Interlude

A bit of an exchange among Todd Purdum, Kate O‘Beirne, and Mike Barnicle on Wednesday night’s Hardball:

BARNICLE: One of the themes in your “Vanity Fair” magazine piece this month, the presidents 41 and 43, both Bushes, is the streak of stubbornness that is akin to both of them. This stubbornness, apparently this is stay the course all the way in Iraq.

PURDUM: It does seem a little bit like stay the course. And of course in some ways, stubbornness is a very admirable quality and both Bushes got where they are because they are stubborn and they are willing to fight against the odds and prove the smart money wrong.

But this feels so much more in a way something like Lyndon Johnson or a slow, steady drip, drip, drip in which it‘s impossible to get any other good news and there are glimmers of good news here and there, to get any traction because of the ongoing drain of the war. It colors everything.

O‘BEIRNE: Of course, one man‘s stubbornness is another man‘s resolve frankly and one thing the people have admired about George Bush, and I think Republican rank and file continue to admire it, is his resolve when it comes to fighting this threat we face.

Oh, yes, resolve. President Bush is one resolved man. He is like a rock in a storm; nothing moves him.

So let’s see how the President is applying this resolve — Condi has been dispatched to do the diplomacy thing; this week the President decided to focus on his domestic agenda. No, seriously. Peter Baker of the Washington Post reported that last Sunday the President went on a bicycle ride and hosted a children’s T-ball game on the South Lawn. Then he flew to Florida to have dinner with “community leaders” who turned out to be “a bunch of former Miami Dolphins football players, an actor and the flamboyant host of a raunchy and ribald Spanish-language variety show,” according to Dan Froomkin. Tuesday he had his annual physical. Wednesday he was in Ohio meeting with “firefighters and other rescuers who helped flood victims in Lake County.” He also attended a fundraising dinner for gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell. Thursday he flew to Texas and delivered a speech on immigration reform. Today he’s at the ranch, beginning his August vacation.

But what’s this — he’s only going to be on vacation for ten days this year? Not the whole month? Does that mean he’s going to do some work this August?

White House press secretary Tony Snow says Bush is taking a shorter break not because of criticism but because he has other things to do, including campaigning for Republican candidates in the fall elections, pushing for immigration reform and attending a family wedding in Kennebunkport, Maine.

OK, never mind.

Meanwhile, back in Iraq

American generals have laid bare the facts: Baghdad is on the brink of chaos, and the specter of all-out civil war looms. …

… The stakes could not be higher: The fate of the U.S. mission in Iraq is on the line as fighting in Lebanon to the west and the rise of a militant Iran to the east threaten American interests throughout the Middle East.

Without a firm grip on Baghdad, the U.S. and its Iraqi allies cannot control the country. But Baghdad’s diverse population of Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Turkomen and Christians makes for a volatile mix as the country’s religious and ethnic groups compete for power in the new Iraq. All the tensions that threaten to tear the country apart play themselves out in Baghdad.

As I mentioned this morning, Shiites in Baghdad held a huge anti-American and anti-Israel rally. Anger at Israel’s bombing of Lebanon is driving Iraq into further chaos, as many predicted. Violence in Lebanon increases. Shit is, um, happening.

President Bush delegated foreign policy to his Secretary of State and went on vacation. President Bush is totally dissociated with whatever is happening in the Middle East. This isn’t resolve; it’s pathology.

12 thoughts on “Interlude

  1. It is beyond depressing to consider the lack of leadership by Bush. When it comes to Middle East policy he is clueless. He wants a “robust” force in South Lebanon to protect the Israelis. Who is going to protect the Lebanese? And we are going to train the Lebanese army so they can disarm Hizbollah. Good luck! After we have provided the bombs to destroy their country I expect the Lebanese will not be excited about this offer.
    Things are very bad but they’ll get much worse when the Iraqi Shiites decide to get their revenge.

  2. Yes, Condi’s in charge! She’s just marking time until Cheney emerges from his secure, undisclosed location to nudge the Israeli’s into bombing Syria or Iran and starting “Gingrich’s” WW part tres. (Where has he been hiding lately, anyway?)

    I’m not a conspiracy theorist – or at least I’m trying hard NOT to be. And its very, very hard. But things are sure looking like part of a much bigger plan to own the Middle East.

    And yes, while this shit is happening our erstwhile media skips between micromanaging individual bomb blasts in remote burgs in Lebanon, propping up failed administration policy or (in the case of Fox) spreading rumours that Israel didn’t bomb Qana and that the mean ole democrats are demonizing poor Joe Lieberman.

    I can only imagine what the average American who only tunes into news once a day is thinking here. The anti-Israeli and anti-American demonstrations in Iraq today will make stunning pictorial, but how many people are going to sit in their recliners saying out loud, “why those ungrateful louts!”, when it is our failed policy (and hopefully not pre-planned arrogance) that is instigating all this.

    My head hurts.

  3. President Bush delegated foreign policy to his Secretary of State and went on vacation.

    I think you’re being pretty hard on him, Maha. He probably calls in every few days…”Hey, how’s things? Great! Talk to you on Thursday…”

  4. Yeah, Maha is being a little too hard on Bush. The poor guy is giving his all for us, and the least we could do is show some appreciation by not nit picking his every decisive action. I remember during the 2004 presidential debates how Bush tried to convey his burden to an unsympathetic America —” it’s hard”. Our unfounded criticisms just add to the poor mans burden. We should all be ashamed.

  5. “This isn’t resolve; it’s pathology.” How depressingly true.

    All the cool photo-ops have been exhausted. There’s lots of brush to clear in Crawford. If Condi pulls it off, great; if not, they can blame her for everything that’s gone wrong. So, in the eyes of our president, it’s time to find a corner, curl up in a ball, and sing the “La-la-la-la-la” song.

  6. Talking about “its hard”, if you haven’t already, check out the Condi interview with David Gregory on the
    MSNBC website
    .

    Its truly astounding to listen to. David asked her if there was a plan B and she STILL is on the stay the course rap. I think in the course of the interview she said “it’s hard” about 10 times.

    I have had a moment of clarity. Now I know why they needed to own Fox News. They have to stay insular to keep the dream alive. Fox keeps them in that place. And David Gregory isn’t much better.

  7. This is the first comment I have been able to make in over two weeks. My computer crashed and I lost all exe functions….happened right after I got between a pack of hyenas and their bloodlusty glee about Israel’s continuous killing of Lebanese civilians…..I think I had made a comment [on the wrong site] that the killing reminding me of ‘sportsmen’ feeling macho shooting game trapped on private hunting reserves…..guess I rubbed some Cheney type the wrong way.

    Oh, well, it has been strange not being able to be online for that time. So, I listened mornings to the NPR news, instead of getting news online. What so struck me about the news [NPR, no less!] was the careful propaganda embedded in it. Though the killing of civilians is so very unequal, there was consistent care taken to point out the ‘suffering of the Israelis’ along the border who had to stay in safe places instead of being able to walk around as usual. This mornings newscast spend all but one sentence on the plight of the Israelis and only the last sentence quietly added, ‘and the death toll in Lebanon is 900.’ Geez.

    I would like to pose some questions that are never addressed in the news. 1] Why no mention of the two Gazans who were kidnapped by Israel the day before Hamas kidnapped the Israeli soldier? 2] If Hizbollah intended to kidnap Israeli soldiers to trade them for hundreds of Lebanese being held in Israeli jails, many of whom are said to be women and children, then why has there been no mention of WHY and/or HOW those folks got into Israeli jails? It just seems so basic to get facts from all sides, but that ‘other side of the story’ is missing.

  8. Bush in Ohio – campaigning for KEN BLACKWELL. What a joke! Blackwell was former Secretary of State and handed the election to Bush. The 2004 election was not a clean election in Ohio. Karl Rove met wiht Blackwell prior to election. Blackwell attempted everything from requiring paper to be a certain weight – which was thrown out by a case brought against him.

    If BLACKWELL is elected in Ohio, it will be a DAMN BLACK DAY IN OHIO!

  9. Donna – Welcome back! I’m glad to hear your critique of NPR because I’ve had the same problem with the mainstream coverage of the Israeli invasion. When this situation started to warm up in late June & early July, I was struck by how U.S. narratives of the conflict started with the two kidnapped soldiers, but other narratives of the conflict (from news sources linked through Informed Comment, for instance) started with the Lebanese family struck by Israeli shelling on the beach or the two kidnapped Gazans. Of course, anyone could pinpoint a number of starting points about when to tell this particular story, but that storytelling choice shapes how one assigns blame and interprets the subsequent events. Now, it seems beyond rational argument that Israel is simply “defending itself” or atoning for the two soldiers (unless the moral calculus is something like: 1 Israeli soldier = 450 dead Lebanese citizens + 1 million displaced Lebanese + destroyed civilian infrastructure).

    I doubt rightwing bloggers would be malicious enough to target your computer service. Haven’t you heard? It’s the “angry leftwing bloggers” we need to worry about. Speaking of rightwing bloggers: Just in! A rightie blog (I care not mention) has exposed Pat Robertson as a “shameless moonbat” for his recent comments about global warming. He’s clearly “crossed over into the enemy camp” and “The political implications of this are severe.” Where do these people come from?!

  10. Donna,
    I know how you feel. My PC “pooped the big Frito” three weeks ago during a bad lightning storm.

    About this mis-administration and Congress, they are incompetent, corrupt, and greedy stooges whose sole goals are fattening thier own wallets, and those who funded them into office.
    The only part they’ve gotten right in the last 5 1/2 years is the fattening of the wallet’s – at the expence of our wallet’s.

    Hey Georgie boy, I have some extra-large pretzel’s for ya! Condi? Donald? Dick? There’s enough for everyone…

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