As this is being written - the "Great One" will be smirking back at us on all three TV-networks. Kind of a Swan Song for Mr. Misunderestimated - aka George W. Bushed.
The networks should tell this pretender to pound sand and take his finger (and the rest of his carcass) back to Tobacco Road! What could Bush possibly invoke on Thursday before the American public to salvage his tattered presidential tenure? Some things are best left unsaid and this is such a time. If George W. had any class he would have left D.C. by now and volunteered for a Mother Theresa soup kitchen in Calcutta, India to redeem what is left of his soul.
Let's just go through the litany of Bush disasters starting in January 2001:
1. Presidential Daily Brief in late January, 2001 - the schedule includes among other things to be discussed - IRAQ - the case for invasion.
2. No Child Left Behind - (or no Child's Behind Left). This is generally conceded to have been a colossal failure in every respect.
3. Tax cuts - (originally intended to be made permanent) for capital gains and for the uber-wealthy. We went from a $300 billion surplus upon Clinton's departure from the Oval Office to an astronomical figure at present - in large part because of these mindless measures.
4. Presidential Daily Brief, dated August 6, 2001 - states that Bin Laden is determined to strike in the U.S. Bush completely ignores this and goes on clearing brush at his Hollywood-set ranch in Crawford, Texas.
5. September 10, 2001 - a message intercepted by the NSA with the code words - ‘The Match Begins Tomorrow’ and ‘Tomorrow Is Zero Hour'. Unfortunately no one was available to translate it from Arabic on September 11, 2001. The NSA claimed that the message was not translated until September 12th.
6. September 11, 2001 - Curious George continues to read "My Pet Goat" at a small elementary school in Florida after getting word that the second tower of the World Trade Center has been attacked.
7. The White House spends all of 2002 sending surrogates (Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Rove, Libby) out on the Rubber-Chicken Circuit to beat the drums of war against Iraq.
8. In late October 2002 Bush rams through his U.N. Resolution for the Authorization of the Use of Force against Iraq. The understanding on this resolution is that it is not to be implemented until FINAL APPROVAL by the U.N. based upon the results of the weapons inspection in Iraq. Unfortunately, Bush had other plans and on March 20, 2003 the invasion of Iraq began.
9. Then there is the State of the Union speech on January 28, 2003 wherein Bush proclaims - in those famous "sixteen words" - that Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy uranium yellowcake from an African nation (Niger) in order to procure a nuclear weapon.
10. Former ambassador Joe Wilson (Valerie Plame's husband) published an op-ed piece in the New York Times on July 6, 2003 rebutting this fallacious claim by pointing out that he had been to Niger and that no such event ever took place.
11. Cheney unleashes the "Dogs of War" - i.e., I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby & Karl Rove against Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame - a non-official cover (NOC) officer on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations. She just happened to be tasked with dealing with Iran and its quest to acquire weapons of mass destruction, i.e. nuclear capability.
12. Valerie Plame's career is torn to shreds, Joe Wilson is pilloried by the Bush White House and the press just does a shrinking violet act.
13. Fast forward to Fall 2004 and Bush & Co. simply eviscerate any potential Democratic voter, especially in Ohio where some 350,000 votes are just plain "lost." Bush's main enforcer, Karl Rove, roams the country and ensures that full-throttled voter suppression is carried out from Coast-to-Coast. Michael Connell, the GOP IT Guru who just died this past December, was Karl Rove's right-hand fixer - just ask fellow GOP IT computer security expert, Stephen Spoonamore.
14. Of course, I can't leave out the Bush Administration's attempt to gut Social Security or its end-run around Medicare (the ill-fated prescription drug bill for senior citizens).
15. One of the worst transgressions on our national honor was Bush's choice to pack the Supreme Court with a bunch of original intent goons - Alito and Roberts. I just can't even work up the energy to include their first names, why bother - they're interchangeable. They both have steel trap minds and would just as well strangle any reasonable interpretation of the Constitution, a document that is supposed to be a living, breathing written instrument as opposed to something carved in stone.
And the price paid for the elevation of these right-wing Nazis was the capitulation by the Democrats not to ever threaten to wage a filibuster again in the future. Basically the Republicans agreed to retain the right of the judicial filibuster of judicial nominees but it was only to be exercised in "extraordinary circumstances". In essence, the Democrats spared this parliamentary weapon from extinction but only if they agreed never to really use it.
16. November 2006 and the Democrats, thanks to Howard Dean, actually cleaned house - literally - by taking back control of the House of Representatives and working to a virtual tie with the Repugs in the Senate. Joe Lieberman did his best to try and push the Dems back over the cliff.
17. In January 2007 Barack Obama is off and running. The next 18-months are a blur as both the Bush Administration and John McCain as its stand-in wage all out war against Democrats - even questioning whether they are really bonafide citizens of this country or some Fifth Column subversive wave of "fellow travelers". Even Obama's own citizenship came into question. Something to do with his birth certificate.
18. Last but not least, on December 14, 2008 Bush is attacked by a shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist while appearing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad. How fitting this turned out to be as the irate journalist called Bush a "Dog" - the vilest insult in the Arabic language.
All's well that ends well. On November 4, 2008 Barack Obama reclaims the country from the Bush Thugocracy and, at least temporarily, gives our nation a badly-needed respite from the Bush nightmare and a chance to recapture its democratic footing.
God, I sure hope so.
Pete/Marin
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