The “Bush Effect” – Hopefully for a Third and LAST Time
By Mary Lyon
Third time’s a charm, maybe?
I’ve compiled three of these lists now. In 2006, I issued the first one, looking back on everything George W. Bush has adversely affected since he first arrived in the Oval Office. Just a damage assessment, really. At the time, I thought it would be instructive to look back, at year’s end, over what many Bush critics have come to refer to as his “Reverse Midas Touch” – everything he touches turns to something far more foul, germ-laden, and smelly than gold. It ran at least nine pages. Last time I looked, the page count had expanded to 17.
I say “Third and Hopefully LAST Time” for a reason, at this writing. I’m hoping against hope that we can be done with this list, as we are technically done with George W. Bush, once he FINALLY leaves the White House – the house The People awarded to Barack Obama - on January 20th, 2009. Unfortunately, I know I’m just dreaming, really, because the effect of George W. Bush’s “leadership” over his party and our country for the past eight long, grueling and shameful years will prove to be the “gift” that keeps on giving. It’s probably going to take more than simply an additional eight years to undo all the damage this individual has heaped upon our country, our reputation, our democratic system, our Constitution, our cities, our states, our environment, and our people. The problems are so deep, widespread, systemic, and many-headed by now that it may indeed take decades to solve and reverse them all. And thanks to Bush’s surprisingly vocal and willfully ignorant apologists, some issues may never be properly corrected, or even addressed.
As with the lists of the past two Christmases, these items appear in no particular order and undoubtedly is STILL incomplete, despite being compiled over at least three Christmases of thought, the repeated ransacking of my memory, and a fair amount of Googling. Especially since many more of the sins of the Bush administration have yet to surface (or be whistle-blown by a partisan who suddenly grows a conscience or an investigative reporter who inexplicably decides to look into the voluminous Bush/Cheney abominations rather than an all-Blagojevich-all-the-time (Keep looking! It’s a Democrat! GOTTA be another blue dress in there or a way to destroy Obama maybe!) orgy. Feel free to add your own. If nothing else, it’s my attempt to offer a little fairness and balance to the spin-mongers who are desperately trying, nonstop, to recast the Bush legacy as that proverbial pig with lots of nice new lipstick. This list is filled with people, places, things, groups, and concepts well worth remembering. They will NEVER be quite the same again. So here goes…
THINGS BUSH AND THE REPUBLI-CON PARTY HAVE RUINED, INJURED, INSULTED, OR SOMEHOW COMPROMISED, directly OR indirectly:
The truth America as we knew it The Constitution of the United States of America The Congressional Page Program The presidency The moral high ground The presidential oath of office An independent press Accountability in government Republican Redistricting in Texas Everyone in Congress who voted for the IWR and the Patriot Act The State of the Union speech The Democratic Party The Republican Party The Bible The Methodist Church The Southern Baptists The evangelical movement The American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, Federalist Society, et al The CIA The FBI Executive privilege The Presidential Daily Brief George Herbert Walker Bush The Bush “family franchise” – its “entitlement” to the White House Going to Rehab Tom Delay Bob Ney Mark Foley Tom Reynolds Don Sherwood “Mean” Jean Schmidt Dennis Hastert John Boehner Mitch McConnell Jack Abramoff Roger Ailes Rupert Murdoch Fox News Channel Bill O'Reilly The “War on Christmas” Randy "Duke" Cunningham Conrad Burns Larry Craig Harold Ford Bob Corker Saxby Chambliss Jim Martin Bill Clinton Hillary Clinton Ed Gillespie Ari Fleischer Scott McClellan Jeff Gannon Talon News Iraq Afghanistan “Scooter” Libby Douglas Feith Harvey Pitt Brent Scowcroft Richard Clarke The SEC Christopher Cox Ben Bernanke Henry Paulson Free market economics “Compassionate Conservatism” “Trickle-down” tax policy Government non-interventionism Arnold Schwarzenegger GOP internet consultant Michael Connell Colin Powell Michael Powell The city of New Orleans Michael "Brownie" Brown Joseph Albaugh FEMA The Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff The Houston Astrodome The World Trade Center The Pentagon (building) The federal budget The dollar American image abroad The Dixie Chicks Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and other celebrity “surrender monkeys” The “Jersey Girls” - 9/11 widows Toby Keith Pat Tillman Pat Tillman’s grieving family Judy Miller Matt Cooper Patrick Fitzgerald The New York Times The Washington Post The Los Angeles Times The National Review The Boston Globe Human Events The Washington Times The Weekly Standard Bob Woodward John Kerry John Edwards Mary Cheney Disney/ABC TV ClearChannel Communications Bernie Kerik Christie Todd Whitman Sandra Day O’Connor John G. Roberts Samuel Alito Dan Rather Mary Mapes CBS News ”60 Minutes” The Purple Heart Cindy Sheehan More than four-thousand American soldiers and their grieving families (and that’s strictly battlefield death toll – NOT including serious injury, PTSD, and deaths and suicides off the battlefield http://www.militarycity.com/valor/honor.html Weapons of Mass Destruction Hans Blix Mohammed al-Baradei Scott Ritter David Kay Lower Manhattan New York City in general (and its air quality) Kennebunkport, Maine Crawford, Texas The Hotel Del Coronado Stem cell research The Bill of Rights Harvard's MBA program Yale University The history major Cheerleading Misty May-Treanor The Segway Workers’ rights (especially during the last month or so) Environmental protections (especially during the last month or so) The right to medical care and prescriptions without pharmacists’ personal agendas (especially during the last month or so) “Healthy” Forests “Clear” Skies “No Child Left Behind” The polar bear The elderly Prescription drugs Social Security The “ownership” society “Personal responsibity” Valerie Plame Joseph Wilson Brewster/Jennings & Associates The CIA Richard Armitage Helen Thomas David Gregory Nancy Pelosi The Texas Air National Guard The Presidential Medal of Freedom George Tenet Paul Bremer Jay Garner John Poindexter John Negroponte John Bolton The United Nations The U.N. Security Council The 9/11 Commission - and its report The Iraq Study Group - and its report The swift boat Legitimate elections Phil Donahue The White House Press Corpse The White House Correspondents Association Dinner Stephen Colbert Rich Little Tom Daschle Harriet Miers Terri Schiavo Michael Schiavo Arthur Anderson Accounting Firm Enron – and its thousands of screwed-over employees and stock holders Kenny-boy Jeff Skilling Andy Fastow WorldCom WorldCom chief Bernie Ebbers and CFO Scott Sullivan Tyco International Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski, CFO Mark Swartz and ex-general counsel Mark Belnick Global Crossing Ltd. Global Crossing chief Gary Winnick Adelphia Communications Corp. Adelphia Chief John Rigas and sons The Federal Reserve Lehman Brothers Bear Stearns Merrill Lynch A.I.G. Morgan Stanley Washington Mutual Goldman Sachs The Dow Jones Industrial Average The Treasury Department The US taxpayer Corporate salaries and bonuses Fannie Mae Freddie Mac The “Big Three” US automakers Outsourcing Offshore tax shelters Habeas Corpus Ahmed Chalabi “Curveball” The White House Iraq Group The National Security Administration Henry Kissinger Richard Perle Donald Rumsfeld Paul Wolfowitz Kenneth "Cakewalk" Adelman Karen Hughes General Anthony Zinni General Eric Shinseki The Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad The World Bank Shaha Ali Riza – Wolfowitz’s girlfriend John Ashcroft James Comey David Safavian Susan Ralston The theory of Evolution The separation of church and state The separation of powers Max Cleland John McCain John McCain’s wife and adopted daughter The Kyoto Accords The Geneva Conventions Sibel Edmonds Private Jessica Lynch Lynndie England and her boyfriend Charles Graner AND their baby General Janis Karpinski British Prime Minister Tony Blair Retired General Ricardo Sanchez Vladimir Putin Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard Former French President Jacques Chirac Hamid Karzai The resurgent Taliban Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf Osama bin Laden (STILL at large) Waterboarding and other tortures Retired Major General Antonio Taguba (and the Taguba Report on Abu Ghraib) Retired CIA agent John Kiriakou Al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah Al Qaeda suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri Khalid Sheik Mohammed CIA Director Michael Hayden Hugo Chavez Fidel Castro Mahmoud Ahmedinejad The Sunnis The Shiites The Kurds The Framework Agreement with North Korea Katharine Harris Rick Santorum George "Macaca" Allen Gordon Smith Ted Stevens Wayne Allard Michelle Bachmann Lincoln Chafee Chuck Hagel John Warner John Sununu (the younger) Pete Domenici Heather Wilson Elizabeth Dole Norm Coleman Jim Gilmore Fred Thompson Tommy Thompson Rudy Giuliani Tom Tancredo Mike Huckabee Duncan Hunter Ron Paul Sam Brownback Alan Keyes Mitt Romney Sarah Palin Marilyn Musgrave Dusty Foggo Rick Renzi Harry Reid Kenneth Blackwell AIDS funding for Africa Robert Novak E. D. Hill Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy, and more “Fox & Friends” James Carville Tucker Carlson Charles Krauthammer Peggy Noonan Joe Scarborough Rita Cosby Joie Chen Dick Morris Ralph Reed Paul O'Neill John O'Neill - the FBI terrorism expert who died in the WTC, NOT the John Kerry-hater Morale at the Pentagon Morale in the military The PNAC – a complete list of signatories: http://rightweb.irc-online.org/charts/pnac-chart.php Bill Kristol Dick Cheney David Addington Michael Ledeen, etc. Norm Podhoretz Karl Rove Austin attorney Harry “Cheney shot me in the face” Whittington The Republican Majority in the House The Republican Majority in the Senate Saddam Hussein Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki The Morning-After pill The right to choose The right to privacy NPR Bill Frist Trent Lott Strom Thurmond Ray Nagin Mississippi governor Haley Barbour Former Lousiana governor Kathleen Blanco Brazil ("I didn't know you had black people in Brazil") Jeb Bush Paraguay Pox "News" Channel Rush Limbaugh Oxycontin James Baker III Lee Hamilton Former Gov Thomas Keane Ken Mehlman Tom Ridge Curt Weldon Bandar "Bush" Enjoyable flying Condoleezza Rice (or is that “Contradicta”?) The State Department The Defense Department The Justice Department The Labor Department The Transportation Department The Commerce Department The Energy Department The Department of Veterans Affairs The Interior Department – and every other thoroughly-compromised Cabinet department Mark McKinnon, “Maverick Media”, “Public Strategies Inc.” Peter Wehner – White House Office of Strategic Initiatives Laura Bush Jenna and Barbara (once renowned as “Drunk and Disorderly”) General Peter Pace General Tommy Franks General Richard Myers General John Abizaid "Freedom fries" Dubai Ports World OUR port security German Chancellor Angela Merkel (groped in public by Bush) Howard Dean Public education in America The poor The homeless Christiane Amanpour Jim Jeffords Joe Lieberman Ned Lamont Jim Talent Dick DeVos Dino Rossi The outgoing Clinton Administration ("they trashed Air Force One!") Michael Steele The Supreme Court The FDA The English Language The Texas Air National Guard Thanksgiving dinner with the troops Ted Haggard Dr. James Dobson "Focus on the Family" Jerry Falwell Pat Robertson Alabama Chief Justice Roy "Ten Commandments" Moore David Vitter David Vitter’s wife, Wendy The “D.C. Madam” – Pamela Martin & Associates The Republicans' Congressional Bible Study room The space shuttle Columbia The NASA budget (and its integrity) Millions of children in Africa Chicken-fried steak "Fool me once..." OB-GYNS who are out there sharing “their love” with their patients “Bring ‘em on” “You’re either with us or you’re against us” Old Europe Poland Ouday and Qusay “Baghdad Bob” Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Fired White House chief chef Walter Scheib III Argentina (Bush twins trashed the place) "Mission Accomplished" "The Path to 9/11" Ron Silver Pretzels Mountain biking Lance Armstrong Paul Wellstone Richard Gephardt Paul Hackett Reliable vote counts Diebold Walden O’Dell, CEO of Diebold Chris Wallace Michael Moore The health of the planet Michael J. Fox The 2001 anthrax victims David Kuo ("Tempting Faith") The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives The yellow ribbon The Congressional Black Caucus Al Gore Warren Christopher Accountability Checks and balances Tony Snow Dana Perino Stephen Cambone Stephen Hadley Keith Ellison, D-Minn (new Muslim congressman lambasted for swearing his oath on the Koran instead of the Bible) Government regulations Bankruptcy protections Foreclosure protections Paul Weyrich Ann Coulter Kate O’Bierne Mona Charen Michelle Malkin Michael Savage Weiner Glenn Beck Michael Reagan Roger Hedgecock Cal Thomas George Will Mary Matalin William F. Buckley, Jr. Kelly Wallace Carol Lin Maureen Dowd Thomas L. Friedman Sean Hannity Alan Colmes Bill “The Gambler” Bennett The conservative movement Free-market conservatives Alan Greenspan Flag pins Going shopping Christopher Buckley Donna Brazile Mary Beth Cahill Steve Schmidt Rick Davis Michael Medved NPR’s Bob Edwards NPR’s Gwen Ifill Wolf Blitzer Tim Russert Andrea Mitchell Paula Zahn Larry King Chris Matthews Norah O’Donnell Fred Barnes Morton Kondracke Pat Buchanan Bill Schneider Howard Kurtz Dana Milbank ABC newsman Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt ABC newswoman Elizabeth Vargas Aaron Brown Katie Couric Charles Gibson Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl CBS reporter Kimberly Dozier, cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan NBC reporter David Bloom List of all journalists (AND OTHERS) killed in Iraq: http://www.rehumanize.us/journalists.html Hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis also killed (and not counted) Nick Berg – and family Hanging chads The “Help America Vote” Act F.I.S.A. Ralph Nader Scott Reid, senior strategist to then-Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin – “you got a pretty face” al-Maliki's short-lived predecessors, Ayad Allawi and Ibrahim al-Jaafari Jason Leopold and Truthout.org James Hatfield (author of controversial Bush bio “Fortunate Son”) Air America Patrick Leahy Jim Webb Tim Johnson “Spamalot” Ferragamos Kanye West The proper pronunciation of “nuclear” Elizabeth Hasselbeck Chuck Norris Jon Voight Jay Leno David Letterman Jon Stewart Conan O’Brien Craig Ferguson Saturday Night Live “The View” Oscar de la Renta Laura Bush’s social secretary (should have made sure all those other women didn’t turn up in the same designer duds Milady was wearing) Gay couples who’d like to marry Gays in general The flight suit The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln “The Pet Goat” Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida – where Bush sat with “The Pet Goat” and the kiddies on the morning of 9/11/01 Plastic sheeting and duct tape David Paulison (the government’s Fire Administrator who advised the public on the plastic-sheeting-and-duct-tape anti-terrorism strategy) Queen Elizabeth II Buckingham Palace gardens Rachel Paulose, US attorney for Minnesota Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker Nancy Nord - acting chair, Consumer Product Safety Commission The Consumer Product Safety Commission The Food & Drug Administration Wang Wei, the Chinese pilot who collided with a A US EP-3 Aries II spy plane on March 31st, 2001 Judith Nathan Giuliani New York City’s Police Department The Mormon Church "Pat" Philbin - Phony FEMA news conference guy Mark Smith Steve Scully Ann Compton MSNBC Keith Olbermann Rachel Maddow Pat Peale – lovely Texas GOP 2004 convention delegate who modeled the purple heart bandaid to mock John Kerry’s Vietnam service S. R. Sidarth (George Allen’s “macaca” victim) The Knight-Ridder news service John Dilulio and the “Mayberry Machiavellis” Mark Zachares The Hatch Act MZM Mitchell Wade Bobby Eberle John Aravosis Markos Moulitsas Arianna Huffington Bill Moyers Attorney General Michael Mukasey Alberto Gonzales John Yoo – wrote the legal briefs for the White House that helped justify torture Gonzales's attorney, George J. Terwilliger III of White & Case in Washington David G. Leitch, a Gonzales friend and general counsel at the Ford Motor Co. Richard Stickler - Mine Safety and Health Administration J. Steven Griles - ex #2 at Interior Department (imprisoned for 10 months for lying to Congress in Abramoff scandal) Daniel Levin - former acting assistant AG (who volunteered for waterboarding to find out whether it was really torture) Senator Chuck Schumer Senator Dianne Feinstein Lt. General Douglas Lute (Pentagon's "war czar") State Dept. Inspector General Howard J. "Buzzy" Krongard and his brother Alvin Eric Prince Blackwater USA Halliburton Kellogg Brown & Root, Inc. The U.S. International Contract Bridge Team - the Venice Cup Bridge Team - USBF - Jan Martell United States Bridge Federation spokesman Bob Burkett Barack Obama Ed Rogers Ann Richards Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt Molly Ivins David Broder Dan Bartlett Andrew Card Marine Cpl. Matt “gay porn star” Sanchez Spc. Bryan O'Neal – who was ordered to lie to the Tillman family O’Neal’s battalion commander, then-Lt. Col. Jeff Bailey – who told him to lie Thomas F. Gimble, the Defense Department's acting inspector general Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich (to the grieving Tillman family: “they’ll never be happy because they’re not Christian.”) Matt Drudge Swift Boat Veterans for Truth “Buckhead” and other online Dan Rather haters Onetime Bush family friend Jimmy Allison Ben Barnes C. Murphy Archibald Kevin Ring Robert E. Coughlin II Randall L. Tobias Fred Fielding “Fair and Balanced” The term “Christian” The term “right” Judith Regan Brent Bozell Tony “Focus on the Family” Perkins General David Petraeus MoveOn.org Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman Leura and Bill Canary Dana Jill Simpson Alice Martin Mark McKinnon, “Maverick Media”, “Public Strategies Inc.” – GOP dirty trickster Peter Wehner – White House Office of Strategic Initiatives NAACP Barbara “Beautiful Mind” Bush (senior) David C. Iglesias as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico; Kevin V. Ryan as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California; John L. McKay as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington; Paul K. Charlton as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona; Carol C. Lam as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California; Daniel G. Bogden as U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada; Margaret M. Chiara as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan; Todd Graves as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri; Harry E. "Bud" Cummins, III as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas; Thomas M. DiBiagio as U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, and; Kasey Warner as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia. J. Timothy Griffin, interim US attorney, Little Rock – Rove assistant Monica Goodling Sara Taylor Lurita Doan, GSA Administrator L. Scott Jennings, Acting GSA chief Liberty University and its law school Regent University and its law school James Inhofe Scott Bloch, who "runs" the Office of Special Counsel Kyle Sampson, Gonzales’ chief of staff Walter Reed Army Medical Center Walter Reed Army Medical Center Building 18 C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla, and Tom Davis, R-Va, who admitted they hadn’t investigated the Walter Reed scandal to avoid embarrassing the Army Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, ex-commander of Walter Reed Francis J. Harvey, Secretary of the Army, resigned Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, Army Surgeon General and ex-commander of Walter Reed Britney Spears Paris Hilton The Minneapolis Airport men’s room The 2008 Republican National Convention Isaac Toussie – the little pardon that wasn’t Lt. Ehren Watada - http://www.thankyoult.org/ Jose Padilla Code Pink Former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto Mora Iraqi journalist and shoe-thrower Muntadhar al-Zeidi Barney the dog Reuters reporter Jonathan Decker (the reporter Barney bit) The cowboy hat “Cowboy Diplomacy” The letter “W”
I know it’s completely arbitrary, but I’m ending the list here because if I don’t, I’ll probably be collecting list items for the rest of my life. The best Dubya can hope for in his new life as Private Citizen Bush, I’d suspect, is that the lack of backbone in Congress and/or the new administration remains the status quo. He’s counting on it. I, on the other hand, am praying that SOME Democrat (hey, I’ll take ANY Democrat, Independent, Libertarian, or even Republican at this point) hasn’t been putting together lists of his/her own. With the attempts to rewrite Bushian history running on overdrive in Junior’s last days in the White House, it behooves every one of us American citizens to compile a list like this – for the sake of keeping the record straight. The Bush crowd will continue trying to twist the facts – to their last breath. But we’ll always know the truth.
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Mary Lyon is a veteran broadcaster ad five-time Golden Mike Award winner, who has anchored, reported, and written for the Associated Press Radio Network, NBC Radio "The Source," and many Los Angeles-area stations including KRTH-FM/AM, (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
to fit their view. Sometimes losers such as Bush/Cheney try to re-make their images after the fact. But the fact is that their efforts will fail.
The failures on their watch have been colossal, to say the least, and the very magnitude of those failures will dictate the views put forward in the volumes of the history of this era.
May their epitaphs someday reflect their dismal official acts.
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Jack Harrington (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 675 comments [70 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Dec 31, 2008 at 3:28:24 PM
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