Much was said about how badly 2005 went for President Bush, but history doesn’t bode well for 2006. USA Today noted Monday that it “was in the sixth year of their presidencies that Bill Clinton was impeached and Richard Nixon was forced to resign, that Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower faced the worst scandals of their tenures and that Franklin Roosevelt encountered increased resistance to New Deal legislation.” Then again, as Bush media adviser Mark McKinnon said in the same story, “This president has a real pattern of defying conventional wisdom.” And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted Sunday that Bush will “continue to shape history” this year and beyond. “I don’t think he’ll be a lame duck until the last day — when he waves goodbye after the inaugural of the new president,” he said.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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23 Comments
Forget conventional. This president has a real pattern of defying wisdom, period.
“This president has a real pattern of defying conventional wisdom.”
Boy, ain’t that the truth. Who would have thought that someone who wasn’t actually ELECTED in 2000 could have lasted this long?
But the stage is set for a major meltdown–let’s list them, shall we?
1. Big-time Republican and flamboyant gaylifestyle liver Jack Abramoff is cooperating in plea bargains to save his sorry ass–who will he implicate?
2. Enron was part of Bush’s long time Texas power base. W. gave a special nickname to CEO “Kenny Boy” Lay for his long-time support. Looks like Kenny Boy is finally going to get some of the shafting he gave his customers and shareholders, thanks to white-collar criminals whose venality is only exceeded by their cowardice.
3. Dr. Bill Frist, Senate majority leader. Turns out his blind trust was perfectly 20/20 and so was Frist’s conflict of interest.
4. House Majority Tom “The Hammer” DeLay has to change his nickname to “The Hammered”–turns out he skirted Texas law forbidding corporations from huge contributions for candidates by having the RNC collect the money and just turn around and give the money to DeLay.
5. The Downing Street Memos. Unlike American media, the British haven’t been totally neutered yet. British press documented exactly what any thinking person could see for himself when BushCo. was building their ridiculous case for a “pre-emptive attack” on Iraq to protect Americans.
Downing Street Memos prove that all the good evidence showing that Iraq had no WMD’s and that Saddam was not a threat was supressed, ignored, and that only bad “evidence” supporting an already agreed upon conclusion (for invasion) was permitted.
This by itself is grounds for impeachment. Lying the public into an unnecessary war–what could be worse than that?
But wait, there’s more.
6. The disaster of the Katrina disaster. That’s what you get when you put unqualified cronies in positions of responsiblity–massive screw-ups and dead Americans. We all got an object lesson in why we NEED government.
7. Valerie Plame. This covert CIA operative working on WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION (no less) had her cover blown and her whole operation and all its contacts willfully destroyed by BushCo appartchiks bent of revenging her husband’s truth-telling. The choir-boy federal prosecutor Fitzgerald has already indicted Cheney’s chief of staff and is re-convening the Grand Jury.
This too is an impeachable offense because the administration broke the law they swore to uphold.
8. Illegal wire-taps on American citizens in violation of the “unreasonable search and seizure” clause of the fourth Amendment.
This is clearly an impeachable offense since the president’s oath charges that he “uphold and defend the Constitution.”
I’m not a lawyer, but I’m pretty sure that violating what the Constitution says is not “upholding” it.
*****
The conservatives couldn’t contain their urine for joy when W. finessed the 2000 election system.
But as Oscar Wilde observed so poignantly, “when the gods wish to punish us, they give us what we want.”
Proud, It’s not that I disagree whith what you’re saying. It’s just that we’ve become so used to Bush’s performance. The answer to any of your points could be, “what do you expect?” Oh sure, there’s going to be a lot of noise, but nothing is going to be done about it. Unless Democrats pick up 6 seats in the Senate (and don’t loose any), It’s 3 more years of the business of politics as usual. Personally, I don’t see Democrats picking up 6 more seats.
You don’t see Dems picking up 6 seats? Well, that’s because 2006 isn’t over yet, heh.
Remember Saddam’s statue hitting the ground head-first?
That’s Bush, he just doesn’t know it yet.
ProudLiberal, nice case.
Yes, indeedy, Mr. G., er, P. Nice summary.
mrcontroversy, hehehe, nice line!
Sixth year tearm ain’t nuthin! I love the number six! In fact my favorite number is 666. Think my year will be bad …. think again! I may be bad ……. but my year will be GREAT! The World is mine!
DUBYA (W) (UU)(666)
I couldn’t help but notice the picture of Bush for this thread. Is he taking a leak under the Great Seal?
Nice try, Proud.
1. He can implicate anyone he wants. Still has to be proven in a court of law. High hurdle. Keep dreaming.
2. Enron? That’s the company that cooked the books under Clinton & Co’s watchful SEC in the 90s? Thought so. The Bushies threw the book at them.
3. Yawn. Prove it.
4. Partly serves Bush right for signing stupid and clearly unconstitutional Campaign Finance reform. Still. Prove it, Early has already had part of his case thrown out of court.
5. The Downing Street memo. Last seen by O.J. Simpson, the Real Killers had them. Quick, look behind the grassy knoll. The Democrat equivalent to Mena.
6. Katrina disaster? Way to go Mayor (nice busses under water). Gov. Blanco, very nice taking the rehab money to using it to rehab your personal office space. Plenty of Democrat blame to go around here.
7. Impeachable offense? Her OWN (media whore) HUSBAND blew her cover. Plus, thought Karl Rove was nailed for sure. Woops! Missed him :-)
8. Illegal wire taps. Hardly. Please make the courts rule on this. Please.
Make all these preposterous allegations you want. Doesn’t make them true. You Dems going to win in 2002 because people were so outraged about Florida in 2000. Strike one. You were going to win in 2004 because people were so outraged by Enron, etc. Strike two. Here comes 2006. Notice a trend?
You’ve got a point there, Joe, and not just the one on the top of your head.
Democrats spend so much time trying to woo the idiot “swing voter,” they seem to stand for nothing. The only thing in the middle of the road is a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.
Democrats have done a magnificient job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
But now things are so royally screwed up that I don’t think even the hapless Dems can fail to capitalize on it.
Remember, Bush is YOUR guy. Keep reminding people of that every chance you get.
Nixon won re-election by a huge landslide. Four years later, you couldn’t find ANYBODY who had ever voted for the man.
Funny how that works . . .
As far as trends go, my friend, you might look at 2005. Everybody Bush campaigned for went down in flames. Even in St. Paul, they replaced their Bush leaning Democratic mayor with a Bush hating one.
But keep listening to Rush. He’ll tell you what to think.
And the drivel goes on. The only ones who are going to have a bad year will be you cry babies because there will be no impeachment, the democrats won’t pick up any more seats because they have nothing to offer. Most of your melt down doesn’t have anything to do with Bush and what does is not impeachable offenses except maybe in your little twerp minds. As far as the 2000 election, get over it. Bush had nothing to do with Enron; Valerie Plame was no operative; and there have been no illegal wire taps.The president has made progress in Iraq; the Patriot Act has been extended; the economy is in good shape and 4.5 million jobs have been added at reasonable pay; taxes have been cut; and government spending has been reduced and his popularity numbers are up.I will tell you what will happen in 2006, you cry babies will continue with this line of drivel and it just won’t make a bit of difference. So, in your face.
Oh, his popularity numbers are up alright . . . from 35 percent approval to 42–wow! it’s a flipping tsunami.
Now, if he can increase that by about 25 points, W. will be as popular as Clinton when he was impeached.
PL or whomever,
Take a close look at your blogs. What do you see? Anything to counteract any of the nonsense going on in Washington? Any ideas? Any good ideas? Anything other than the same old tired worn out stand on the street corner and throw stones at passing cars nonsense?
How about comming up with a way to ensure social securities solvency? How about a way to deal with terrorism that doesn’t infringe on Americans rights? How about finding ways to lower the trade deficit? (Incidentlly, it was Clinton that signed a PERMANENT trade agreement with China that has allowed the massive moves of American manufacturing to that country: Thank him . . . WalMart is.)
If Democrats win any seats in the next election, it will be purely by default, not because they have anything to offer. It will be based on the lesser of two evils, not on what the democrats used to stand for: new ideas. Sad.
SKIP THIS IF YOU’D ANNOYED BY AN OFF-TOPIC COMMENT
This is off topic, but how does a candidate attract voters for whom 1) Ray Thomas and 2) JM Walker are surrogates for? I would describe Ray as a libertarian Republican and JM an independent for stubborness sake.
CF and PL will vote in ways at least similar to me. However, RT & JM are the type who decide things in the country — maybe not in Kansas, though.
To further digress, there is serious money behind Connie Morris and her like. To assume she is gone because of her theatrics is probably misguided and overly optimistic.
I am hoping some electable moderate candidates will come on the scene. As XXX says in a different thread, there is room in my house for those folks. This position makes me less than ideologically pure, but these days I care less about that than I used to.
Steven,I don’t live in Kansas (Did for awhile), so, no, I don’t vote with Kansas in mind. I live in Missouri, but don’t vote with it in mind either.
Very astute; I am a stubborn independant. I would turn Democrat in a minute if they decided to reinvent themselves in the way they used to be. I used to be a Republican (wow, that was hard to figure out) but after Reagan, they turned into a mix-matched conglomerate of idiots.
The candidate who would attract my vote would have to be: 1. honest; 2. very tough minded; 3. compassionate; 4. Honest, 5. Highly intelligent; 6. an outstanding statesman; 7. Honest; 8. Able to come up with major ideas to bring this country in line with the rest of the world; 9. Able to deal terrorism without resorting to denying anyones civil liberties; 10. Honest. There are a dozen more, but these will do for a start.
That pretty much leaves out anyone in Washington in my book.
Thank you for that contribution, sir.
Ray?
Yup, good post, JM, I have to admit it.
A bunch of us activists are trying to get the Democrats to have a mid-term convention and introduce our own “Contract with America” like the Republicans did in ‘94. Trouble is, we got all these DLC types (Democratic Leadership Council) who think the way to win is to suck up after corporate sponsorship the way the Republicans do.
That’s why you saw Kerry censor himself on his “Benedict Arnold corporations” rhetoric that carried him through the primaries once he got the candidacy. Edwards, too, got great traction with his “two America’s” speeches, but then dropped it after the primaries.
No guts. No glory. That’s the Democratic party right now.
PL,I hope you can succee, however, I believe you are sadly correct in your logic.
Off topic, but good subject. We puff up hard at the antics of the far-right but have we considered what effect the hard-left has on a major portion of the voters? I’m with Steven. While I may not be ideologically pure, I’m willing to compromise if the alternative is the kind of crushing losses we’ve suffered since 2000. I’ll leave the fighting to the pureists…to those who’ll compromise, lets talk and see where we can agree.
XXX,Hurray . . . I couldn’t agree more. Let’s get the brainstorming going. Let’s get the pareto charts hung, shewarts cycle implemented. This is a blackbelt project if I ever heard one. It’s time to rock and roll. Who cares if this is off-topic. It is way too important to neglect.
O. wait . . . Washington. How stupid of me.
OT
The democrats need to hire J.M. & Ray as prticipants in their focus groups. They should be paid great sums of money per hour.
Remember when people, on both sides, griped incessantly about Clinton governing by focus group data.
Well, guess we don’t have that problem any more.
oops . . . “participants”