Without a paddle

Well, it seems that our dear "Commander Guy" is finding himself up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

His "war" with Iraq is a complete and dismal failure. His "surge" is not surging. He has no way to get out without admitting defeat and he appears constitutionally unable to do such a thing. Things are so bad he is arming Sunnis if they promise not to kill us anymore. There is a rumor that the CIA is bribing Iraqi politicians to vote on a resolution to ask us to leave (I have no idea if this is true). In any case, it is an impossible position and just seems to get worse with no end in sight.

He has an Attorney General that is obviously guilty of lying and worse, everyone knows it, but he insists he still has confidence in him. How can he not? Obviously Gonzales knows where the skeletons are and besides, how could he be replaced now without an all out battle over the confirmation of a new Attorney General.

He is replacing General Pace because he is afraid if Pace has to come up again for confirmation the House and Senate might actually bring up questions about the "war," and how well it is going, how it came about, and etc.

He is under all kinds of pressure to pardon Libby. If he pardons him it will doubtless set off waves of criticism and almost certainly reduce his poll ratings even further (if that is possible). On the other hand, if he doesn't pardon him, and Libby is facing 30 months in the pokey, he might actually spill the beans about Cheney and Bush himself. What a quandary. Bush might actually pardon him because (a) he doesn't want him to tell the truth about the Plame affair and other things, and (b) his ratings are so bad what difference could it really make.

His Immigration Bill is doomed by his own party as they will never accept what they insist is "amnesty." I suspect that as someone remarked the other day, even if Bush vowed to put all the Mexicans in jail they would still call it amnesty. Granted that the problem is not simply because of Bush but has been festering for years. But what is probably the easiest and best short term solution is precisely what Bush is desperate to avoid - namely, making it a crime for companies to hire illegals. Why should the businesses that employ these illegals be responsible for anything, it's all the wetbacks fault. Of course we could have promoted businesses and decent jobs in Mexico which would help also, but that would require having to pay more than slave labor and we can't have that (think of Haiti).

He could solve, or I should say, could have solved, many problems if he had not insisted on tax breaks for the obscenely wealthy at the expense of the middle class. We could have universal health care, a genuinely fine educational system, a better Social Security system, rebuilt infrastructure, and a happy population instead of what we currently have. This would be even more true and possible if he had reduced the bloated defense budget, especially the items for missile defense, "star wars," and new (completely illegal) nuclear weapons.

I guess no one in the House or Senate regards any of this as important as they have done nothing but aid and abet him at every turn. While this is true of Democrats as well as Republicans the real shame lies with the latter. As they were in complete control for six years, and even still hold the balance of power, they could have stopped this insanity at any point but have consistently refused to do so, and still refuse at the moment. They will have to live with this shame for a long time to come. The first decade of the 21st century will become known as The Nightmare Years, or at least should.

LKBIQ:

"He who travels far will often see things far removed from what he believed was truth. When he talks about it in the fields at home, he is often accused of lying, for the obdurate people will not believe what they do not not see and distinctly feel. Inexperience, I believe, will give little credence to my song."
Hermann Hesse.