Wednesday, July 06, 2005
This post http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_07/006649.php at Political Animal is relevant.
Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.
This is really sad. Today, in Europe, Bush said:
"I don't like it when a friend gets criticized. I'm loyal to my friends," Bush told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark. "All of a sudden this fellow, who is a good public servant and a really fine person, is under fire. And so, do I like it? No, I don't like it, at all." AP via Yahoo
He's upset because everybody, left and right, is criticizing the idea of Gonzales as O'Connor's replacement. From the right, his anti-choice positions aren't strong enough. From the left, there's the little matter of his dismissal of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint," and his signing off on a memorandum that said the president order done pretty much whatever he wanted to the prisoners in Gitmo.
He wants to reward his minion for loyal service, and he's discovering that just handing him a seat on the Supreme Court can't be done with the wave of a Presidential hand. Gonzales' only credentials for this post are tied to Bush. He has no other power base. He has no friends in the Senate, no chits to cash in, no favors done. His nomination has to survive on its merits, and there aren't many to recommend him.
Bush is well on his way to setting the record for speed in attaining lame duck status. By completely dissing the Democrats in this first terms, and whipsawing the Republicans into line to support programs they wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole if proposed by Clinton, he's left himself all alone.
When he whined recently that the Democrats weren't stepping up on the Social Security issue, Rahm Emmanuel summed it up beautifully. He didn't need us for his tax cuts. He didn't want us for his drug bill. He was happy with party line votes then. Let him have his party line vote now, on taking money away from Social Security.
When he said, right after the election, that he had now accumulated political capital, and he was planning to spend it, I was surprised. I'd never seen a president run up so deep a collection of debts in his first term before. Those debts are now due, and it's a little sad, and a little pathetic to see him complaining about it.
"I don't like it when a friend gets criticized. I'm loyal to my friends," Bush told reporters in Copenhagen, Denmark. "All of a sudden this fellow, who is a good public servant and a really fine person, is under fire. And so, do I like it? No, I don't like it, at all." AP via Yahoo
He's upset because everybody, left and right, is criticizing the idea of Gonzales as O'Connor's replacement. From the right, his anti-choice positions aren't strong enough. From the left, there's the little matter of his dismissal of the Geneva Conventions as "quaint," and his signing off on a memorandum that said the president order done pretty much whatever he wanted to the prisoners in Gitmo.
He wants to reward his minion for loyal service, and he's discovering that just handing him a seat on the Supreme Court can't be done with the wave of a Presidential hand. Gonzales' only credentials for this post are tied to Bush. He has no other power base. He has no friends in the Senate, no chits to cash in, no favors done. His nomination has to survive on its merits, and there aren't many to recommend him.
Bush is well on his way to setting the record for speed in attaining lame duck status. By completely dissing the Democrats in this first terms, and whipsawing the Republicans into line to support programs they wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole if proposed by Clinton, he's left himself all alone.
When he whined recently that the Democrats weren't stepping up on the Social Security issue, Rahm Emmanuel summed it up beautifully. He didn't need us for his tax cuts. He didn't want us for his drug bill. He was happy with party line votes then. Let him have his party line vote now, on taking money away from Social Security.
When he said, right after the election, that he had now accumulated political capital, and he was planning to spend it, I was surprised. I'd never seen a president run up so deep a collection of debts in his first term before. Those debts are now due, and it's a little sad, and a little pathetic to see him complaining about it.
