LOYAL OPPOSITION?

The Republicans still seem to think they’re going to have a significant hand in shaping the stimulus package – to which Obama has a succinct response

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203961.html
Just days after taking office vowing to end the political era of "petty grievances," President Obama ran into mounting GOP opposition yesterday to an economic stimulus plan that he had hoped would receive broad bipartisan support. . . .

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17862.html
President Obama listened to Republican gripes about his stimulus package during a meeting with congressional leaders Friday morning - but he also left no doubt about who's in charge of these negotiations. "I won," Obama noted matter-of-factly . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/23/i-won-on-day-4-president-obama-confronts-the-limits-of-bipartisanship/

The Republican political instincts remain sharp

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/nrcc_the_fundamentals_of_our_economy_are_strong.php
[NRCC website] “Thanks to Republican economic policies, the US economy is robust and job creation is strong.”

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/23/152039/669/351/688176

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016583.php

The media, of course, LOVES bipartisanship – but somehow that always seems to come down to the Democrats caving to GOP demands

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/chuck_yer_killin_me.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/hyperventilating.php

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/amazingly-negotiating-with-ourselves.html

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11089

Why – real – bipartisanship – won’t – happen, in words of one syllable

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/23/144923/998/338/688165
[Kos] 1. If the stimulus plan succeeds, Obama and the Democratic Congress will get all the credit.

2. If the stimulus plan fails, everyone who supported it will get blamed for blowing it.

The appearance of bipartisanship, versus getting the right bill

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/01/norquists_stimulus_strategy.php
[Grover Norquist] “We engage the Democrats by being cheerful and pleasant and open to conversation. They say they want 10 ideas? OK, here are 10 ideas. The next time they say they want 10 ideas, we say that they asked before, and, just for the record, they rejected our ideas. When you get to May, who’s the obstructionist and who’s the collaborator?”

[Matt Yglesias] To me, this re-enforces the case for making the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, six, seventh, eight, ninth, tenth, and only priority in terms of the stimulus to write the best bill possible and pass it with the minimum number of votes necessary. Stimulus is a great idea in theory, but in practice the results of the congressional process may well get ugly. A bill that works substantively will be good enough politically, and worrying too much about the short-term politics just opens up the door for the bill to get more screwed up. If a giant stimulus passes and the economy stays in a funk, nobody’s going to care how many Republicans voted for the bill years in the past.

Wishing for a better press

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/23/the_medias_role_in_the_financial_crisis/
[Dan Gillmor] Our government's current operating principle seems to be bailing out people who were culpable in the financial meltdown. If so, journalists are surely entitled to billions of dollars.

Why? Journalists were grossly deficient when it came to covering the reckless behavior, sleaze and willful ignorance of fundamental economics, much of which was reasonably obvious to anyone who was paying attention, that inflated the housing and credit bubbles of the past decade. Their frequent cheerleading for bad practices -- and near-total failure to warn us, repeatedly and relentlessly, of what was building -- made a bad situation worse. . . . [read on]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/23/a-controversial-cbo-repor_n_160495.html
[Ryan Grim] Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.

Funny thing is, there is no such report. . . . [read on]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/factcheckers-by-dday-in-this-economy-i.html

Heh

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203928.html
A joke made its way around the Capitol yesterday: How do you know the 2008 election is really over? Because John McCain is causing trouble for Republicans again. . . .

Bipartisanship? Don’t make me laugh

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/214045/780/138/687364
[Jed L] 1. Rush Limbaugh tells his radio audience that he wants Obama to fail.

2. Within four hours of Barack Obama's inauguration, FOX was pimping the Republican talking point that the Dow took the biggest dive of any inaugural day in history, mentioning it on at least ten separate occasions. (The talking point is technically true, but misleading. It ignores the fact that in percentage terms, the Dow dropped by about the same amount as it did on Ronald Reagan's inaugural day. More importantly, the drop had no more to do with Obama than the fact that on Wednesday, the Dow climbed by more points than it has on the first full day in office of any President in U.S. history.)

3. On Wednesday alone, Republicans stalled Secretary of State Clinton's confirmation until late in the day, lambasted Timothy Geithner for having screwed up his taxes a few years ago, even though he's subsequently paid back everything that was due, and blocked a vote on Eric Holder's nomination to be Attorney General.

More from Rush: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/whos-rooting-for-failure-now-by-digby.html

http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/former-bush-speechwriter-obama-is-most.html
[National Review] Obama is already proving to be the most dangerous man ever to occupy the Oval Office. . . .

More on this: the new GOP line, with a big assist from the media, is that Obama is dismantling the Bush security infrastructure that has kept us safe

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11096

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/23/al_qaeda/index.html

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1862456,00.html
[Time] Will Obama Roll Back Bush Anti-Terror Tactics?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_090106.htm
[US News] Move To Undo Bush's Anti-Terror Policies?

Plain speaking

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203658.html
Retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, President Obama's nominee to lead the U.S. intelligence community, told Congress yesterday that torture "is not moral, legal or effective" and that "there will not be any waterboarding on my watch." . . .

A new broom

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/23/washington/AP-Obama-Abortion-Ban.html
President Barack Obama on Friday struck down the Bush administration's ban on giving federal money to international groups that perform abortions or provide abortion information -- an inflammatory policy that has bounced in and out of law for the past quarter-century. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/roe-vs-wade-by-digby-on-todays.html

“A photocopying problem”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/franken-legal-team-coleman-is-doctoring-evidence.php
[Eric Kleefeld] At a pre-trial hearing in the Minnesota election lawsuit just now, Franken attorney Kevin Hamilton made a striking accusation: That the Coleman campaign has been doctoring evidence.

As an example, Hamilton showed two photocopies of a rejected absentee ballot envelope, one of which he said was the unaltered original, and the other taken from Coleman's legal filings in his attempts to get more of the rejected ballots opened. The Coleman copy was missing the section in which a local election official explained why it was rejected.

"We would not be able to stipulate to the authenticity of a document where the key portion has been cut out," Hamilton complained.

Coleman attorney James Langdon expressed his absolute surprise. "What he has pointed out is news to me," said Langdon. "There has been no effort on our part to be anything other than absolutely truthful."

Langdon speculated that there may have been a photocopying problem. . . .

Norm Coleman’s strategy now seems to just do anything that puts off a resolution of the Senate seat – meanwhile, he’s already taken another job

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/yet-more-ballot-high-jinks-in-minnesota.php
A group of seven voters from around Minnesota have now filed a new class action lawsuit . . . The Franken campaign is now opposing the lawsuit, on the grounds that it has been filed too late in the process, while Coleman is supporting it.

More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/minnesota-election-court-rejects-colemans-latest-gambit.php

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/01/22/franken-coleman-update-012208-norms-new-job/

Rod Blagojevich has that magical ability to say ANYTHING with a straight face

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/blago-my-arrest-was-like-pearl-harbor.php
"December 9 to my family, to us, to me, is what Pearl Harbor Day was to the United States," Blago told the Associated Press. . . . “And just like the United States prevailed in that, we'll prevail in this."

Bush counterterrorism advisor says, well, we always MEANT to get around to closing Gitmo . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/us_too.php
It “didn’t happen.” . . .

Bush climate change opponent “burrows” into a secure job deep in the NSF civil service bureaucracy

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/a-loyal-bushie-burrows-into-obamas-system.php

WATB

http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/bush-aides-whining-about-obamas.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/oh-boo-hoo-by-digby-these-people-can.html

Dick Cheney is upset that his minion Scooter Libby didn’t get a Bush pardon. Hey, Mr. “I Shot My Friend in the Face and Let Him Apologize,” if you want to take Libby off the hook, there is one very simple thing you could do

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/22/dick-still-complaining-that-his-beloved-firewall-didnt-get-pardoned/

Sarah Palin is still hiding behind her kids – and even her conservative pals are getting a little tired of it

http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/palin_media_children/2009/01/21/173769.html?s=al&promo_code=7839-1
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is going on the offensive against news organizations and bloggers she says are perpetuating malicious gossip about her and her children. But political observers say the former Republican vice presidential candidate can't have it both ways: trotting out the children to showcase her family values, then trying to shield them from scrutiny. . . .

Bonus item: Paranoid insane

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016544.php
A prominent far-right website called WorldNetDaily ran a piece the other day with a provocative headline: "Hail King Obama: President for life -- Move under way to repeal Constitution's term limits." . . . Steve M. noted a variety of right-wing blogs that got pretty worked about this, including one that insisted Obama "might take a page from his role models Chavez and Castro." . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

FRESH AIR

Three Executive Orders coming today

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/01/torture-gitmo-a.html
According to a former Hill aide, the orders will:

∙ close the detainee camp at Guantanamo Bay within a year and establish a process by which the U.S. government figures out what to do with the remaining detainees;

∙ establish new rules on interrogation methods moving forward;

∙ establish new guidelines for the treatment of detainees moving forward

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/19839/6764/195/687291

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/us/politics/22gitmo.html

George Mitchell to become Mideast envoy. But is he TOO fair?

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/01/foxman_mitchell_is_fair_and_im_unhappy.php
[Jewish Week] Some Jewish leaders say the very qualities that may appeal to the Obama administration — Mitchell’s reputation as an honest broker — could spark unhappiness, if not outright opposition, from some pro-Israel groups.

“Sen. Mitchell is fair. He’s been meticulously even-handed,” said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. “But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn’t been ‘even handed’ — it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support.”

“So I’m concerned,” Foxman continued. “I’m not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East.” . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/mitchell_doesnt_cut_it.php
Unstated here is that Mitchell is half Lebanese Christian by ancestry . . . [read on]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/1/21/224514/235
[Charles Lemos] It's a smart choice . . . [read on]

John Cornyn (R-TX) holds up ANOTHER Obama nominee’s confirmation vote (Eric Holder for AG). But now we learn the real reason why (hint: it’s not Marc Rich or Elian Gonzalez)

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/to-prosecute-or-not-to-prosecute-cornyns-holder-holdup-splits-gopers.php
[Elana Schor] Sen. John Cornyn's (R-TX) decision today to force a week-long delay in Eric Holder's Judiciary Committee confirmation vote has opened an unexpected fissure in the GOP. On the one side are Republicans who want Holder to echo President Obama's promise to "move forward" -- widely interpreted as a hint that Bush-era officials and operatives would not be prosecuted for the torture of detainees -- and on the other side is, well, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). . . .

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/gopers_worried_about_torture_prosecutions_delay_ho.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016547.php

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/torture_/2009/01/cornyn_holder_torture_and_the_obstruction_of_justice.php

Okay, okay. Obama retakes the inaugural oath

http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/this-just-in-obamas-presidency-isnt.html

Ooh, ouch: http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/01/hows_it_looking_obama_reacts_t.php

Politico: Why Obama will fail

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/drudgico-pops-bubble-by-digby-they-have.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016538.php

Behind the curtains

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/125817/470/368/687118
Kagro X over at Congress Matters looks at the public process that begins today as the stimulus package begins its legislative journey. But he also peeks behind the curtains at what goes on before it ever hits CSPAN ... and what that can mean in shaping the direction of legislation . . .

More: http://www.congressmatters.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/11353/1070/578/433

We’re starting to learn what really went on with Bush’s illegal wiretaps

http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/msnbc-nsa-spied-on-us-journalists.html
[John Aravosis] MSNBC's Keith Olbermann interviewed a former National Security Agency analyst tonight. The analyst says that, under the ruse of making sure that the NSA did NOT target American media and journalists, they actually collected information on every communication those journalists and media organizations had 24/7. . . . [read on]

More: http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3165

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/russell-tice-confirms-everything-weve-surmised-about-bushs-illegal-wiretap-program/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/22/002/24210/125/687385



Rump Republicans now consider their remaining number “freedom fighters” (yes, really)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-era-of-comity-and-bipartisanship-by.html

Norm Coleman, desperate man

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/115322/560/403/687083
[Brownsox] Lest there be any doubt about it, Norm Coleman has pulled a full 180-degree turn in his desperate efforts to hang on to a Senate seat which has slipped out of his grasp . . .

More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/todays-update-in-minnesota-lawsuits.php

Governor Patterson to appoint Hillary's replacement – and it won’t be Caroline Kennedy

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/01/21/paterson_knows_his_pick.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/19113/8479/194/687292

Or maybe it will: http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/caroline-kennedy-withdraws-her-name-from-senate-race/

In or out? http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/whos_on_first.php

Bush and Cheney keep fighting to cover up administration records

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/cheney_aides_testimony_in_records_case_a_triumph_o.php
[Zachary Roth] Yesterday we noted that a court had declined to compel Cheney's office to hand over all of its records to the National Archives -- instead taking the word of a low-ranking vice-presidential aide that she would do so.

As we said, the plaintiffs -- a group of historical and non-profit organizations -- are still concerned that key documents are missing. And after speaking to them, it's easy to see why. . . . [read on]

Can Obama stop it? http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/could_obamas_executive_order_help_pry_loose_bush_r.php
[Zachary Roth] Over at TPM, Josh and David have been mulling the significance of the executive order, issued today by President Obama, concerning the Presidential Records Act. Could it apply retroactively to previous administrations, making it easier to pry loose records that the Bush White House has fought to keep secret?

According to Anne Weismann, a lawyer for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the tentative answer is yes. . . [read on]

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/president-obamas-new-presidential-records-order/

Bush’s refusal to pardon Scooter Libby “stuns” conservative supporters

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/bush-opts-for-continued-protection-over-payback/

Boy Scout

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/bush-boy-scouts-leave-their-camp-better-than-they-found-it/
[Bush] “Boy Scouts leave their camp better than they found it” . . .

http://wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=85839
George W. Bush leaves office today with the Dow Jones industrial average off 2,306 points from when he took over: The worst performance for any U.S. president. . . .

http://blog.navelliergrowth.com/2009/01/the_stock_market_during_the_bu.html
Through the eight Bush years, the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Index fell by an annualized rate of 2.3%. This makes George W. Bush the only president of the last five who has seen the stock market decline over the course of his presidency. . . .

Bonus item: Worst. President. Ever.

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/21/future-historians-agree-worst-president-ever/



***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

CHANGE HAS COME

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

The White House BLOG: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/change_has_come_to_whitehouse-gov/



The Speech

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/president-obamas-inaugural-address.php



Highlights: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/obamas-speech-the-highlights.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016530.php
Adam Serwer had an interesting take on Obama's inaugural address, arguing that the speech was, at its core, about maturity. . . . [read on]

A repudiation

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/w21assessS2.html
Though couched in indirect terms, Barack Obama’s inaugural address was a stark repudiation of the era of George W. Bush . . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2009/01/20/BL2009012001472.html

Almost two million people were present

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/20/135145/580/914/686572

Screwing up the oath – it was clearly Chief Justice Roberts’ fault – but not if you read the AP version

AP: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/first_inauguration_for_roberts_as_chief_justice.php
But at one point early on, Obama paused, as if grasping for the next words. Roberts helped him over the brief awkward moment, repeating a few words to get Obama back on track. . . .

ABC: http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/01/the-inuagural-o.html
Chief Justice John Roberts is a man who has made very few public missteps in his life -- but he appears to have made one when swearing in Barack Obama. Roberts slightly flubbed the oath, which then tripped up Obama. . . .

CNN: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/20/obama-oath/
On CNN, Wolf Blitzer said, "John Roberts had one job to do today and he sort of screwed up." Jeffrey Toobin replied, "I almost fell out of my chair."

TPM: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/heckuva_job_robie.php
Now hearing that Roberts tried to get through the oath from memory without the text in front of him. . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016527.php

Fox News and Drudge make you dumber

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/fox_eats_wallaces_brain.php
I thought it would only be some extreme wingnuts thinking that there might be a question about whether Obama is really president since Roberts screwed up the oath. But now Chris Wallace is saying it might end up in the courts. . . .

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/01/dump_that_meme.php

In fact, the oath has NOTHING to do with it: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/01/20/obama-becomes-44th-president-before-oath/
Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States at noon Tuesday, before he took his oath of office.

The 20th Amendment to the Constitution states that the terms of the president and vice president end at noon and that the terms of their successors begin on noon of Inauguration Day. . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/20/would-everybody-just-give-justice-roberts-a-break/
There have been deviations from the language in the Constitution before . . .

Day one

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/20/AR2009012004743.html
In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/21/23136/2196/558/686952

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/20/president-obama-officially-halts-gitmo-show-trials/

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g2koz1OqqNsQO15NDQw5LPVULiCgD95R5M5G1
One of President Barack Obama's first acts is to order federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until his administration can review them. . . .

http://www.slate.com/id/2209225/
The top Bush executive orders that Obama should scrap immediately. . . .

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=11031
Rahm Emanuel Signals Deep Defense Spending Cuts

Unfortunately, not EVERYTHING has changed

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/texas_senator_blocks_clintons_state_confirmation.php
[AP] The confirmation of Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of state will be held up for at least a day due to the objection of a single senator. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he wanted "a full and open debate and an up-or-down vote on Sen. Clinton's nomination." . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/20/141716/940/901/686593
[Obama] "We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. . . ."

[McJoan] It's back to reality, courtesy Sen. John "Box Turtle" Cornyn, in perhaps the most poorly timed and politically inept move he could make. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/not-playing-blame-game-by-digby.html

It sucks to be a Republican right now

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/20/colin-powell-tees-off-a-parting-shot-at-bush-cheney/

When will it end?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/judge_takes_cheneys_word_that_hell_hand_over_recor.php
[Zachary Roth] Dick Cheney may now be the former vice president, but a court ruling handed down yesterday, his last full day in office, could make it less likely that we'll ever get a full account of his role in crucial Bush administration decisions.

The Washington Post reports that a federal judge decided that a pledge from Cheney's office that it will turn over key records to the National Archives, as required by law, is good enough. . . .

In Minnesota: dead-ender Norm Coleman is starting to look pretty silly

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/not-even-the-inauguration-can-stop-litigation-in-minnesota.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/20/152435/043/851/686635

Glimpses from a Bush going-away party

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016519.php
“The most depressing event in the world” . . . [read on]

Rush Limbaugh hates America

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/20/142225/046/907/686595
I disagree fervently with the people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, "Well, I hope he succeeds. We've got to give him a chance." Why? . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/20/why-does-rush-limbaugh-hate-america/

Bonus item: Glenn Beck wept on Inauguration Day . . . but not for the reason you might think

http://www.americablog.com/2009/01/glenn-beck-cried.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

PBD 2.0

With this day, one of the primary purposes of this blog has been set aside. While disclosures and investigations of the Bush gang’s misdeeds will continue to unfold, and be of interest here, their significance moves into the past tense. We are willing neither to forgive nor forget, but there are other political challenges now.

For me, first among these is to keep our boots on the neck of a fallen Republican party: demoralized, directionless, and with no emergent leader on the horizon. Senior Republicans are quitting right and left, faced with the prospect of years in the minority. On some issues they may be able to demagogue and obstruct, but their message is more and more out of step with public sentiment and the situation in the world today. Demographically, they are at a growing electoral disadvantage in many parts of the country; and while they have strong pockets of support it is very hard right now to see these stitched together to shape a viable national party. Our aim must be to keep it that way.

If Obama and his people are smart – and I think they are very smart – they will find a way to shape policies that forge and mobilize a different national consensus, one based in progressive values but bringing into it new moderate and conservative constituencies. This has already required him to do things that anger and frustrate progressive groups, and we can never let him take our support for granted. But it will have enduring benefits to our larger purposes if he can leverage off, here and there, traditionally conservative and moderate groups whom we have not seen, and who do not see themselves, as part our traditional coalitions.

There will be resistance to this new kind of politics. Some will come from the left. More of it will come from a new generation of Republicans, lean and hungry, convinced that the failings of Bush and McCain were in not being conservative enough. Much of it will come from right-wing media, pundits, and think tanks, unchanging in their ideologies and with unlimited resources to give them voice.

And much of it will come from the mainstream media sources who will eventually decide that their own interests require them to maintain narratives around the traditional political polarities because conflict creates drama and because you can never be accused of bias as long as you frame every narrative in an on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand manner – which means that they will always give oppositional voices from the right disproportionate exposure and credence, and which means that the professional chattering class from the right will always be able to secure air time regardless of their track record.

Through all of this, PBD will still have a role: collating important information and progressive analysis and commentary, to be sure, but also holding a mirror up to the simulacra of political legitimacy that conservative politicians and pundits have always seemed to be able to recreate no matter what their failings. Well, they’ve failed very, very badly now, over a period of many years – and people have seen them for what they are. Now we must counteract the usual pendulum of conventional opinion that says, things will come around and they’ll get their turn again.

Or as a wise politician once said, “There's an old saying in Tennessee – I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee – that says, fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can't get fooled again."

In today’s news . . .

Off to a fast start

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/us/politics/19show.html
On his first full day in office, Mr. Obama will order American military leaders to plan the speedy withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and will direct his economic advisers to do everything possible to avert a prolonged downturn and double-digit unemployment, his top aides said Sunday.

Within the first week, he might also issue executive orders calling for the closure of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba even though the process might take time . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016495.php

The end of Gitmo?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/washington/19gitmo.html
For nearly six years, Haji Bismullah, an Afghan detainee at Guantánamo Bay, has insisted that he was no terrorist, but had actually fought the Taliban and had later been part of the pro-American Afghan government.

By reviewing government documents, court records and media reports, The Times was able to compile an approximate list of detainees currently at Guantánamo.

Over the weekend, the Bush administration flew him home after a military panel concluded that he “should no longer be deemed an enemy combatant.”

Asked about the panel’s decision, which was not publicly announced and seemed to acknowledge a mistake of grand proportions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said, “Mr. Bismullah was lawfully detained as an enemy combatant based on the information that was available at the time.”

The decision was part of a pattern that has emerged in the closing chapter of the administration. In the last three months, at least 24 detainees have been declaredimproperly held by courts or a tribunal — or nearly 10 percent of the population at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba . . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016510.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/gitmo_war_court_back_for_what_may_be_last_session_2.php

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/19/coach-bush-is-3-23-in-real-courts-on-gitmo-show-trials-katyal-the-hero-of-hamdan-to-join-obama-administration/

No more Bush pardons?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/washington/20sentence.html
President Bush on Monday commuted the sentences of two former Border Patrol agents imprisoned for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler, but he was preparing to leave office without granting clemency to any better-known figures or government officials who could face liability over administration policies. . . .

A senior White House official said that the commutations announced on Monday would be Mr. Bush’s last acts of clemency before he leaves office.

The Bush gang (again) refuses to turn over emails, despite a court order

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/01/18/bushco-you-cant-have-scooters-and-turdblossoms-emails/

At the same time, another court says Cheney can decide what needs to be archived from his office

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/court_rules_in_favor_of_cheney_in_lawsuit.php

Reversing stem cell policy

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016504.php

Reversing abortion policy

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/01/19/sources-obama-may-use-executive-order-reverse-abortion-policy/

Rebuilding the union base: the Employee Free Choice Act

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/18/1946/94116/54/685406

Building a permanent base

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/17/AR2009011703093.html
President-elect Barack Obama yesterday announced the formation of a group to continue the grass-roots engagement that was a hallmark of his presidential campaign, but lobbying now for his policy priorities in the White House.

"As president, I will need the help of all Americans to meet the challenges that lie ahead," Obama said in a video message e-mailed to supporters and reporters. "That's why I'm asking people like you, who fought for change during the campaign, to continue fighting for change in your communities."

The new group, called Organizing for America, will be a "special project" of the Democratic National Committee, according to Obama transition spokesman Ben LaBolt, and it appears to be the primary vehicle for issue advocacy for Obama's agenda. It will also be the keeper of Obama's e-mail list, which has 13 million addresses. . . .

What next in the still-unresolved Minnesota Senate race?

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/01/18/franken-coleman-update-011809-take-it-away-sara/

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/coleman-camp-count-every-vote----all-of-them.php

The future of Fox News

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_01/016508.php
Of course they're "re-energized." Rich Lowry recently noted, "People get ginned up when the other side is in power," and pointed to the fact that the National Review's circulation increased to 280,000 during the first two years of the Clinton administration, up from 150,000.

Fox News no doubt expects to take advantage of a similar trend, and it's probably right. There's a not-insignificant number of people in the country who are saying, "Tell us why Obama's wrong." It's a group of folks who need a cable network, and Fox News will fill the niche.

Bonus items: Tough to be a right-wing blog

http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/20/so-slow-news-day/
[Powerline, July 2005] It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice.

[Powerline, January 2009] Everything considered, I give the Bush administration a B-.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

EPIC FAIL

Today’s posting is entirely devoted to a look back over the events that made the Bush years the disaster they have been for the country. I’ve picked only representative links for the main events – so much more can be said, and will be said, about the failures of George Bush and the people he surrounded himself with. It is a record that leaves behind a trail of lingering damage of every sort: economic, military, environmental, and on and on. Now a new administration has to begin by fixing what Bush has ruined. He has been the anti-Midas. Well, it’s good to see him go. Good riddance.

http://www.slate.com/id/2202262/pagenum/all/
The highest form of fail—the epic fail—involves not just catastrophic failure but hubris as well. Not just coming in second in a bike race but doing so because you fell off your bike after prematurely raising your arms in victory. . . .




2000: Bush v. Gore

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/sunstein/chapter9.html
There is an old question: does a judge decide how a case will come out, and then find a justification in the law? Or does the judge approach the case with no strong prior inclination and follow the legal materials where they lead? . . .

The extraordinary litigation that led to the Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v Gore allows us to speculate, with more confidence than usual, about how the Justices approached the issues presented by that case. The fast pace of the proceedings, and the relative novelty of the legal issues, made the Justices’ thought processes unusually visible. They could not, as they ordinarily would, wait for the lower court proceedings to be fully completed and take as much time as they needed before committing themselves publicly to a position. They had to respond to two separate decisions of the Florida Supreme Court very quickly and very publicly.

The conclusion that emerges, in my view, is that several members of the Court—perhaps a majority—were determined to overturn any ruling of the Florida Supreme Court that was favorable to Vice President Gore . . . [read on]

“You’ve covered your ass, now”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200608240013
CNN reported on Bush's receipt of the now-famous August 6, 2001, memo titled "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US." But the program omitted any mention of Suskind's report that, after Bush was briefed by a CIA officer on the memo, Bush replied, "All right. You've covered your ass, now."





“America is under attack!”

http://www.buzzflash.com/editorial/04/08/edi04057.html
For that reason, we are offering, if you click here, a few minutes of George W. Bush sitting in the Booker School classroom on September 11th, 2001, after he was notified that both twin towers had been attacked. (Bush will be notified of the second terrorist attack about one minute into the video and then sit another five minutes before the tape ends.)

We say, "show me," and what does this video show us?

* That Bush is a pawn and unable to act decisively until his handlers tell him what to do and hand him a script.
* That he put at risk the children and adults at Booker School by staying in the classroom, even though he might, the White House claimed, have been a target of the terrorist attacks that day.
* That he calmly listened to a pet goat story and complimented the children on their reading skills as Americans and foreigners burned alive or jumped to their deaths from the twin towers.
* That he did not ask a question of Andrew Card or seek any further information on the terrorist attack on America until his handlers had decided FOR him what he should do.
* That he showed the chronic lack of leadership that has characterized his entire life, the scion of a family who are brand names that other forces use to advance an anti-American, Neo-Confederate, plutocratic, fundamentalist religious agenda. He cannot act on his own.
* That he chose to continue a photo-op with black children designed to give him the image of a "compassionate conservative" concerned about education for even black kids was more important than the national security of the United States.

Also note that Bush had been informed of the first attack even before he got into the classroom, so the several minutes (at least five before this tape ends) that he spent waiting to be told what to do just represents the time after the SECOND attack.

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WztB6HzXxI

“The people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon"

http://www.geocities.com/theyellowroseoftexas04/President-Bush-Ground-Zero.html
[September 2001] "I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

The workers broke into spontaneous chants of "USA, USA" as Bush took a small American flag and waved it.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/14/barnes-osama/
[September 2006] Barnes said that Bush told him capturing bin Laden is “not a top priority use of American resources.” . . .

Bush’s priorities have always been skewed. Just months after declaring he wanted bin Laden “dead or alive,” Bush said, “I truly am not that concerned about him.” Turning his attention away from bin Laden, Bush trained his focus on Iraq — a country he now admits had “nothing” to do with 9/11. . . .

90% → 22%

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/16/opinion/polls/main4728399.shtml
President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent. . .

Mr. Bush enjoyed a high approval rating of 90 percent -- the highest of any president -- following the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. . .





“We’re taking him out”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/03/24/timep.saddam.tm/
"F___ Saddam. we're taking him out." Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. . . . It was March 2002 . . .

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE4DF173CF931A15753C1A9649C8B63
[October 2002] President Bush said today that the United States was trying diplomacy ''one more time'' to disarm Saddam Hussein ''peacefully'' . . .



WMD lies

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html
[July 2002] C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action. . . .

http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/snieg_wmd_main.htm
It was not just Saddam's alleged possession of WMDs that served as the Bush administration's primary justification for launching a preemptive attack on Iraq but also the concomitant grave threat that Saddam's weapons posed to American security: that is, the possibility of his using them against the United States. The imputed immediate danger meant that Washington could not safely rely on the slow process of searching by UN weapons inspectors. . . .

More: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/WMDlies.html

Chalabi

http://www.slate.com/id/2173554/nav/tap2/
[Fred Kaplan] The dispute concerns what many regard as the Bush administration's single biggest mistake in the first few months after Saddam Hussein's ouster—the order, in May 2003, to disband the Iraqi army.

It was a move that put 250,000 young Iraqi men out of a job, out on the streets, angry, and armed—and all but guaranteed the violent chaos to come. . . .

[Paul] Bremer is right about one thing: It wasn't him. . . . In his memoir, published last year, Bremer wrote that he was handed the orders—and told to announce them as soon as possible—by Douglas Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy. . . . Feith was a messenger, too, reporting directly to Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, and ultimately to Secretary Rumsfeld.

Did Rumsfeld write the order? Bob Woodward, in State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, quotes Rumsfeld as saying that the order came from elsewhere. Does that mean it came from the White House? My guess is it came from Vice President Dick Cheney, if only because his is one of the most leakproof offices in Washington. Had the order originated someplace else, that fact would have leaked by now. It's like the dog that didn't bark in the Sherlock Holmes story; unbarking dogs in this administration, especially at this late date of decrepitude, tend to be the hounds in Cheney's kennel.

But where did Cheney get the idea? A good guess here is that it came from that familiar meddler of the era: the Iraqi exile, chief neocon guru, and suave banker-mathematician, Ahmad Chalabi.

Chalabi, recall, was interested in two things above all, once Saddam Hussein was toppled: removing Baathists from every level of activity in Iraqi politics and society and installing his militia, the Free Iraqi Forces, as the foundation of a new Iraqi army. . . .

http://www.slate.com/id/2096813
The Iraqi exile, MIT-trained mathematician, and wealthy businessman who plotted with high-level U.S. officials to return to Baghdad and grab the reins in a post-Saddam government—to bring to his homeland the virtues of modernization and Western-style democracy—has now joined forces with Iraq's most prominent anti-American theocrats. . . .

As president of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group set up in 1992 (in part with CIA money), Chalabi pushed persistently for an armed overthrow of Saddam, especially after George W. Bush was elected and some of Chalabi's chief sympathizers—most notably Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle—gained high posts in the Pentagon.

As the Bush officials stoked the war flames, for several convergent reasons, Chalabi played a key role. He found defectors who affirmed suspicions that Saddam was building weapons of mass destruction. He assured Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney that the Iraqi people would greet American liberators with flowers; that his militia, the Free Iraqi Fighters, would restore order; and that, after a few months, the vast majority of U.S. troops could go home, leaving behind a small, inconspicuous force—25,000 to 50,000 soldiers—at bases to be set up well outside the cities. The new Chalabi government would then be a vehicle for economic modernization, Western-style democracy, and—by the force of its example—the transformation of the entire Middle East. . . .

Public opinion polls taken by the occupation authority were indicating that, of the 25 members of the Governing Council, Chalabi was by far the least popular. He had been airlifted into Iraq by a U.S. military plane and was seen as a tool of U.S. interests. . . .

“Mission Accomplished”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/28/mission.accomplished/
[October 2003] What was once viewed as a premier presidential photo op continues to dog President Bush six months after he landed on an aircraft carrier to declare "one victory" in the war on terrorism and an end to major combat operations in Iraq.

Attention turned Tuesday to a giant "Mission Accomplished" sign that stood behind Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln when he gave the speech May 1.

The president told reporters the sign was put up by the Navy, not the White House. . . .

Navy and administration sources said that though the banner was the Navy's idea, the White House actually made it.

Bush offered the explanation after being asked whether his speech declaring an end to major combat in Iraq under the "Mission Accomplished" banner was premature, given that U.S. casualties in Iraq since then have surpassed those before it. . . .

Two wars

http://www.usnews.com/articles/opinion/fajami/2008/09/24/the-world-that-bush-will-leave-to-his-successor.html
It was his fate, and our country's lot, that so quintessentially American a figure as George W. Bush would take this country so deeply into the complications of Arab and Muslim affairs. The man who had promised a "humble foreign policy" pushed into Kabul and Baghdad . . .

Eight years—and two wars—later, that American unity is a distant memory, and the war in Iraq had ruptured that national consensus on America's proper role in foreign lands. The successor of this terribly consequential and controversial president will have to knit together a new consensus, set out to find a sustainable mix of assertiveness and restraint, and leave his own mark on history as he grapples with President Bush's bequest.




Dick Cheney, the Co-President

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22060
When George W. Bush testified before the 9/11 Commission, Dick Cheney was with him in the Oval Office. . . . [read on]

Plame

http://thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal/
23 Administration Officials Involved In Plame Leak . . .

“Compassionate conservative”

http://www.counterpunch.org/auerback11222005.html
Bush's "Compassionate Conservatism", a Report Card . . .

Abu Ghraib

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/02/ted_zimbardo










Torture

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9956644/
Bush was asked about reports that the CIA was separately maintaining secret prisons in eastern Europe and Asia to interrogate al-Qaida suspects — and demands by the International Red Cross for access to them.

Without confirming or denying the existence of such prisons, Bush said, “Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people.”

He pointedly noted that Congress shares that responsibility with the administration.

“We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do ... to that end in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture,” Bush said. . . .

More: http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff12182008.html

Gitmo

http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-06/2006-06-14-voa47.cfm
President Bush says he understands that many people are unhappy about the detention of suspected terrorists at the Guantanamo naval base.

It is a prison the United Nations has asked him to close, but Mr. Bush says that would be too dangerous.

"I would like to close Guantanamo, but I also recognize that we are holding some people who are darn dangerous and we better have a plan to deal with them in our courts," said Mr. Bush.

The president says he believes those detainees should face military tribunals, but he is waiting on a decision from the Supreme Court before moving forward.

Mr. Bush says eventually those prisoners will either be returned to their own countries or put on trial with legal counsel. . . .

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/18/opinion/edgitmo.php
In a long series of speeches and interviews, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have been crowing about Guantánamo Bay, secret prisons and abusive interrogations, claiming they met the highest legal standards and that no prisoner had been tortured.

Fortunately, the truth broke through, in the words of some of the very people ordered to carry out the policies. . . .

More: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/tuttle

Condi Rice

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/08/rice.transcript/
RICE: I think that concern about what I might have known or we might have known was provoked by some statements that I made in a press conference. I was in a press conference to try and describe the August 6 memo. . .

And I said, at one point, that this was a historical memo, that it was -- it was not based on new threat information. And I said, "No one could have imagined them taking a plane, slamming it into the Pentagon" -- I'm paraphrasing now -- "into the World Trade Center, using planes as a missile." . . .

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States." . . .

Swift boats

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5797164/
[August 2004] President Bush on Monday criticized a commercial that accused John Kerry of inflating his own Vietnam War record, more than a week after the ad stopped running, and said broadcast attacks by outside groups have no place in the race for the White House.

“I think they’re bad for the system,” added Bush, who had ignored calls to condemn the ad while it was on the air. . . .

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-04-04-bush-sam-fox_N.htm
When the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was poised to reject a controversial Republican fundraiser as ambassador to Belgium last week, the White House quietly withdrew the nomination.

Withdrawn, but not for long. President Bush on Wednesday bypassed the Senate and used a recess appointment to name St. Louis businessman Sam Fox, 77, to the diplomatic post.

Fox's nomination had drawn fire because he donated $50,000 to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth . . .

Ohio 2004

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/2004votefraud_ohio.html
Vote Fraud 2004: How Ohio was "Delivered" to Bush

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?

Social Security

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-11-bush-social-security_x.htm
[January 2005] President Bush launched a high-profile campaign on Tuesday to convince Congress that it must overhaul the nation's 70-year-old Social Security system before it goes "flat bust."

Bush says changing the retirement program is the top priority of his second term . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6906269/
President Bush, on a road trip to promote private Social Security accounts, acknowledged Friday that his proposal would not by itself fix the future financial problems of the retirement program. . . .




“Heck of a job”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/02/09/brown/
It's not blackmail, exactly, but former FEMA Director Michael Brown sure seems to be putting the screws to the White House that praised him, then dumped him, for his role in the Hurricane Katrina fiasco.

As Congress complains about White House stonewalling on Katrina, Brown's lawyer has written a letter to White House counsel Harriet Miers in which he says this his client is prepared to go public with "all facts" about the federal government's response to the hurricane . . .

One of my most-linked postings on PBD

http://pbd.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_pbd_archive.html#112584204969052885
[September 2005] Like the moment when the curtain is pulled back to reveal the levers and machinery that make a puny man appear to be a Great Wizard, the events unfolding around Hurricane Katrina have revealed to people the true George Bush – and even many of his strongest supporters are disillusioned and angry.

To most of PBD’s readers, this is no surprise, but after 9/11 Bush enjoyed an extraordinary level of support, even by many who did not vote for him, because in the wake of that horrible event people wanted a Man in Charge -- plain-spoken, humble, but strong and decisive.

But what they have seen for the past several months, on issue after issue (Iraq, Plame, Sheehan, Katrina) is a weasly, cowardly, defensive hair-splitter who continually ducks responsibility for his own actions and blames others. He doesn't even stick by his own tough-guy promises. . . .

Even worse, the timing of his unbelievably self-indulgent five week vacation and his dodging of the Wicked Witch Cindy Sheehan, followed up now by his belated and indifferent reaction to the suffering caused by the hurricane, have made people see him as the lazy, self-centered, smug, privileged, uncaring, and deeply unreflective man many of us have been calling him from the start.

Now, as the staged photo ops are revealed as just that, as his own words get redefined for him by Rove and the Communications Team, and as he continually, constantly hits false notes in trying to show and express the simulacrum of caring (for dead troops, for suffering Gulf Coast victims, for the opinions of anyone who doesn’t agree with him), he has reached his worst moment – a moment that Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush 41, and Clinton all reached – the moment when your one deepest character flaw is exposed, the one flaw that people will not forgive you for. The smug little rich boy who was plucked from a life of uneven accomplishment by his Daddy’s advisors, who saw him as an ambitious and malleable instrument for their plan to remake the government and transform the Middle East, now stands before us, manifestly unprepared for the moment. He doesn’t “get it,” but more damningly doesn’t think he has to.

Karl Rove

http://www.cs.umass.edu/~immerman/play/opinion05/WithoutADoubt.html
I had a meeting with a senior adviser to Bush. He expressed the White House's displeasure, and then he told me something that at the time I didn't fully comprehend -- but which I now believe gets to the very heart of the Bush presidency.

The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''

The war on science

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0705-04.htm

http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2004/10/the_bush_war_on.html

http://www.alternet.org/environment/78056/

Harriet Miers

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/politics/politicsspecial1/03cnd-scotus.html
[October 3, 2005] President Bush nominated Harriet E. Miers, the White House counsel, as his choice to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor this morning. . .

Ms. Miers, 60, a longtime confidante of the president's, has never been a judge. . . Mr. Bush said of Ms. Miers, "She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice." He added that Ms. Miers, "will not legislate from the bench."

The president said that while considering his choice in recent days, Ms. Miers had "stood out as being exceptionally well suited" to replace the retiring Justice O'Connor. . . .

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051027-2.html
[October 27, 2005] “Today, I have reluctantly accepted Harriet Miers' decision to withdraw her nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States. . . .”

Rumsfeld

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15516265/
[November 1, 2006 – before the election] President Bush said Wednesday he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency, extending a job guarantee to two of the most-criticized members of his team. . . .

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15622266/
[November 6, 2006 – after the election] Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses. . . . According to the source, Bush agreed Rumsfeld should be removed after seeing election results favoring Democrats. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/15/AR2007081502089.html
Donald H. Rumsfeld, who came to symbolize the Bush administration's problems in the war in Iraq, resigned as secretary of defense one day before last fall's elections, although President Bush did not announce the move until the day after the elections. . . .

Not only did Bush not telegraph his intention to replace Rumsfeld, but he also publicly stated in the days before the elections that he envisioned Rumsfeld serving in his administration for the foreseeable future.

"I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign," Bush said when asked about the statement by reporters. "And so the only way to answer that question and to get you on to another question was to give you that answer." . . .

Alberto

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1714926720070820
Not since the Watergate scandal more than 30 years ago has the U.S. Justice Department been as politicized as under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, current and former officials said.

They said the department's integrity has been damaged, employee morale has been hurt and Gonzales' relations with the Democratic-controlled Congress have deteriorated beyond repair in a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, including some Republicans.

Several senators said last month they had lost confidence in Gonzales and his ability to head the Justice Department . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003920.php
The verdict is clear: Alberto Gonzales is the lying-est attorney general in recent history. . . .

Vacations

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/11/politics/uwire/main3927378.shtml
[Mar 11, 2008] President Bush recently spent his 879th day at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, since the Supreme Court, in all its great wisdom, elevated him to the presidency. This according to NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me," which noted that Bush broke former President Reagan's record for taking vacations from the White House . . .

879 days down on the ranch - which, if you're into arithmetic, works out to around 30 percent of eight years.

Surplus → Deficit

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/28/2009.deficit/index.html
[July 28, 2008] President Bush's budget chief blamed the faltering economy and the bipartisan stimulus package for the record $482 billion deficit the White House predicted for the 2009 budget year. . . .

President Bush inherited a budget surplus of $128 billion when he took office in 2001 but has since posted a budget deficit every year.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/n06437087-us-usa-budget/
[Jan 7, 2009] The U.S. budget deficit will swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009 . . .







What failure looks like

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/18/poll.bush.presidency/
As George W. Bush spends his final days in office, a national poll suggests that two-thirds of Americans see his presidency as a failure. . . .

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040413-20.html
Q Thank you, Mr. President. In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You've looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?

THE PRESIDENT: I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it. (Laughter.) John, I'm sure historians will look back and say, gosh, he could have done it better this way, or that way. You know, I just -- I'm sure something will pop into my head here in the midst of this press conference, with all the pressure of trying to come up with an answer, but it hadn't yet.

Bonus items: Goofs and bloopers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5skcF6Kljtw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiPrRG5lNU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFKwFxDp660

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKD_BSMXVjg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kotWVVE26v8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxkpm7bH7j4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lwbSdL2s00

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/174420/george_w_bush_slipups/

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