bush administration on hard times?
I am a regular reader of www.drudgereport.com. In fact, out of all of the websites that I check regularly, I would have to say that drudgereport is the second most visited site in my history, after my web mail client, as I check it at least once, if not twice, a day. I don't really like Matt Drudge, he's certainly skewed, wrt his own political views, towards the conservative side of the court. What keeps me reading his website is that he simply has an amazing eye. Every time I read the page, I get all the breaking news, period, plus odd news that you'd never find on another web outlet. He has personally broken many important news cases, including the monica lewinsky scandal that so marred clinton's otherwise mostly laudatory presidency, and all with a computer an modem. In anycase, I tend to trust the site to have breaking news, though you have to read carefully as Drudge tends to post rumors, and 'developing' stories that may never ultimately become actual stories because they do not have enouth truth to them. Nonetheless, the string of drudge headlines regarding the bush administration has been very interesting indeed in the last few days. It started with one day having the flagging interest in the iraq war, the Plame scandal, the sinking miers campaign and an article about bush's wild mood swings and his tension filled white house.
today, here are few links to new stories, mostly dealing with the same topics as above, but from different media outlets:
a whole slew of Plame investigation stories, headlines by a collage of the major players and the headline: DC Guessing Game Reaches Fever Pitch
then: 'Bush tries to Revive Support for Iraq War' dealing with the growing discontent, both public and private with the Iraq Wars origins, and current events.
then: 'NYT WEDS: GROWING NUMBER OF REPUBLICANS IN SENATE OPENLY DOUBT MIERS CHANCES FOR COURT...' which is self explanatory
this coupled with the public discontent over the handling of Katrina (although I suspect in general Bush has recovered from most of the bad effects of Katrina) and general unhappiness about gas prices and the economy points to a possible 'no good, very bad day' for the bush white house. and judging from the plethora of articles coming to light about Bush's personal reactions to negative critisicm (he gets bitter, angry, petulant, righteous, to name a few reactions catalogues in various articles, most recently in the NYPOST--I know I know, it's barely better than a tabloid, but I'm going for critical mass over actual reporting veracity here) Bush may act very badly.
I don't think very specifically about each of these issues' specific and complex impact, but when I see a greater frequency of articles essenstially forcasting a dark couple months, or perhaps years, for the bush white house, originating from a generally conservative slant website, my ears perk up. It seems entirely likely that Libby and Rove will be indicted. Delay already was, we all saw his smiling picture that seems to suggest that DeLay read Frum's plea that conservatives stop posing for pictures with frowns and arms crossed.. I completely forgot to mention the 2000th death, which in un subjective reality is just another death in iraq, but for the political reality is a to-be-feared milestone which will fuel people's anger and anxiety over the war. It also seems, now, that Miers may very well not be confirmed, and this time it won't be the democrats leading the charge. The republicans, and more specifically the conservative pundits have been haranguing this choice from the start, but now that they have had a chance to question Ms. Miers, it seems that more people are unhappy with her bland and unsatisfying answers to their questions. SO think of this... what happens when you have a president who is starting the second year of his second term with record low job approval ratings, get hit with indicitements that remove two top aides, and maybe even affect his VP, have his second golden SC choice defeated loudly by his own party (all the more damaging because Bush has time and time again personally vouched for her, refered to her as the most qualified, etc... mostly because he was totally unwilling to say anything else) and continue to loose support for a war that has essentially been the entire core of his presidency so far, outside of the greater war on terror, which has largely been eclipsed both in commitment and atteniton of the public by iraq. I don't know how it all shakes out, but Bush could become a lame duck. There are major congressional elections coming up in 06' and if major groups of constituents have lost faith in the president, we may see a shift either in party seats, or positions of the incumbent republicans. I have to say that while I find each blow to the smirking Bush vindicating, I'm not sure I really want to wish a bad Lame duck presidency on all of us americans, seeing as how we have 3 years left of this guy. But then again, if we have a really bad time for the next three years, things will change next election, which would make me happy, so I guess I'm kinda pulled both ways.
in anycase, I am eagerly awaiting the results of all of these issues, and curious as to what will happen to Bush's ability to govern or pursue his second term agenda, after his administration takes embarrasing hit after hit.
The miers nomination, which seems like the only choice Bush has ever made all on his own--his advisors advised against it strongly--has turned out to be a ridiculous bungle, laughable because of the inappropriateness of Miers for the Supreme Court. She's a nice person, blah blah blah liek they all say, but at the end of it all it is absurd to say with a straigh face that she is the most qualified person for the job. I don't want a conservative wacko, but I can recognize that alot of those conservative pundits' favorite picks are vastly more qualified for the position than Ms. Miers.
ah well. thats enough incoherent political rambling. Lets just say I await Bushie's downfall with bated breath, and I only hope that he doesn't fall so hard that he takes the rest of the country with him.
today, here are few links to new stories, mostly dealing with the same topics as above, but from different media outlets:
a whole slew of Plame investigation stories, headlines by a collage of the major players and the headline: DC Guessing Game Reaches Fever Pitch
then: 'Bush tries to Revive Support for Iraq War' dealing with the growing discontent, both public and private with the Iraq Wars origins, and current events.
then: 'NYT WEDS: GROWING NUMBER OF REPUBLICANS IN SENATE OPENLY DOUBT MIERS CHANCES FOR COURT...' which is self explanatory
this coupled with the public discontent over the handling of Katrina (although I suspect in general Bush has recovered from most of the bad effects of Katrina) and general unhappiness about gas prices and the economy points to a possible 'no good, very bad day' for the bush white house. and judging from the plethora of articles coming to light about Bush's personal reactions to negative critisicm (he gets bitter, angry, petulant, righteous, to name a few reactions catalogues in various articles, most recently in the NYPOST--I know I know, it's barely better than a tabloid, but I'm going for critical mass over actual reporting veracity here) Bush may act very badly.
I don't think very specifically about each of these issues' specific and complex impact, but when I see a greater frequency of articles essenstially forcasting a dark couple months, or perhaps years, for the bush white house, originating from a generally conservative slant website, my ears perk up. It seems entirely likely that Libby and Rove will be indicted. Delay already was, we all saw his smiling picture that seems to suggest that DeLay read Frum's plea that conservatives stop posing for pictures with frowns and arms crossed.. I completely forgot to mention the 2000th death, which in un subjective reality is just another death in iraq, but for the political reality is a to-be-feared milestone which will fuel people's anger and anxiety over the war. It also seems, now, that Miers may very well not be confirmed, and this time it won't be the democrats leading the charge. The republicans, and more specifically the conservative pundits have been haranguing this choice from the start, but now that they have had a chance to question Ms. Miers, it seems that more people are unhappy with her bland and unsatisfying answers to their questions. SO think of this... what happens when you have a president who is starting the second year of his second term with record low job approval ratings, get hit with indicitements that remove two top aides, and maybe even affect his VP, have his second golden SC choice defeated loudly by his own party (all the more damaging because Bush has time and time again personally vouched for her, refered to her as the most qualified, etc... mostly because he was totally unwilling to say anything else) and continue to loose support for a war that has essentially been the entire core of his presidency so far, outside of the greater war on terror, which has largely been eclipsed both in commitment and atteniton of the public by iraq. I don't know how it all shakes out, but Bush could become a lame duck. There are major congressional elections coming up in 06' and if major groups of constituents have lost faith in the president, we may see a shift either in party seats, or positions of the incumbent republicans. I have to say that while I find each blow to the smirking Bush vindicating, I'm not sure I really want to wish a bad Lame duck presidency on all of us americans, seeing as how we have 3 years left of this guy. But then again, if we have a really bad time for the next three years, things will change next election, which would make me happy, so I guess I'm kinda pulled both ways.
in anycase, I am eagerly awaiting the results of all of these issues, and curious as to what will happen to Bush's ability to govern or pursue his second term agenda, after his administration takes embarrasing hit after hit.
The miers nomination, which seems like the only choice Bush has ever made all on his own--his advisors advised against it strongly--has turned out to be a ridiculous bungle, laughable because of the inappropriateness of Miers for the Supreme Court. She's a nice person, blah blah blah liek they all say, but at the end of it all it is absurd to say with a straigh face that she is the most qualified person for the job. I don't want a conservative wacko, but I can recognize that alot of those conservative pundits' favorite picks are vastly more qualified for the position than Ms. Miers.
ah well. thats enough incoherent political rambling. Lets just say I await Bushie's downfall with bated breath, and I only hope that he doesn't fall so hard that he takes the rest of the country with him.
posted by hotspur at 11:40 PM
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