The Last Throes of the Bush Presidency
For an already embattled White House, March 6, 2007 may have officially marked the last throes of the Bush presidency. In court rooms and Congressional hearings, in Iraq and in the polls, the Bush administration was deluged with a torrent of breaking news, all of it bad.
Start with Tuesday's conviction of former Cheney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby on four counts of obstruction and perjury in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. In revelation after revelation, the administration's duplicity in selling its Iraq war was laid bare. And while only one member of the Bush-Cheney team was convicted for a crime, the White House finally paid the price for its "Politics of Payback." Even as Republicans howl about "no underlying crime," the incontrovertible evidence shows that no fewer than three Bush officials (Libby, Rove ad Fleischer) went to the press to smear Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the wake of his July 6, 2003 op-ed on Iraq's non-pursuit of uranium in Niger.
Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee began to peel back the onion on the growing Bush Justice Department scandal involving the politically motivated firings of 8 U.S. prosecutors. Senators heard six of the attorneys tell them under oath of pressure from the White House and Congressional Republicans to pursue -- or not pursue -- a raft of public corruption cases. The hearings cast a pall over Senator Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson for their interference in an investigation of Democratic legislators in New Mexico. Washington Republican Doc Hastings also faces scrutiny for his role in pressing Seattle prosecutor John McKay for action in Washington's 2004 gubernatorial recount. And despite Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' claim in USA Today that this is all merely "an overblown personnel matter," the scandal for the White House is just beginning.
Even as the prosecutors' imbroglio is just starting to simmer, the outrage over the appalling conditions for wounded American servicemen at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is now at a full boil. The disgraceful conditions reported by the Washington Post and the dismissive response of the Army's former head at Walter Reed Lt. General Kevin Kiley undermined the last remaining trump card of the Bush team -- its mantra of "we support the troops." It's no wonder that President Bush and the now radioactive Vice President Cheney spoke out on the scandal to the American Legion and VFW on consecutive days. Needing to compete for public leadership mind share with the Democratic Congress, President Bush begrudgingly named yet another commission.
Sadly for President Bush, the news coming out of Iraq was no better. Even as he praised the initial successes of his surge in Iraq, over 100 Shiite pilgrims were slaughtered in bomb blasts south of Baghad in Hillah. Worse still, nine U.S. soldiers were killed in separate attacks across Iraq on the same day that the Pentagon revealed that Bush's "surge" would actually require 28,000 additional troops, 7,000 more than the White House claimed.
The toll on President Bush's standing was reflected in polls released yesterday as well. A new USA Today/Gallup survey showed that fully 60% of Americans now support a timeline for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, while only 28% say the U.S will win the war. 59% of those asked called the Iraq war a mistake. That survey came just days after a CBS News/New York Times poll put the President approval rating below 30% for the first time.)
For the Bush administration, it is all over except for the shouting. His domestic agenda dead, President Bush can only stubbornly move forward with his debacle in Iraq while threatening to veto Democratic domestic initiatives such as union rights for TSA workers.
A quote from Winston Churchill perhaps best sums up the current end-state of decay of the Bush presidency:
"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
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I noticed that you cross-post at Daily Kos. Would you be interested in doing so at Diatribune as well? We would love to have you there. I love the Avenging Angel handle BTW
Posted by diatribune on March 7, 2007 12:49 PM