Bush Inner Circle: “It was an ungracious inaugural. It was pretty clear he was taking shots.”

[kpete]

On Plane to Texas, Critiques of the Speech
By PETER BAKER
Published: January 22, 2009

...............

“There were a few sharp elbows that really rankled and I felt were not as magnanimous as the occasion called for,” Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush confidante, said in an interview. “He really missed an opportunity to be as big as the occasion was and, frankly, as gracious as President Bush was as he left office.”

Dan Bartlett, another top adviser, used similar language. “It was a missed opportunity to bring some of the president’s loyal supporters into the fold,” he said. Marc A. Thiessen, the chief White House speechwriter until this week, added: “It was an ungracious inaugural. It was pretty clear he was taking shots.”

..................

Karl Rove wrote in The Wall Street Journal that as his former boss departed, “in a last angry frenzy his critics again distorted his record, maligned his character and repeated untruths about his years in the Oval Office.” Mr. Rove said Mr. Bush had cut taxes, expanded Medicare, improved schools, liberated Iraq and protected the country.

“He didn’t get everything right — no president does — but he got the most important things right,” Mr. Rove wrote.

more at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/us/politics/22web-baker.html?_r=1

[DS1]

1. Stick a bowling pin up your ass Karen Hughes

You don't deserve a second of graciousness, and neither does Bush. Fuck both of yourselves, you rotten stinking pieces of shit.

[JohnnyBoots]

28. Karen Hughes and Dana Perino just started working for Mark Penn's group......color me not surprised.

[ProgressiveFool]

49. perfect answer, nothing to add /nt

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Whine." - Commander AWOL & Chickehawk Republicon Fascist Pharisees

"After all the Love, Light, Prosperity, & elite Wide-Stance Family Values we brought into the world. How dare Obama speak the truth. The noive."

- Commander AWOL & Chickenhawk Republicon Fascist FAIL Pharisees

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

3. Too. Fucking. Bad.

[Jeanette in FL]

18. You took my exact reply

Too. Fucking. Bad.

I loved the part where Bartlet says it was a missed opportunity to get some of Bush's loyal supportist into the fold. Good grief.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. * took the concept of "ingraciousness" to an art form.

Probably more pissed off that they think Obama stole his act in their eyes.

[DCKit]

34. Sheeit. Obama is "Hamlet" compared to *'s "Omlette". Stole his act, my ass. n/t

[ebdarcy]

5. Oh cry me a fucking river.

Assholes.

[Beetwasher]

6. WAHHHHHHHHHHHH! ! ! !

[kentuck]

7. All of the above were accomplices in the crimes and coverups...

Why would they not say such things? Personally, I think President Obama and others were much too kind to Mr Bush. Do not spy on us, torture prisoners in our name, bankrupt our country, devastate everything, and then tell us that we should be more "gracious". Go to hell, you assholes!

[Johonny]

13. Yeah I think it's clear he was gracious

They should of heard what he could have said about them had he not felt constrained by the moment.

[Vinnie From Indy]

8. Gee, I guess we should all be more grateful for 8 years of lies and rampant criminal behavior

I find it hard to be grateful for losing my job and watching my 401k go up in flames while we fight a senseless war costing a billion dollars a week.

[Orrex]

9. I was hoping that he'd do the old handshake-fake to Bush, or at least smash a pie in his face

But now that I think of it, they're right! It is ungracious to refer obliquely to a near-decade of criminal behavior and abuse of the Constitution.

[Ishoutandscream2]

10. Dan Bartlett. From my hometown. Graduated HS with my brother

If I see him, I'll make sure to give an earful to the son of a bitch. I guess those assholes don't remember 2004 and a very "gracious" Bush strutting his stuff and talking about "earning political capital and spending it." Fuck all of them. Everything was in good taste, and no one was pointing fingers. Even Obama thanked Dubya for his service.

What the hell do these bastards want? Are they mad because no one kissed their Fuhrer's ring? Seriously, they can all go to hell. Unbelievable!

[Marr]

11. Seriously, who would *want* to 'bring Bush's loyal supporters into the fold'?

They are, almost by definition, either stupid or completely corrupt.

[drmeow]

20. Exactly my thoughts

I read this "to bring some of the president’s loyal supporters into the fold" and thought, "F**K Bush's most loyal supporters - by being his most loyal supporters they become, by definition, traitors to this country."

Obama was amazingly restrained.

[ProfessorGAC]

39. Hmmm! Incomptents Or Crooks? Which One Should We Pick?

You nailed it. Who wants them and who needs them?
GAC

[Missy Vixen]

12. Hey, Ms. Hughes, there's nothing that can adequately describe Barack Obama's magnanimity

in this situation. Let's face it, he could have had your dream date arrested for war crimes, couldn't he?

>“There were a few sharp elbows that really rankled and I felt were not as magnanimous as the occasion called for,” Karen Hughes, a longtime Bush confidante, said in an interview. “He really missed an opportunity to be as big as the occasion was and, frankly, as gracious as President Bush was as he left office.”

"Sharp elbows", huh, Karen? You've seen nothing yet. Eighty percent of the citizens of the United States repudiates his Presidency, and is ashamed of his behavior in our name. I can only hope that those of you who continue to stick by him are as marginalized as he is in the coming years.

Julie

[Libertyfirst]

14. Obama should lie to make * feel good. No Thanks.

[Puglover]

My favorite line that someone said was

"the only disappointing thing about the inaugural speech was that Obama didn't WHIRL around, point at Bush and cry "you're under arrest!". :)

[northernlights]

15. if reassuring Americans

that our long, national nightmare of criminal behavior by government toward us, and toward others in our name and on our dime, is at long last over is ungracious, than I'm all for it.

And exactly how was it gracious of * to sign dozens of last-minute hellish, unwanted executive orders, giving the ELECTED President even more undoing paperwork? Not to mention mrs. * inventing stupid nonreasons to prevent the ELECTED president's arrival at Blair House in time for his children to start at their new school?

[bdamomma]

16. living in total denial

is a bitch isn't it? Stupid jerks get lost.

[BlueMTexpat]

17. Interesting snippet by Bartlett.

Why on earth would Obama WANT to bring in Bush's diehard "loyal supporters?" If they haven't figured out how much of a screw-up their guy was by now, they've either been living on a different planet or they are so willfully ignorant that they are criminally incompetent.

And just WHY is lower-than-pondscum Karl Rove given space in any reputable newspaper? Of course, I use the term *reputable" advisedly in connection with the WSJ.

:puke:

[G_j]

19. To Hughes, Bartlett and Rove:

go fuck yourselves!

[Solly Mack]

21. Please be nice to the war criminal...snicker

[Epiphany4z]

22. hmmm maybe its just a tad hard to be gracious

for spending the last 8 yrs being told if your on the left you are a terroist sympathiser....hey I know being spied on and/or tortured always makes people graciouse...looting the treasury...crapping on the environment?..outing a CIA agent..no child left behind...rolling back civil right....it might just me ..but I find it hard to be gracious in the face of all that.

ugggg they are so beyond denial.....

[AndyA]

23. George Bush's record speaks for itself.

And nothing Karen Hughes, Dan Bartlett, or Karl Rove say or write will change that.

Unemployment is way up.

Job growth is nil.

The deficit is through the roof.

Bush left us with an illegal war.

Bush left us with a recession, or possibly a depression.

People are losing their homes.

People can't get loans, even if they can afford the payments.

Consumer confidence is at an all time low.

Businesses are closing their doors at an unprecedented rate.

The fact that Bushies expected a grand send off for there accomplishments proves just how idiotic they truly are. Bush deserves no respect from the American people, because he earned none. Bush is a disgrace to America.

And now we find out his ILLEGAL spying program was much more widespread and invasive than we first thought. And that's only the tip of the iceberg.

Frankly, I think the treatment he received was far better than he deserved.

[county worker]

24. stop the spin bullshit

"Bush had cut taxes"

For the top 1% of tax payers

expanded Medicare

Largest entitlement increase and still there is the donut hole that hits seniors where it hurts, no drugs from foreign countries, created new middlemen that increases the cost of drugs,


improved schools,

No Child Left Behind is a complete failure, teachers don't want to teach to tests only



liberated Iraq

Increased the number if deaths to hundreds of thousands and the war goes on with no end in sight


protected the country

Pure bullshit! Just because there was no attack you can't take credit for it not happening. There are any number of reasons why terrorists didn't attack us again.

[road2000]

25. An example of Mr. Hughes's graciousness:

"Every time, Governor Bush won," squawked the toady, in full knowledge that Florida machine recounts would of course come up with similar numbers each time. Baker was peddling the same horseshit line to convince the public Gore was somehow a sleazebag for requesting a recount.

Yep. Really gracious.

I'm very proud of President Obama for the classy, gentle, way in which he called attention to the most egregious bursts of the eight-year shitstorm. Dumbass only looked dopey. Poppy got it, though.

[HillWilliam]

48. "Dumbass only looked dopey"

You should have seen it the way I did. I have an HD projector that throws an 8' image, sharp as a tack on the wall. (It'll go to 25' but my living room isn't that big.) The one shot of * looked like his arse just bit a chunk out the seat cushion.

It was priceless.

* knew he couldn't cut up. He was wrestling mightily with his face; he knew every camera in the world was on his azz and billions of people were watching. He didn't have the mic and couldn't get hold of it. He knew he wouldn't have a mic the rest of the afternoon.

Oh, that last chopper ride must have been a piece of work. I bet they had to strap his narrow azz down to keep him from chewing the armrests off the seats.

Good.

Now the little monkey knows just how we've felt for the last eight years.

Gracious? I'm not feelin' it. Every time we've extended the 'cons an olive branch, they've snatched it out of our hands and beat us with it.

Fuck 'em.

The only thing I want to extend to them now is some arrest warrants. Maybe a baseball bat.

Graciousness? Not so much. They took our graciousness a long, long, long time ago and wiped their ample arses with it.

I'm fresh out. Now they get back what they've doled out.

[Dhalgren]

26. The only strike I can see against the Obama administration

vis-a-vis the Bush administration will be if the majority of the latter does not end up in federal prison...

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

27. "longtime bush confidante" = nobody gives a fuck what you have to say n/t

[SidDithers]

29. Gracious? Like lying about White House keyboards...

and missing silverware?

Sid

Edit: Good Salon story about how "gracious" the incoming Bushes were http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/05/23/vandals/print.html

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. As gracious as these idiots were when they invented the "trashed White House" story on Clinton

Dear Bushista LOSERS: Fuck all y'all.

[DCKit]

31. What's the point in winning if you can't hand back some off their own medicine.

Republics - Sore losers and even poorer winners.

[Bucky]

32. Criticizing failed policy is not "taking shots". It's step #1 in fixing problems

I'm so sorry that pointing out the truth about the messes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Wall Street, Main Street, New Orleans, and Guantanamo Bay hurts the feelings of those who allowed these messes to occur. But we can't ignore the problem just because it's upsetting to some if we confront them head on.

Or, as Harry once said, if you can't take the heat stay out of the kitchen.

[truebrit71]

33. Like we should give a shit what those three treasonous bastards think...

...they are so completely full of shit that their eyes are brown..

[RobinA]

35. It's a Little Hard

to be gracious about torture, total ignorance, and letting NOLA drown.

[IdaBriggs]

36. Yeah! They got it! Lots of shots to take!

And we all hate 'em! Back of the hand, indeed -- I'm still voting for handcuffs!

[Lex]

37. 22% approval upon leaving office.

Who cares what Bush or any of his cabal think?

[agentS]

40. Damn straight

The Bushies got their feelings hurt? Too bad. 1+million dead bodies are the result of the Bush Admin- why don't they cry over that?!

[Ganja Ninja]

38. The Republican Party has become a party of whiners. n/t

[Fireweed247]

41. I knew he was drinking again!

:rofl:

[Fire1]

42. I know somebody has already uttered these sentiments somewhere

on this thread (don't have time to read through them,) but let me reiterate, Karl Rove, YOU LYING PIECE OF SHIT!!!

[gollygee]

43. He missed an opportunity to be "as gracious as President Bush"

HAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah, right. The model of grace and civility.

[Iggo]

44. Tough shit, fuckers.

No one got tortured. No one got killed.

Peaceful overthrow of the government.

Consider yourselves lucky we don't do it old-school.

[EFerrari]

45. He wasn't taken off the stage in handcuffs which was too gracious for me. n/t

[City Lights]

46. Get the fuck over it, georgie and fiends! nt

[InvisibleTouch]

47. LOL! I think he was "gracious" enough when he started out...

...by thanking Dubya for his "service to the country." I about gagged on that one - though I realized it was just a formality and a politeness, so I wasn't genuinely offended. It's more than the Bushies deserve, and they should be happy with that much.

(edit: spelling) And: It's so nice to see a Democrat who doesn't feel compelled to pull punches, to softsoap and whitewash for fear of looking "bitter" or "mean" or what-have you. He still tells it like it is in a calm and polite way, not backing down from the truth. There's a difference between stating a fact and making a personal attack, and Obama sticks to the former, while the Bushies specialized in the latter to bully and manipulate. The cowards can't take it when they're faced with someone who won't dance to their tune.

[BurtWorm]

50. To Bush's loyal supporters from those of us in the fold: Adios, amigos!

:hi:

[BuelahWitch]

51. .

[DevonRex]

52. They've got a lot of nerve talking about "ungracious." nt

[EFerrari]

54. No kidding, after inconveniencing the first family for no reason

except their clessless (sic) pettiness.

[kenny blankenship]

53. My take: Obama doesn't have time to be nice

His inaugural address was more or less a stump speech on the theme of why we have to throw these bums out. He could write a humdinger of an Inaugural Address full of the lofty rhetoric and nationalist poetics that inaugurals are typified by. But this is an emergency and there simply isn't time for purple mountains majesty and let the eagle soar. So Obama's address was more like a list of things he planned to change and things he would have to fix, spoken with harsh judgment for the character of the people who made this terrible mess. The failures of the outgoing bunch sitting off to the side were pinned down and dissected. They failed on this, this, and this count because they were invariably coming from the wrong place with the wrong principles. And here's how we're going to fix their broken shit in the name of America's best traditions and principles. It could be uncomfortable to watch even if you hate Bush and Cheney because Inaugural speeches usually don't feature detailed fault-finding. It was uncomfortable because the failed Emperor was sitting right there and in 8 awful years no one had been able or had dared to confront him with his failures face to face and say "Everything you touch turns to shit! You are a naked failing fuck-up!". Never once in 8 years had Bush been told the truth about himself, until that Iraqi gentleman stated it for us so eloquently with his shoe.

And because most Americans had also never heard the plain truth about the Bush Administration spoken in public before, and because we will now have to paddle for our lives all together in the direction opposite the one Bush took us, Obama just couldn't be nice. He had to make it plain from the first hour that radical changes were upon us, and there was not a moment to lose in implementing the new policies.

[mitchum]

55. Shouldn't "Bush Inner Circle" actually be "Un-indicted Co conspirators"?