There has been a touch of something new in the air, starting 'round the time of Hurricane Katrina, when the world saw that Bush and his administration actually did not care and were not capable of coming to the aid of the least of their brethren when disaster struck. People were angry and Bush really got it -- the anger part, anyway. Odds are he'll never quite get the caring thing down. He tried to smooth it over with some belated walkabouts and back-slapping. But the people weren't buying it. Even when W said how much he was looking forward to good times at Trent Lott's hurricane-damaged home when it was fixed up better'n ever. I guess the rest of the folks just weren't up for their own Extreme Makeovers.
The Valerie Plame Affair -- in which someone in the White House revealed her secret identity as a deep undercover spy -- jeopardized her life, the lives of countless others in the field, and damaged recruitment efforts for the CIA. This because they were pissed off at her husband Joe Wilson for exposing the government's lies to justify going to war with Iraq. After months of speculation as to the identity of the snitch , reporters going to jail, the administration trying to portray Joe Wilson as a crybaby, and to downplay the damage by calling Valerie Plame a mere CIA bureaucrat, this fiasco has finally, finally come to something. Indictment and resignation for Cheney's right-hand man Scooter Libby, and another blow for Bushie.
The people who, like me, are always mad at Bush had plenty to stew about with all of this negative stuff swirling around the White House. But there was Hell To Pay when George W., maybe overwhelmed and a little too tired to do his usual A-1 job, nominated his little friend Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Now he had pissed off His Own People.
First, about Harriet Miers. Bush was looking for a woman to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. That's nice. He had a couple on the short list. But he wasn't "comfortable" with them. Apparently, they weren't candidates for Bush Babedom, like Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, and yes, Harriet Miers. Requirements include total and complete dedication to W, preferably to the exclusion of a personal life; the necessity of referring to him as "cool" and "the greatest (insert appropriate noun) ever"; and in Karen Hughes' case, surrendering your bodily form and becoming an android so you can talk mindlessly and incessantly through any reporter's questions.
Harriet wasn't a judge, as Bush announced when extolling her virtues upon introducing her to the nation. However, she did attend public schools, and do work for the YWCA and Meals on Wheels. And, with a wink, George indicated, she'll do anything I tell her to.
The Blues were appalled. She is so totally unqualified!! And, yeah, she'll be W's puppet, and how stupidly blatant is that. But come on! The Reds were also not at all happy with Bush's choice. Most importantly, they weren't completely certain that she would follow his lead and vote to turn back every advance that had been made in civil and human rights in the last 50 years or so. And secondly, she made them look stupid. They were self-righteously indignant.
All of this snowballed, and George's people were now fed up with him. He was not acting like the fair-haired boy of the Christian Right. The ultraconservatives (who have just been licking their lips, waiting for the liberal Supreme Court Justices to start dropping like flies so they could pack the court with reactionaries) cracked the whip: Harriet would have to go, and POOF! she was gone.
It's kinda scary, really.
W isn't the ultimate in the power game. There are people behind him, pulling his chain, letting him know he hath displeased them. He had to go back to the drawing board and do it right next time. Or else?
So what is in the air is that feeling of, Is he really going down? Is this the beginning of the end? Is he finally going to get his? Are the bad guys going to lose and the good guys win after all?
On a dime, Bush brought out Judge Sam Alito, the conservative's conservative, and the guy he probably wanted all along. Oh, Harriet was a mistake; he should have taken a chance on some other woman that could have been turned down so that he could say he tried a woman and it didn't work. If you've got a problem with him, you're the problem. But with all the crap going on, and right in his own little comfort zone, he got a little careless. And he got called on the carpet. He won't do that again.
And if there is any possible question that this administration is going soft on the middle class, I read in Time Magazine that Bush's advisors had a plan to eliminate the mortgage interest tax break.
Georgie may be shaken, but stirred by the ongoing plight of his constituents? It ain't gonna happen.
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