Old Guys Dispatched To Discipline Juvenile Delinquent-Bush (Maureen Dowd)

[kpete]

Op-Ed Columnist
A Come-to-Daddy Moment
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: November 9, 2006

Poppy Bush and James Baker gave Sonny the presidency to play with and he broke it. So now they’re taking it back.

They are dragging W. away from those reckless older guys who have been such a bad influence and getting him some new minders who are a lot more practical.

In a scene that might be called “Murder on the Oval Express,” Rummy turned up dead with so many knives in him that it’s impossible to say who actually finished off the man billed as Washington’s most skilled infighter. (Poppy? Scowcroft? Baker? Laura? Condi? The Silver Fox? Retired generals? Serving generals? Future generals? Troops returning to Iraq for the umpteenth time without a decent strategy? Democrats? Republicans? Joe Lieberman?)

The defense chief got hung out to dry before Saddam got hung. The president and Karl Rove, underestimating the public’s hunger for change or overestimating the loyalty of a fed-up base, did not ice Rummy in time to save the Senate from teetering Democratic. But once Sonny managed to heedlessly dynamite the Republican majority — as well as the Middle East, the Atlantic alliance and the U.S. Army — then Bush Inc., the family firm that snatched the presidency for W. in 2000, had to step in. Two trusted members of the Bush 41 war council, Mr. Baker and Robert Gates, have been dispatched to discipline the delinquent juvenile and extricate him from the mother of all messes.


more (and NO Firewall Today) at:
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/opinion/09dowd.html?hp

[Warpy]

1. Hanging onto Rumsfeld until after the election was a blunder

of absolutely epic proportions. It was the most serious political mistake this bunch has made.

It's been reported in the press over the last five years that Rumsfeld had tried to resign several times, but was persuaded (intimidated?) by Cheney to stay on. He's Cheney's man, remember, not Stupid's.

I imagine the White House walls are stripped to the horsehair plaster, the language in the exalted chambers having blistered away all paint and wallpaper.

[alfredo]

3. bush had to choose between helping his congress or himself.

If he had fired Rummy before the election it may have helped hold the Senate, but he decided to help himself by appearing strong after the election. It also deflected some attention away from the disastrous mid terms. It wasn't a mistake, it was calculated. bush didn't care about his fellow Republicans, he only thought of himself.


He threw his own party under the bus.

[SoFlaJet]

2. Great writing

Man I miss reading her stuff-hmmm.who knows maybe that now we won congress they might just let the masses read her again-coincidence that today we can?

[GliderGuider]

4. There was a little "Aha!" moment for me in this line:

“Baker’s no fool,” a Bush 41 official said. “He wasn’t going to go out there with a plan for Iraq and have Rummy shoot it down. He wanted a receptive audience. Everyone had to be on the same page before the plan is unveiled.”

What a neat piece of gamesmanship - killing two birds with one stone. Rummy is sacrificed as a scapegoat to appease the gods of electoral discontent, and the way is simultaneously paved for the introduction of a new direction for Iraq. That's a pretty good return on investment for James, Poppy and the Deep Politics gang.

We had best keep our wits about us - the Kraken wakes.

[hlthe2b]

5. thx, KPete.. I've missed her "snark" especially now...

Why no firewall today? I suppose it is too much to ask that they might be putting their columnists back up for we, poor masses?


K&R