Let's hope this is the end of treating the POTUS like an entitled king

[susu369]

Perhaps the double horrors of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraqi war will sober this country up and put the media on notice. Cindy Sheehan was on target when she said Bush works for us. The office of the president is actually one of a public servant - the citizens pay the salary. The press has fawned over bu$h as though he is royalty. If a president DOES THE JOB WELL, he/she certainly deserves respect. It has to be earned - from day one.

Reading a recent Evan Thomas' article just highlights the typical idiotic worshiping (he describes the attitudes of the presidential aides but the press is just as guilty):

How Bush Blew It

By Evan Thomas
Newsweek

Sept. 19, 2005 issue - It's a standing joke among the president's top aides: who gets to deliver the bad news? Warm and hearty in public, Bush can be cold and snappish in private, and aides sometimes cringe before the displeasure of the president of the United States, or, as he is known in West Wing jargon, POTUS. The bad news on this early morning, Tuesday, Aug. 30, some 24 hours after Hurricane Katrina had ripped through New Orleans, was that the president would have to cut short his five-week vacation by a couple of days and return to Washington. The president's chief of staff, Andrew Card; his deputy chief of staff, Joe Hagin; his counselor, Dan Bartlett, and his spokesman, Scott McClellan, held a conference call to discuss the question of the president's early return and the delicate task of telling him. Hagin, it was decided, as senior aide on the ground, would do the deed.

The president did not growl this time. He had already decided to return to Washington and hold a meeting of his top advisers on the following day, Wednesday. This would give them a day to get back from their vacations and their staffs to work up some ideas about what to do in the aftermath of the storm. President Bush knew the storm and its consequences had been bad; but he didn't quite realize how bad.

The reality, say several aides who did not wish to be quoted because it might displease the president, did not really sink in until Thursday night. Some White House staffers were watching the evening news and thought the president needed to see the horrific reports coming out of New Orleans. Counselor Bartlett made up a DVD of the newscasts so Bush could see them in their entirety as he flew down to the Gulf Coast the next morning on Air Force One.

--snip--

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9287434/

[IdaBriggs]

1. Oh, Snap! Love it! Ha ha! Nominated & Stomp! nt

[rolleitreks]

2. And let's start by dropping the acronym "POTUS."

The "us" ending is the second declension nominitive singular in Latin, and lends an imperial ring to the office of the president of a republic.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. If EVER the term 'this president' were appropriate

it is in response to this post.

Our country generally **doesn't** treat its presidents as kings. Clinton wasn't. Bush the Smarter wasn't. Even King Ronnie wasn't (although, due to dementia, he was sheltered and coddled). Certainly Carter, Ford, Nixon, and Johnson weren't.

I don't recall Kennedy's being treated like royalty, but, by We The People, he and his family generally were seen as being our Royals. But that was a measure of the man, not at his demand.

Ike, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover ....... not a royal among them.

No ... this issue applies only to 'this president'.

[acmejack]

5. John Adams had pretensions to royalty

He also enacted a host oppressive measures infringing on civil liberties.

[Bob3]

4. Nice to see the news that in private * is a petty little prick

getting out there in the mainstream - so does this go a bit toward confirming those stories of insane temper tantrums that show up from time to on Capitol Hill Blue? (not the most reliable source but very entertaining nonetheless)

[Pepperbelly]

7. I keep hearing that about CHB but ...

have you ever seen anything specific that CHB actually got dead wrong?

I cannot. Perhaps those here who do not like the source would be kind enough to point out some specifics so that the rest of us can scornfully rebuke them as well.

[bballny]

6. displease the president

that is the language of royalty.

[Q]

8. There won't be an end to Bush's 'imperial presidency'...

...until we have an active opposition party.

It doesn't matter if Bush's 'popularity' polls drop to zero. He rules by fiat and he doesn't care what the American people think. He has so many layers of protection and 'plausible deniability' that he has become literally untouchable.

[riverwalker]

9. "but the president....went to bed"

(Monday, after getting a desperate call from the governor asking "for everything you've got")

"There are a number of steps Bush could have taken, short of a full-scale federal takeover, like ordering the military to take over the pitiful and (by now) largely broken emergency communications system throughout the region. But the president, who was in San Diego preparing to give a speech the next day on the war in Iraq, went to bed."

[Bob3]

10. This rings an odd bell - with D-day in 1944

the German commander in France wanted the german Panzer divisions released to his command but they were under the direct control of Hitler. When the commander called he was told that Hitler had taken a sleeping pill and was not to be disturbed. It took several days to get the Panzers on the road (german veterans remember sitting around for days waiting for orders - dear god does that sound familiar) and by then the allies had a secure beach head and any chance the germans had of driving them into the sea (granted slim given the Allies total domination of the air and all those ships with those big guns hanging about) was gone.

[livvy]

11. This is what hit me the most.

After being asked "for everything you've got" the nitwit went to bed. Now wouldn't you think, he'd be even remotely curious as to why she seemed stressed out? If someone called and said all hell was breaking loose somewhere, wouldn't the normal person try to find out more about it? I mean who could go to sleep? Not to mention the fact that it's his damned job! This is not a normal person. I know I'm stating the obvious to everyone here, but there is something seriously wrong with this "man". :grr:

[pushycat]

12. Hitting the bed early

In plain sight, he proceeds to wreck the United States. We PAY his SALARY to do this to us. Nothing his admin has done in the past 5 years has been positive for America and many Americans have died during this time. I hope Q is wrong...

[nookiemonster]

13. I can just see him as a vindictive little prick,

when the cameras aren't pointed at him.

This guy did say that a "dictatorship would be a heck of alot easier"

Any doubt, now?