The perniciously oblivious Mr. Bush

There are 293,655,404 worried people in the United States -- minus one. "I don't worry about anything here in Washington, D.C.," Bush said Tuesday with his usual air of pixilation.

At least he finally said something you can put in the bank. Finally, some truth. Still, nothing less than stunning was that a sitting president in, or rather a president sitting in, the midst of so much pain, anguish and looming disaster -- thousands dying in Iraq, 45 million at home with no health care, a generations-crushing deficit -- could utter such a disconnected inanity. It made Herbert Hoover look like a combustive activist.

To be fair, Bush is accustomed to not worrying because he’s never had to. He’s always had his own private welfare system, a coterie of political nannies to hold him and clean up after him, and his emotional abyss precludes empathy for others who were born silver-spoonless. Folks like Robert F. Kennedy possessed the same privileges, but were capable of growth. There was something there, there.

Nevertheless the What, me-worry? line this week was a refreshingly honest moment during what the press still charitably calls a “news” conference. Other than that one aside, we got the same old diversions and ducks and deceit, as expected. Yet Bush’s Me-worry? attitude is causing a lot of worry for his congressional minions. They’re reading some nasty electoral graffiti on the wall.

"There is a growing sense of frustration with the president and the White House, quite frankly," said a Republican member of Congress. "The term I hear most often is tin ear.”

And he’s not hearing it from just Democratic constituents. “In the most recent Washington Post poll, taken last month, 47 percent of Americans [other polls as low as 43 percent] approved of Bush's performance, tying the lowest marks he ever received in that survey, back in mid-2004 when Democrats were airing tens of millions of dollars in campaign attack ads,” observes the Seattle Times.

Bush has it all: the (literal) bully pulpit, the media dogs, a somnambulant opposition -- yet the nation’s majority are growing leery of him. Really leery.

Yes it’s history, but I tire not of pointing out that many more would have grown leery long before Bush’s 2000 Immaculate Ascension had they been awake. For instance, while researching a few foreign policy topics from two campaigns past I was struck anew by how aloof, incomplete and evasive Bush was as a candidate. Sure there were occasions such as presidential debates when he had to say something, though that something was often a fairy tale. My favorite: "If we are an arrogant nation, they will resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us," he said in the second debate. And "I'm not so sure the role of the United States is to go around the world and say, ‘This is the way it's got to be.’” I’ll let that one pass. It’s too easy.

But given a choice, Bush dodged free-wheeling inquiry with unctuous devotion. For instance on October 30 of that election year the New York Times noted in an expansive analysis of the two candidates’ positions: “Mr. Gore is always eager to … analyze international events; he granted an hour-long interview for this article. Mr. Bush took four weeks to consider repeated invitations to be interviewed on his foreign policy views. In the end he declined.” The Times was reduced to relying on secondary sources.

Earlier in the year and in another paper’s “Where the Candidates Stand” article, the pack leaders were asked to elaborate on one of the greatest and lasting controversies in American history. The question was this: “Fifty-eight thousand Americans, 223,000 South Vietnamese and, by Hanoi's estimate, 660,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers were killed in Vietnam…. Do you believe that war served America's interests?” Bill Bradley, Al Gore and John McCain all gave rehearsed, but reasonably complete, answers. What issued forth from candidate George W. Bush? “No response” (Columbus Dispatch, February 27, 2000).

He didn’t care enough to ponder a million lives lost in Vietnam. Why should we expect him to care about mere thousands in Iraq? Or anything else?

We shouldn’t. Even George would say so, and did.

Comments

[Disgusted in St. Louis]

"I don't worry about anything here in Washington, D.C.," Bush said Tuesday before he left on his bicycle for an uninterrupted ride in the park.

[Gail]

I didn't mean to laugh reading this, but it is so pathetic it's hilarious. Thanks for this one.
After the Presidential debates and people saw Bush's performance, it is a mystery why anyone voted for him ... ditto to miserable Cheney with John Edwards. I was embarrassed watching him. And that box sticking out his back - he should have been disqualified from the debates for cheating! Well, we all know about elections and how to win them cheating.

[nur al-cubicle]

Hi Phil...I remember you from your hnn days! Ciao!

Everything Bush says is either trashtalk or code to the base, precisely like the other fascist, Berlusconi!

[azazel]

Hey now, let's not pick on poor Shrub. He doesn't read much, admittedly, and so could not possibly know that he lives 180-degrees from the Jesus whom he so claims to love.

[TruthToPower]

The Bushevics are imploding. One can only hope the Shrub of corruption will come to an early end. 2006 GO GO GO
IMPEACH
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com

[Kate]

He's too busy to worry; he's dissassembling.

[Steve Keller]

Hey,

I think Conyers' effort to bring the Downing Street Minutes to the forefront of political discussion is critical for a couple of reasons - 1. the GOP is playing dirty pool, and their efforts to defraud the American and foreign electorates has worked in 2 Presidential elections, untold numbers of Congressional elections...Christ, even in the Ukraine contest where the dude was poisoned, and 2. this might be a way to throw Karl Rove off his game. Conyers needs our support, and protection. Rove should probably be in jail, even before Bush, Cheney, Rummy, Rice, Wolfowitz, Card, et.al.

It is a big sick game that they are playing, and it is up to moderate Repubs to realize that their party is now owned by the Neocons and the Religious Right, and they should be all over efforts to make sure another election cannot be stolen by the craven GOP.

I said it before the '04 election, and I believe it could still hold water in '08...Bush will not go quietly...he will only go in a straitjacket. God forbid he "win" again in '08.

Keep up the good fight people!!

Styve

[The Oracle]

One down, two to go.

Remember, there are two members of the Axis of Evil that Rummy, Bushie and Cheney are still looking at for regime change. (especially since Iraq has been such a roaring success...at least in their feeble minds).

So, North Korea: (things I've read recently)
B-2 Stealth bombers moved close to NK. (w/i past several months).
Stealth fighter squadrons deployed to South Korea. (w/i last two weeks).
Nutty NK dictator orders 2 to 3 million NK's out of the cities into the farmlands to help with rice harvest. (w/i past several days).

(Sounds like some air-strikes against suspected NK nuclear facilities are coming soon---hello, Korean War Two.)

Iran: (also read recently)
Ex-U.N. WMD inspector, ex-U.S. Marine Scott Ritter reported several months ago that Bush has already signed off on strategic air-strikes against suspected Iranian nuclear sites.
A couple of U.S. Navy carrier groups were being redeployed from Asia to the Middle East. (a couple of months ago).

(Note: The carrier groups are needed to both launch sea-based airstrikes---along with land-based ones---but also the carrier groups would be in position to try to secure the sea-lanes for oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Hormuz).

My conjecture: By the end of this month, or sometime next month Bush Inc. will start some more pre-emptive wars. And NK, after being attacked, will attack South Korea. And Iran, after being attacked, will set loose the Hezbollah agents they already have in Iraq next door.

My friends, millions of people are about to die, I believe, as Bush Inc. tries (in their own strange way) to make the U.S. and the world more secure (for their corporate sponsors, that is). And I really doubt if Bush Inc. will go to the U.N. or the U.S. Congress for either, respectively, international or national authorization. They'll just launch preemptive airstrikes against both Iran and North Korea, and to hell with planning for any aftermath.