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POPSThe Bush Tragedy Jacob Weisberg uncovers the twisted, storied (and thoroughly American) histories behind the pedigreed, genteel Bush and the brash, opulent Walker clans, whose 1921 marriage-merger generated unparalleled political fame and fortune, producing an "exploding blob" of successful, well-heeled, multi-named white men—culminating, of course, in the 41st and 43rd presidents of the United States. A product of his Ivy League upbringing, academic and corporate shortcomings, and unseemly familial wranglings, Weisberg traces the root cause of W.'s presidential failings to his life-long jealousy of his father's successes and petulant opposition to everything the reserved, prudent, self-deprecating patriarch represented. It's a fascinating character study as well as a sad tale of hubris, backstabbing, and inescapable downfall, magnified by his position as leader of the free world.
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POPSWhy America Will Survive George W. Bush Otto von Bismarck saw how American blunders led to American power and allegedly said that God has a special providence for drunks, fools, and the United States of America. Walter Russell Mead (of the Council on Foreign Relations) puts Bush's 8-year stint in the White House into proper perspective. America's foreign policy has been short-sighted and often self-defeating from the get-go, alternately collaborative, passive, and interventionist. And, yet, miraculously, we always come out ahead. With the unstoppable rise of a global capitalist economy, Mead makes the case that America, for all its past and current faults, will continue to be the inevitable leader of this new international buoyancy. Not even our latest mistakes (unprecedented though they may be) can derail such a powerful incentive that is the modern American world trade system. Which means, more than ever, we're literally all in this together.
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POPSGonzales's Truthfulness Long Disputed What a sad spectacle it all is. Questions about Gonzales's willingness to shade the truth on Bush's behalf came to prominence in the 1996 episode in which Bush was excused from Texas jury duty in a drunken-driving case. Bush was then the state's governor, and Gonzales was his general counsel. If Bush had served, he probably would have had to disclose his own drunken-driving conviction in Maine two decades earlier.
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POPSBush Seeks Answers for Own Presidency For all the talk of his clueless-ness, it's revealed that Bush, the former apotheosis of privileged irresponsibility, is desperately aware of the fateful legacy he has wrought, seeking vindication in unwritten future histories. Yet, for reasons deeply personal (not political) Bush cannot allow himself to own up to his mistakes, for fear the entire facade of capability will come down. Thus, as he shuts his eyes ever tighter, our leader's personal tragedy becomes our own. "Our members just wish this thing would be over," said a senior House Republican who met with Bush recently. "People are tired of him." Bush's circle remains sealed tight, the lawmaker said. "There's nobody there who can stand up to him and tell him, 'Mr. President, you've got to do this. You're wrong on this.' There's no adult supervision. It's like he's oblivious. Maybe that's a defense mechanism."
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POPSA Tragic Legacy And the president who vowed to lead the war for freedom and democracy has made torture, rendition, abductions, lawless detentions of even our own citizens, secret "black site" prisons, Abu Ghraib dog leashes, and orange Guantánamo jumpsuits the strange, new symbols of America around the world. New essay by Glenn Greenwald on the future legacy of America's reaction to 9/11.
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POPSWhere Were Vocal Conservatives When It Mattered? Rod Dreher is a conservative writer for Beliefnet. Few of us stood up to Bush when he took us to this disastrous war in Iraq. Few, if any, stood up to him over his foolish support for Rumsfeld, long after it became obvious what a disaster Rumsfeld was. Few, if any, stood up to him over his amassing of power in the executive branch. Few, if any, stood up to him on the spending....
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POPSFormer Powell Aide: Bush, Cheney Guilty of 'High Crimes' Wow. "I do believe that they would have thought had they been asked by you or whomever at the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 'Do you think this will be exercised?' they would have said 'Of course it will, every generation they'll have to throw some bastard out.'"Wilkerson said. "That's a form of accountability too. It's ultimate accountability."
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POPS An Easter Sermon on Viral Marketing By the inimitable Robert Wright. The ultimate in viral marketing was Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. Deemed a threat to the social order, he was crucified under Roman auspices. But the Romans forgot one thing: If you face a small but growing movement that threatens the imperial order, you shouldn’t attack the men in ways that help the memes.
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POPSClosest GOP Insider Yet Comes Out Against Bush, Cheney GOP insider Vic Gold doesn't let his longtime friendship with the Bushes and the Cheneys stop him from cataloging the permanent damage the White House has done to the reputation of the GOP — and America. Under Bush and Cheney, he argues, the GOP has moved away from principles of small government, prudent foreign policy and leaving people alone to live their private lives — all views Gold associates with his hero, Goldwater. I'll add that to read about the distressing political and personal position Bush Jr. has placed his aging father in because of his actions is downright painful. (Via Andrew Sullivan).
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POPSNegroponte to Resign from Intelligence Chief Role That didn't last long. The administration has had great difficulty filling the State Department position. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has asked several people who have turned down the post, according to senior State Department officials. But administration officials interviewed on Wednesday would not say whether Mr. Negroponte was moving because the White House saw him as uniquely qualified for the diplomatic post, or because President Bush was dissatisfied with his performance as intelligence chief, or whether it was a combination of the two.
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POPS Bush 'happy' for pregnant Mary Cheney White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush stood by his belief about a mother and father but also believes that "every human life is sacred and that every child that comes into this world deserves love and he believes that Mary Cheney's child will in fact have loving parents."
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POPSLeaked White House Memo Questions Maliki's Competency “We returned from Iraq convinced we need to determine if Prime Minister Maliki is both willing and able to rise above the sectarian agendas being promoted by others,” the memo says. “Do we and Prime Minister Maliki share the same vision for Iraq? If so, is he able to curb those who seek Shia hegemony or the reassertion of Sunni power? The answers to these questions are key in determining whether we have the right strategy in Iraq.”
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POPSIs a damaged Administration less likely to attack Iran, or more? Must-read, in-depth article from Seymour Hersh on the lengthy lead-up to Rumsfeld's ouster (he was kept in the dark until the end!), what the new leadership of Secretary of Defense Gates might signal, the dwindling options Rumsfeld's war has left us in Iraq, and the renewed neoconservative clamor to invade Iran to make up for the loss in Iraq. (Double down on Tehran.) The Pentagon consultant said that he and many of his colleagues in the military believe that Iran is intent on developing nuclear-weapons capability. But he added that the Bush Administration’s options for dealing with that threat are diminished, because of a lack of good intelligence and also because "we’ve cried wolf" before.
5
POPSProminent conservative surveys the wreckage of contemporary conservatism The entire article is highly reccommended for those that want to trace the GOP's post-9/11 "stumble into neoconservatism" from an insider's perspective. Bramwell's honesty and way with words are refreshing. Until recently, it has been almost impossible for me to speak candidly about the conservative movement, for it was my strange fate to serve as director and later trustee of the movement’s flagship journal, National Review. Earlier this year, at William F. Buckley’s request, I resigned both positions. I can therefore now declare what perhaps has oft been thought but never, at least not often enough, expressed. Notwithstanding conservatives’ belief that they, in contrast to their partisan opponents, have thought deeply about the challenges facing the United States, it is they who have become unserious.
13
POPSU.N. Ambassador Bolton to be Let Go Newsmax confirms : "This nomination is dead and we have known it for several days," a source close to the U.S. mission to the U.N. tells NewsMax. "We just don't know what the White House wants to do next," the source added.
5
POPSThe God That Never Failed (Book Review) Interesting review of Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction , David Kuo's wide-eyed, first-hand disillusionment with the Bush Administration's cynical exploitation of faith-based initiatives for political purposes.
11
POPSAmerican Conservative Magazine: GOP Must Go There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our country’s reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seen—in Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala Lumpur—as a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.
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POPSRemember: Saddam Was Our Man NY Times OpEd from March 14, 2003. The United States also sent arms to the new regime, weapons later used against the same Kurdish insurgents the United States had backed against Kassem and then abandoned. Soon, Western corporations like Mobil, Bechtel and British Petroleum were doing business with Baghdad -- for American firms, their first major involvement in Iraq. This history is known to many in the Middle East and Europe, though few Americans are acquainted with it, much less understand it. Yet these interventions help explain why United States policy is viewed with some cynicism abroad. George W. Bush is not the first American president to seek regime change in Iraq. Mr. Bush and his advisers are following a familiar pattern.
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POPSWho's Planning to Vote for Whom Fifty percent of independent voters, a closely watched segment of the electorate in such polarized times, said they intended to vote for the Democratic candidate, versus 23 who said they would vote for a Republican.
4
POPSEvangelicals betrayed by Bush administration: Farah Farah is the founder and editorial voice of the very influential conservative Christian website, WorldNetDaily. This is the face of the Republican Party establishment. It's the reason Democrats are likely to sweep into power in a few short weeks. It's an illustration of the double talk we get from the Bush administration. It's confirmation that we who actually believe in that Bible have nowhere to turn politically in this country – at least in terms of voting options. Remember what I told you on the evening of Nov. 7. Don't blame me for the Republican debacle to come. Blame the people who brought it to you – the people in power.
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POPSIraq like Vietnam, says Bush Asked whether he agreed with Friedman's summary , Bush said, "He could be right. ... There's certainly a stepped-up level of violence, and we're heading into an election."
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POPSVoters' Approval of Congress Falls To 16%, Lowest Point in 12 Years More bad news for conservatives. Three new records were set with today's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. 16 percent! The latest results set other records, also to Republicans' disadvantage: Fully two-thirds of the electorate rates this year's Congress "below average" or "one of the worst" -- the poorest showing on that question since it was first asked in 1990. As for the Republican Party, 32% of voters rate it positively and 49% negatively -- the highest negative ever for either party in the surveys. The Democratic Party, after months in which it also had a net negative rating only slightly better than the Republican Party's, now is viewed positively by 37% and negatively by 35%.
7
POPSTop Republican Senator Calls for Change in Iraq Strategy His comments underscored the growing misgivings of even senior Republicans about the situation in Iraq. They also appeared to be a warning to the Bush administration that it might have to consider different approaches after the November midterm elections.
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POPSPoll: Foley Sex Scandal Has Hurt GOP Election Prospects Iraq, meanwhile, is continuing to be a problem for the Republicans. Only 38% of respondents in the TIME poll now support President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, down from 42% three months ago. A similar number believe that the new Iraqi government will succeed in forming a stable democracy, while 59% believe this is unlikely. Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents disapprove of President Bush's handling of the war, while 54% believe he "deliberately misled" Americans in making his case for war — a figure that has increased by 6 points over the past year. President Bush's overall approval rating, according to TIME's poll, now stands at just 36%, down from 38% in August.
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POPSA Portrait of Bush as a Victim of His Own Certitude (Book Review) The New York Times with what promises to be only the first in many reviews of Bob Woodward's highly anticiapted new book, State of Denial . The writer said that when Bush invited key Republicans to the White House to discuss Iraq, the president told them, 'I will not withdraw even if Laura and Barney are the only ones supporting me,"' referring to his wife and Scottish terrier.
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POPSWhite House Web Site Promotes Woodward's Book on Bush Administration... ...in 2004, that is. That book was Plan of Attack and the White House liked Pulitzer-Prize-winning author, Woodward, so much that they put a link to buy it on their '04 campaign website. Not just anywhere but at the very top of the "Suggested Reading List." George Bush supports Woodward and wants you to support him too! (The White House has since removed this info so I clipped the archived version for posterity, as well as a short Newsmax press release.)
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POPSThe Sleepwalkers: September 11 Stunted America's Political Growth A nicely written piece attempting to explain America's internal political currents before, during, and after 9/11. (Free registration required for full text.) Bush was more of an isolationist, and he had criticized America's recent involvement in peacekeeping missions, scorning the very idea of "nation-building." And, in this, he was perhaps closer to the emerging America than Clinton was--an America at peace with modern culture and modern capitalism, self-satisfied, and without large global ambitions.
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POPSNot So Clean Break - Taki (American Conservative) The Bush doctrine of creating democracy in the Middle East with bombs will go down in history as the cruelest and craziest ever. A war on terror, as Bush calls everything he doesn’t agree with, cannot be won by a democratically elected government acting like a terrorist organization. Killing civilians, especially children, is wrong.
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POPSUS Army: "No good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices" Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, the Army deputy chief of staff for intelligence, said these words last Wednesday at the Pentagon while presenting the new Geneva-abiding Army field manual on interrogation practices. Ironically, almost at the exact same time in Washington, the US President was trying out a new angle to convince the American public of the need to torture enemies. Talk about raining on Bush's parade....
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POPSThe Central Truth (Thomas Friedman - NY Times) And then, the conundrum on everyone's mind: It truly, truly baffles me why a president who bet so much of his legacy on this project never gave it his best shot and tolerated so much incompetence. He summoned us to D-Day and gave us the moral equivalent of the invasion of Panama. ( Published Sept. 8, 2006.)
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POPSWar Turns Southern Women Away From GOP Voters like Knight could prove to be spoilers. The 66-year-old real estate agent doesn't particularly like Marshall, a hawkish Democrat and former Army Ranger, but she said she'll vote for him because she likes his conservative Republican opponent, former Rep. Mac Collins, even less.
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POPSBush's Secret: "I like to keep expectations low" (Video) From the heart of ravaged New Orleans comes the most awkward, revealing interview with Bush you have ever seen. That uncomfortable feeling you might get watching Bush squirm under Williams' unflinching questions might be the recognition that this is the man who not only has been leading the free world for 6 years but will continue to steer us into uncharted territory for the next 2 years as well. Williams seems visibly disappointed with Bush's superficiality on all matters. At least we get the answer to the Camus question. What deep-thinking Yale grad who has read "three Shakespeares" wouldn't delve into classic French existentialism too? His reading habits are truly "ekilectic". :(
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POPSFitzpatrick (R-PA): Another GOP Candidate Throws Bush Under the Bus! This is the front page of a direct mailing flyer sent out to Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick's contituents in Philly. It says: "America needs a new plan for success in Iraq." ... Congressman Fitzpatrick says NO to both extremes: "NO TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S 'STAY THE COURSE' STRATEGY.... "AND NO TO PATRICK MURPHY'S 'CUT AND RUN' APPROACH." How many more Republicans will dare to break ranks with Bush/Cheney in the lead up to elections?
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