USNews: GOP insiders see Dowd's defection as a possible larger rebellion against Bush

[sabra]

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/070402/2dowd.htm

<snip>

Dowd's defection is causing Republican insiders to wonder whether this is the start of a larger rebellion against Bush by his former supporters. GOP insiders say this could easily happen among GOP members of Congress on the most important issue of the day: Iraq. If Bush's current buildup of combat troops fails to demonstrate strong progress by late summer, it's very possible that Republicans in the Senate and House will give up on the war effort and join Democrats in voting for a timetable for withdrawal.

[waiting for hope]

1. Today when Dowd's name came up - the

grimace on his face was palpable.

[sabra]

2. BushCo also knows that if they try to smear him, it would just make things worse...

[rfranklin]

17. They've already smeared him by saying his life is in turmoil ...

or something like that. My life life has been in turmoil since this bozo got into the White House in 2000.

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Frankly, I'm a little surprised the WH attacks are along the lines of

his emotional state instead of the easy flip-flopper label.

[w4rma]

6. For gosh sakes don't give them ideas. (nt)

[blm]

29. Not me - they'll use that when he starts singing about election fraud.

He'll be 'crazy' by then.

[EVDebs]

4. Only in a few months, when they realize the GOP's future is at stake,

will they do what Goldwater was forced to do: take a delegation of Rs to the Oval Office and request a resignation.

At least Nixon had the decency to resign, I saw that on a bumper sticker. Republicans should like seeing that around DC !

[salin]

9. then the whole bushco fiasco will try to be painted as "bad apples"

and an abberation rather than displays of the real republican party.

[eagleswing963]

33. Never Happen; Bush Resigns

I will bet life he'll tell the RNC to fuck off and kick them out of his office

[Jesterstear]

5. Let's be honest...

This doesn't matter one bit. Now if Bush was in his first term and running for a second, this would be huge. But the fact of the matter is that Bush can not run again, and now the Repubs will go into survival mode and do as much as they can to break away from him and not have his stink tarnish their future plans any more than necessary. Within the next year it's a guarantee that you'll see even more people break away from Bush until he's left with Rove, Rumsfeld and Rice.

Much like it was the theme of the Democrats in 2004, the theme of the Republicans in 08 will be "we're not Bush."

[Skidmore]

8. Like it or not, the * is an albatross around the Republic party's collective

neck. They own him. They hugged him close all these years and when he told them to jump, they just asked "How high?" And the funny thing is, that regardless of how much they protest, they are *. Until the Republics renounce his policies and do something, anything, even close to supportug legislation or policies to save this nation, they deserve every bit of scorn they get. Let 'em hang on to his grubby and tattered coattails. Follow him into the cesspool he and his sycophants have created. Let them wallow for a while longer. I want this nation to be so thoroughly sick of them and sickened by the callous disregard of the Republics for decency and the lack of true compassion that these greedy bastards have shown that they have to retire the Republic Party name for good.

[wiggs]

11. Unless the dems are honest in expressing the truth about WH corruption, failure,

immoral policies, corporatism, and brutality (and doing something about it) the GOP will steal the thunder when (not if) they cut ties to the WH. They must throw the administration under the bus at some point.

Administration officials (including ambassadors and diplomats) have been leaving gov't in droves since 2002 and have been largely ignored. They will still be ignored, but GOP will officially start distancing themselves now as well.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. with each new worm, the apple gets more rotten, too.

OK, so I badly mixed my metaphor, but you get the point. I completely agree that the longer that they stick around and support him, the worse off they get. It is slowly dawning on them each and every day.

[whistle]

13. This could bring down the Bush/Cheney house of cards though

...By forcing Bush into a corner, we know it is Shrub's* nature to be defiant and arrogant and make huge blunders. That in turn would bring on impeachment and the republican Bush backers would all go into the political "black-hole" with him. That would mean a bigger majority in both houses for the democratic party and almost certainly a presidential victory in 2008.

[yardwork]

14. I agree that this is a problem - and welcome to DU!

We can't let the Republican Party blame this all on Bush. We need to expose the corruption within the entire party.

[NewJeffCT]

16. It does matter, however

If enough GOPers abandon Bush, it means the troops come home that much sooner.

[FatDave]

25. Exactly what I was going to say.

We only need 60 votes in the senate to end the war.

[eagleswing963]

34. 67 Actually

If 67 senators voted on cutting all funding for the war, Bush would have no choice but to pull out.

Find Republican senators, write them, email their ass off. Let them know that no matter how they have done for their state, they are out of a job next tiem they ask to be re elected.

Its the only way to end this!

[FatDave]

36. Doh!

You're right. 2/3rds would be 67. Math never was my subject.

[deucemagnet]

7. They could be on to something there.

Two more books by insiders Vic Gold and George Tenet are due out soon.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/whispers/articles/070401/9whisplead_print.htm

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/GOP_insider_Bush_Dan_Quayle_in_0402.html

It should be interesting.

[Botany]

10. Our long national nightmare is going to be over very soon.

The repugs are going to dump bush and it is going to be soon.

94 to 2 Senate vote
323 to 70 House vote (rough #s)

When "they" had a chance to support the President, Gonzales, and the Patriot Act.

[yardwork]

15. Unfortunately, the nightmare won't end with Bush

We need to really clean house this time. We gave the Republicans a pass after Watergate, and a big pass after Iran-Contra. This time - no passes. The entire Republican Party is rotten to the core and needs to be cleaned out. Only then can the healing begin.

[Botany]

18. Many of the crooks are not really republicans but just thugs & thieves

Dwight Eisenhower, Chuck Percy, Barry Goldwater, and others were far better
men than these thugs who claim to be "republicans" now.

They have used political power and corporate functions to gain control of huge
areas of Government and media.

But right now we need to move in baby steps to remove this cancer on America's
soul and the best way is to expose their scams and schemes. Although, one of
"their" majors sources of power is the control of so much of the media. Bush did
one year of "community service" for coke in the 1970s, had 3 failed businesses,
was or still is an alcoholic, made his money on on insider trading, went AWOL,
mentally was not all there, had no knowledge of international affairs, and was
made President in nothing less then a coup and yet the American public knew
nothing about this thanx to media control.

You are right we need to clean house ... and the job will be huge.

[rman]

27. Who coincidentally act to the benefit of Big Capital, which isn't going away

any time soon.
They will still be able to find a couple of Howard Hunts, Oliver Norths, politicians and a president or two.

[yardwork]

30. I agree with you 100% about the media

The corporate-owned media benefits from these crooked policies. They make sure that most Americans stay clueless about what is really going on. John Kerry was swift-boated, but w was a war hero, yadda yadda yadda.

[ComerPerro]

19. Not so sure about that, but I am betting GOP canddiates in 08 will distance from Bush

[Ganja Ninja]

21. You ain't seen nothing yet.

GOP candidates will be falling all over themselves in 2008 to throw Bush under their campaign buses. Buy popcorn futures now.

[DFW]

20. A few things to point out

Although some of them have already been addressed here:

A rebellion against Bush is like refusing to eat leftovers
you threw out last week. It's not like there's a chance of
their coming back, so what are you risking by making such
a "bold" statement? Nothing.

But the nightmare loosed by Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony
Kennedy will not end unless we retake the White House. Not only
is there Iraq and potential other misuse of our military (any-
one for making the DEFENSE Department live up to its name again?).

The one thing that frightens me the most about the next president
being a Republican is the prospect of the next Justice of our
Supreme Court being picked from the Scalia-Alito-Thomas-Roberts
mold. We'd need something like a 65-35 majority in the Senate to
be certain that no such nominee would get through, and we aren't
going to get it.

I don't care how much you may hate one of the Democratic candidates,
even if her name is Hillary. If you think that refusing to vote
Democratic is worth another Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court,
with the resulting rights of White House ordered "agents" to bust
down your door at 4 AM and take you off some place as an enemy
combatant (i.e. Democrat) to be held for 3 years without trial, or
to jail you for visiting an abortion clinic, or even participating
in a demonstration--well if you think that, we just don't see eye to eye.

NOTHING is worth that IMHO. Whatever you may think of Hillary, if she is elected
President, then it's a sure thing she will never propose such a candidate
for the Court. She will propose another Stephen Breyer, and he'll sail
through confirmation. If our nominee is ANY of the names in play here, be
it Clark, Clinton, Gore, Biden, Richardson, Edwards, Dodd, or Obama, I will vote for
them. All I have to do is say "Supreme Court" and I won't even have to hold
my nose.

[redqueen]

24. Great post.

:thumbsup:

[DFW]

37. Thanks btw!

Every so often, I get these coherency attacks. The seldom last.........

[FatDave]

26. Anybody who refuses to vote for the democratic nominee in '08...

...is not a real democrat. Do what you want in the primaries, but when the general election roles around, vote for the democrat, no matter how much you wanted somebody else to be there. Even a corparatist democrat is better than the best republican. And you better believe the republican voters will toe the party line, so you better too.

[yardwork]

31. Absolutely in agreement with you.

Sure, I'd love to have a Green candidate, but I'm not about to risk having another Republican in office. I'll vote for the Democratic nominee, just as I have always done before. And I'm not participating in any attacks on the various Democratic candidates now, either. Any one of them would be acceptable compared to the alternative!

[DFW]

32. Exactly: the alternative!

If the alternative doesn't scare the living expletive deleted
out of every one here, I'd like to know why.

[wicket]

22. K & R

:kick:

[GreenTea]

23. Complete silliness...Don't hold your breath waiting...as that's just what they want you to

be doing.

The White House will soon be trashing Dowd just like ALL the others who left or were fired and the republican controlled/owned corporate media picks it right up and trashes them until people believe it's fact.

Don't be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for more or your as silly as they think you are.

[eagleswing963]

35. Soon Ann Coulter will call him a "faggot"

Just like this great "Christian" did with Edwards!

[stevietheman]

28. I don't think we'll have to wait until "late summer" to see the tide turn

It looks like we will actually soon see _enough_ slippage amongst Republicans, especially with the continued "whack-a-mole" violence surrounding Baghdad and McCain's "hat trick" tour, where we'll see enough votes to pass a hard withdrawal date. I think we will see this *before* summer.

[19jet54]

38. The Future...

... my predication is that more congressional seats will fall to the democrats in '08, maybe even the Presidency.
More Republicans, Conservatives & Independents will vote the Democratic ticket.
America is sick of "compassionate conservatives" killing people for a lie.

GWB-WPE