Month: April 2006

Greg Djerejian gets to the heart of the matter. In this war, the president has essentially delegated all key decisions to the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis. The fact that these two are manifestly incompetent, have trashed the military, destroyed its honor, and turned Iraq into an early chapter in Hobbes is irrelevant. The president doesn’t trust anyone else sufficiently to replace them. And he’s too out of touch to make the key decisions himself. Commenter Joe Britt adds:

"Bush has delegated virtually all war planning and management of the military to Rumsfeld; his own relationships with uniformed military officers or other Pentagon officials appear to be neither numerous nor deep compared to those of other wartime Presidents… All I’m saying is that what the sudden departure of a man who has served as a kind of Deputy President for over four years would leave is a situation in which many decisions now finally made in Rumsfeld’s office could not be made, military leaders that have by and large allowed themselves to be run by Rumsfeld would be left to jockey amongst themselves for position and influence in his absence, and — from Bush’s point of view this factor must loom especially large — the President’s tenuous grasp both on what is happening in Iraq and what is happening in the military would be further exposed."

This is why Rumsfeld will stay. Bush has few alternatives. He couldn’t handle bringing in an outsider like Lieberman, becaue he runs his administration as a cabal of friends and lackeys, and that’s the only form of government he knows how to handle. Case in point: check out this video clip from Wonkette. It’s Bush responding to a smart question about the rules governing foreign mercenaries in Iraq. The president hasn’t a clue what the rules are and says his method for dealing with such issues is to call Rumsfeld. If this president is relying on Rumsfeld for actual data on this war, he will not get an assessment of reality. Rumsfeld has no grip on reality. But he sure has a grip on the president.

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty).

These new poll numbers seem to me to reflect the unraveling of this presidency. What’s stunning is not the approve/disapprove numbers, which are consistent with other polls, i.e. mid-to-upper 30s approve, mid-to-upper 50s disapprove. What’s stunning is that almost half the sample – 47 percent – strongly disapproves. I came to the conclusion that Bush was an incompetent abetting something much more dangerous before the last election, hence my reluctant endorsement of the pathetic Kerry. But the broad middle of American opinion has taken longer to see what this administration is and what Republicanism has become. These are pretty stunning numbers given the relatively strong economy – strong in part because it’s been propped up by an unsustainable Keynesian stimulus.

Historians will figure this out, but my own view is that Katrina did it. Katrina was the equivalent of Toto pulling back the curtain. Once Bush’s passivity, indolence and arrogance were put on full display, once it was apparent that the government was not working, and that Bush was the reason, people figured out why the war in Iraq was such a shambles. And so the mystique required to sustain patriarchal authority was shattered. I think this is largely irreparable because it’s about a basic assessment of a single man. What worries me is that we have almost three more years. If we face a confrontation or a crisis, this president will not be able to carry Americans with him. Our enemies will take comfort from this. Which is why re-electing him was such a terrible risk.

"I voted for President Bush twice, and contributed to his campaign twice, but held my nose when I did it the second time. I don’t consider myself a Republican any longer. Thanks to this Administration and the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Party today is the party of pork-barrel spending, Congressional corruption ‚Äî and, I know folks on this web site don’t want to hear it, but deep down they know it’s true ‚Äî foreign and military policy incompetence. Frankly, speaking of incompetence, I think this Administration is the most politically and substantively inept that the nation has had in over a quarter of a century. The good news about it, as far as I’m concerned, is that it’s almost over," – George Conway, National Review.

But the latest results indicate Berlusconi might still make it.

It appears to have passed her by.

JPod calls Derb insane. The immigration debate continues to tear the right apart. My own neighborhood is an impromptu Latino rally right now. It’s heavily Hispanic anyway, but the one aspect of this crowd, gathering in a neighboring park before a march, that struck me was an obvious one. I’ve never seen so many American flags. I think they realize now the utter stupidity of appealing to Americans with foreign flags. If you want to come to this country, then commit to it. It’s the least this amazingly generous and open-hearted nation deserves.

Michael Totten is driving from Turkey back into Iraq. He makes one observation:

"Sometimes it seems like everyone in the Middle East hates everyone else in the Middle East. Arabs hate Kurds and Israelis. Turks hate Arabs and Kurds. Kurds hate Turks and fear Arabs. (Interestingly, Kurds love Israelis.) Everyone, especially Lebanese, hates Palestinians."

The photo is by his friend and fellow-traveler, Sean LaFreniere.

A reader writes:

"Being a "liberal of doubt," I find I have more in common with "conservatives of doubt" than with either "liberals or conservatives of faith" most of the time.  So I check in with you daily. I am also a gay man who didn’t have the nerve to fully come out to myself (let alone anyone else) until three years ago at the age of 52. Of course the biggest fear I have is the sometimes overwhelming loneliness.
That loneliness might be a reason that seniors’ positions have softened. I would not be at all surprised if there is a growing support among the senior population for a variety of domestic partnerships, exactly the arrangements that could sustain some of them through their worst fears. It would be interesting to know if the polls ever looked at attitudes toward other non-traditional partnerships to see if the whole landscape is changing."

Fascinating. Here’s more reporting on the generation of gay seniors now planning for retirement.

Joe Klein gives a glimpse into his new book.

And Islamist. And Buddhistist. And whateverist. Marty has a ball. I’m glad he’s blogging. He’s a natural.