Saw this bumper sticker while driving to Richmond Thursday:
I prefer a President who only screws interns
Yep. George W. Bush has managed to make us miss Bill Clinton.
New polls show Dubya's job approval and personal ratings in the dumpster. His own party revolted against him in the "lets give our ports to the Arabs" deal and we're heading into another hurricane season while still trying to clean up his mess from the last one.
As a reporter is said to have asked another President's wife: "Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"
We already know the Bush administration is the gang that can't shoot straight. Just ask Texas attorney Harry Whittington. He's still recovering from wounds at the hands of a wayward shotgun blast from Dick Cheney.
But you have to wonder just how Bush's Teflon presidency from the first term turned into such a mismanaged public relations disaster the second time around.
Three words: Typical political arrogance.
Typical political arrogance is a bipartisan Washington disease. It infects those in power, Republican or Democrat, with the belief they are above the law and do not have to answer to the forces of truth, justice or the American way.
In reality, Bill Clinton screwed a lot more than just an intern but the downhill slide of America into a fascist state causes many to overlook that fact and long for the good old days when we worried more about who was noshing on the First Member than thinking about 2500 dead American military men and women in a useless war.
Clinton, like Bush, is a mean, venal little man who thought nothing of using the power of the White House to ride roughshod over enemies and destroy if they got in the way. Unlike Bush, Clinton is a charming rogue, a Peck's bad boy who causes us to shake our heads in disbelief but still admire his ability to get away with things.
You could dump Bush's charm into a thimble and still have room left for a shot of bourbon. He's a shallow, humorless man who lacks the charm of a Bill Clinton or the humor of a Ronald Reagan. Both Reagan and Clinton overcame scandals to leave office as popular Presidents. Bush may well leave office as one of the most distrusted and despised Presidents in modern times.
Yet no President in modern times is, or was, an honorable man. Clinton's presidency will be remembered more for scandal than anything else and the Monica Lewinsky scandal wasn't the only case of questionable conduct in office. His associated attorney general, Webster Hubbell, went to jail for tax evasion and defrauding the government. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy took bribes and resigned in disgrace. Clinton lost his license to practice law for lying to a federal grand jury. And he lied about American involvement in Somalia, a "peacekeeping" operation that cost too many American lives.
Reagan's legacy is marred by Iran-Contra and a conservative agenda that still haunts the country today. Courts convicted a dozen members of his administration for misconduct or malfeasance in office. Jimmy Carter's credibility took a hit when Bert Lance, his director of the Office of Management and Budget, was indicted for financial misconduct and his brother signed on as a paid consultant to Libya. He recently has been linked to the UN oil-for-food scandal.
Yet Republicans still talk about the good old days when Reagan was President and Democrats say Clinton only lied about sex.
Sadly, both sides of the political spectrum suffer from selective myopia that allows them overlook failings of their own party while lambasting the same conduct by their opponents.
Where do these Hucksters come from? Duh! Amoronica
How do we get these hucksters? Seems to me we get the worse people in government leading us.
Truman- Who drops two A bombs on Japan targetting innocent civilians.
Eisenhower-the liar on the spy plane over Russia, and never stopping the rise of the military complex.
Kennedy- the dumby who sat in a convertible
Johnson- who probably had Kennedy killed so he could esculate the lie about Vietnam, and kill 58,000 American troops.
Nixon- the tricky dick wiretapping Watergatester, who authorized secret bombing missions on Cambodia.
Ford- the shoe-insert President after Nixon resigns preventing Nixons prosecution
Carter-who failed in freeing American Hostages with crashing helicopters. As if they were going to free them if they didn't crash right.
Reagan- who gave arms to Iran to free them, along with profits to fight another War in Nicaragua, and helping Saddam get weapons to fight the Iranians he just gave weapons to. Hows that for a Borax commercial.
Bush- Who said read my lips, no weapons of mass destruction? or was that no new taxes? I can't remember. He is like Reagan with CRS. Can't remember sh*t.
Clinton- god love bubba and lewinsky, not to mention the killing of Foster, the bombing of Iraq, and Bosnia. Indsicriminately killing and targeting the Chinese embassy. How many dead and killed on his watch?
Then we get Bush jr. who steals the election, orchestrates and kills 3,000 Americans in the WTC, immediately blames Bin ladin. I mean the building was still falling to the ground and they were already blaming this guy. Then Bush takes us to War in Iraq, a lie about WMD, and a long list of dirty laundry from Delay, Abrhamoff, Libby, Rove, and selling the American Ports to an Arab Country. America is United States of Arabia. or United Saudis of America.
We get all this rotten stuff. How in the world is this great? How do we get these so called leaders?
They aren't leaders they are Jesters, murders, a line of paper cut out wanton morons, and there is nothing anybody can or could do about it.
If this is a sign of greatness on a country, please do not tell me the bad about a country.
Because I think America is the bad of the world.
by
Dom Jermano (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 40 diaries, 930 comments) on Sunday, Mar 12, 2006 at 7:44:38 AM
Doug,
As you probably know I consider you as an esteemed member of my All-Star Commentators Team along with Frank Rich, Charles Sullivan, Paul Krugman, Nicholas Kristoff,Bill Gallagher and Jason Miller.
As an arkansan approximately Bill Clinton's age, I have been an aquaintance of the Clintons several decades and am forced to admit Bill has serious character flaws which were exploited by Jonah Goldberg's mom via Luciana Goldberg's confidante via Linda Tripp's confidante via Monika Lewinsky via the "whore's mouth". Can anybody spell "conspiratorial trap"? Please understand I am not excusing Bill's sexual addiction; apparently a truly pandemic disorder seemingly shared secretly by multitudes of Bill's accusers and many of us who have voted for him and would gladly do so again. Surely there are degrees of vanality and if so, I believe Bill's venal temperature is several notches below Dumbya's,Cheney's, Frist's, Rummy's, Wolfawitz's, Delay's ,etc..
Roy Murtishaw
Pine Bluff, AR
by
Roy Murtishaw (14 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 81 comments) on Sunday, Mar 12, 2006 at 12:15:29 PM
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