Begala: Bush is "home alone" (surrounded by weak-kneed toadies)

[BurtWorm]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/26/23727/338

Tom Petty was wrong. The waiting is not the hardest part.

Sure, all of what Eric Alterman dubbed "the punditocracy" has a severe case of indictus interruptus, but for President Bush and his White House staff, the worst is yet to come. To be sure, waiting on a decision to indict is an exquisite form of torture. But what lies ahead is worse. If special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald does choose to indict one or more senior Bush White House officials, they will be the first top White House aides to be indicted in a decade and a half.

This is when a White House staffer earns his pay. The pressure of a federal criminal investigation - especially one in the media spotlight - is bone-crushing. My guess is that the strain is taking a gruesome toll. Already we hear rumors of President Bush exploding at his aides, at the President blaming Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and anyone else in sight for his woes.

This I know first hand: when The Boss explodes like that, there are two kinds of aides -- those who fight and those who flee. When he came to Washington, Mr. Bush surrounded himself with tough-minded people who seemed not to be afraid to stand up to him. But now his team is loaded with weak-kneed toadies, and Mr. Bush is home alone. Karl Rove, of course, is fending off a potential indictment. His prodigious brain has not entertained another thought in months. (That's why, I suspect, some months back Rove popped off and said liberals wanted to give terrorists psychotherapy after 9/11. It was a loopy, stupid, and distinctly un-Rovian, meltdown - the first public sign that the pressure was causing Karl to crack.)

[Cha]

1. I'm glad begala brought this

up cause I've been thinking about, too..

"(That's why, I suspect, some months back Rove popped off and said liberals wanted to give terrorists psychotherapy after 9/11. It was a loopy, stupid, and distinctly un-Rovian, meltdown - the first public sign that the pressure was causing Karl to crack.)"

What a putz you are, rover.

[Cha]

2. Ooooh, this is good!

"Mr. Bush would do well to augment his current staff, a C-Team if ever there was one, with some stronger characters. But to read the Bush-Miers correspondence is to gain a disturbing insight into Mr. Bush's personality: he likes having his ass kissed. Ms. Miers' cards and letters to the then-Governor of Texas belong in the Brown-Nosers Hall of Fame. You can be sure the younger and less experienced Bush White House aides are even more obsequious. The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups."

This should be engraved on everyones' mind!

[BurtWorm]

3. Ha ha! That's our Bush!

:eyes:

:hi:

[Cha]

4. Thanks for this article, burt.

There's a lot of speculation that this has been a ploy to get in a real zealot but I'm wondering if the arrogant sob just wanted his "personal nanny" on the sc?

:hi:

[BurtWorm]

6. I think you're right.

I think the Bush boy is motivated not by ideology but by personal taste (which is in his asshole, apparently). His biggest goal in life is to outdo his dad. And I think he will. I think he will outdo everyone in the race to the bottom.

[VolcanoJen]

8. "He likes having his ass kissed."

Well, we've all known that for quite awhile, haven't we?

Really great stuff from Begala!

[SammyWinstonJack]

9. Simply scathing!

"he likes having his ass kissed." That much is obvious and always has been. Pinhead** has a :puffpiece: ego twice the size of Dallas, on the one hand. One the other, he displays a serious lack of self-esteem and self-confidence. He's one messed up individual.

[VolcanoJen]

5. On CNN, he just said the most interesting thing:

"If a President loses a Supreme Court battle in his second term, he's officially a lame duck. If members of his senior staff really are indicted tomorrow, he's a dead duck."

[BurtWorm]

7. I hope he's as right as that sounds.

:toast: