And clever enough to know that twisting the arms and greasing the bank accounts of those who OWN the media is the way to power.

[earth mom]

8. Exactly! * is not dumb, just lazy; he can't be bothered remembering

his countless lies in his speeches and so he makes it up as he goes along which is why he sounds so bumbling and idiotic much of the time. But make no mistake about it-he is as cunning, crafty and mean as they come-and as dangerous as hell!

[karynnj]

11. The reason he could be elected is at the adult level this type of

behavior is rewarded. To some degree, this has become more the case even within the last 30-40 years. How many articles have we all seen lauding Karl Rove's dirty tricks campaign, which disparaging Kerry for not fighting back? Kerry did disprove the charges and give the information to the press, which even 30 years ago would have then published/broadcast it. If the ads were then left up, they and their sponsors would have been lambasted.

Our media preferred the bully to the gentleman.