Pierce writes: "It is now an article of faith among the Republican base that Bush's failures stem not from the fact that he was a manifest incompetent, but that he was too liberal a president."
The looming presence of George W. Bush was finally acknowledged by the GOP candidates and by a debate audience. (photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters)
The Man Who Wasn't There
25 February 12
ne of the more telling moments in last night's Carnival of Dickitude in Arizona came when Rick Santorum - and have I mentioned recently what a colossal dick he is? - was trying to explain why he'd voted in favor of No Child Left Behind, the education-reform program that was the signature achievement of President George W. Bush prior to Bush's actual signature achievement of Screwing Up The Entire World. Most of the attention has been paid to the fact that Santorum wound up drowning in oatmeal trying to explain how senators do their jobs. Some indiscreet booing went up, but I don't think the booing had anything to do with Santorum's ungainly tumble into the abyss of Palinspeak.
I think they were booing George W. Bush.
He is the man who isn't there. Until NCLB came up last night, the years 2000-2008 had been successfully written out of the narrative of the 2012 election. For these jamokes, time effectively began in January of 2009. It was Year Zero on the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Calendar. I do not believe that Bush's political non-personhood is an accident. It is now an article of faith among the Republican base that Bush's failures stem not from the fact that he was a manifest incompetent, but that he was too liberal a president. Putting through Medicare Part B without paying for it is a greater sin to these people than running two wars off the books was. No Child Left Behind had the endorsement of Teddy Kennedy! (Aieeeeeeee!) If only Bush had tried conservatism, the fairytale goes, then conservatism would have succeeded, as it always does. It never fails. It is only failed. C-Plus Augustus failed conservatism.
(It is important to note, by the way, that, when NCLB actually passed, Mitt Romney was substantially to the left of everybody else on the stage. Not that it matters any more.)
Since the crimes and bungling of the Bush Administration resulted in a thrashing in the 2006 midterms and, ultimately, in the election of the current president in 2008, this feeling within the Republican base has hardened into an immutable faith. The Republican party has become more extreme, not less. It has become so resistant to compromise that it has become completely resistant even to political logic. (Make no mistake. The party faithful really want this fight over contraception.) I fully expect that, by August at the latest, Willard Romney will be calling the last president of his party a socialist.
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Comments
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Idiocy...what a failure Bush was...and the rabid idiots that were under their administration can only say they not LUNATIC enough!
Thank you.
N.
Vote straight Democratic
so we can restore our country and get the republican out of our private lives.
But I have to disagree with you about the Democratic Party. It is no better. Obama's or Clinton's Humanitarian wars are just as bad as Bush's Wars of Vengeance. Obama's and Clinton's economic advisors (esp. Larry Summers) are just as bad as Bush's.
It is time for concerned people to abandon both parties. Join the Greens or another third party and never vote for any republican or democrat. It will take a decade for a third party to actually gain a controlling power in the contress or the Whore House. You can start now, or you can start ten years from now. How much longer do you want to deal with the Demublican idiocy and criminality.
To form a third party makes no sense - just more votes away from Obama, and with his losing we lose the Supreme Court balance, 4 - 8 more years of social policy backtracking, a more aggressive posture throughout the world, and economic banditry.
Get real.
The Idiot Right is in control now. Reagan and Daddy Bush kept them at arms length and sometimes let them in the back door. But "W" opened the front door to the idiots, gave them a place at the table, and now they won't go home. No matter how much they try to blame Obama for the disastrous blunders of the Bush administration, we know the real truth.
NCLB should be named NCBL - No Child's Behind Left. If you watch the GOP at work, you'll understand that their long-range goal is to destroy the public school system, diverting those funds to private schools where they can teach their own rancid beliefs. Part D Medicare wasn't about providing prescription relief to seniors, it was a gift to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. And the recent FICA tax relief agreement was a way to get their claws into the completely solvent Social Security system. Their next move will be to claim that SS doesn't have enough income so they'll have to cut back on benefits. And look at what's happening in GOP-controlled states. Outrageous stuff!
The Idiots know how to carry out their agenda.
But don't underestimate the power of corporate persuasion. Afterall, their revisionist crap has elevated the terrible Prez. Ronny to Sainthood.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: What we need is the separation of power and Republicans.
And I still wonder why he never really tried to catch Osama Bin Laden. Was it because Bush and his father were friends of Bin Laden's family. Is that why he let so many of them flee the country after 911?
GWB had several of those.
"It was Year Zero on the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Calender." Ahh, this is bliss. I read this kind of biting satire on Wonkette so I'm happy to see it here as well.
Witness our governor here in Packerland.
When public workers offered to concede to paying more into healthcare and pensions in exchange for the governor's easing up on the severe restrictions he was imposing on collective bargaining, he accepted not a single conversation with our heroic Fab Fourteen protesting, state-fleeing senators; a call from the Fake Koch went right through to his office, though.
They yanked George W. out of his endless party, reined him in. Used him up. And then spit him out. I doubt he has any real thinking capacity left at all.
Elite players at the top of the power pyramid may change but the failed and disastrous bipartisan policies of the welfare-warfare state go on seemingly forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-8XYF0LLrk&feature=related
In 1998, Ron Paul predicted 9/11 as a result of foreign policy blowback and imperial overreach, fulfilling Osama bin Laden’s stated goals of bankrupting America and destroying her civil liberties:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hJTisovvjc&feature=related
In 2001, just days before 9/11, Ron Paul warned about the emerging real estate housing bubble and how it would lead to the Fed-generated 2008 economic meltdown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5nGCpzel6o
Ron Paul 2012. Right Then. Right Now. Right For America.
All the Paulists should bolt the Republicans and form a third party. Really. For the good of the country. Please. Do it.
"Demublicans"? In my soon-to-be sixty-one years I have never seen a greater difference between the two major parties. Liberal Democrats and Progressives who stay home next election day because they're disappointed in Obama are being childish and foolish in the extreme. Politics is the science of the possible.
It's all about Congress in 2012!
If Bushie had caught Ben Laden his justification for keeping the war going would have gone away and all his rich cronies in the war machine business wouldn’t be getting those big government contracts any more to build more stuff to be blown up. Screw the soldiers that “Volunteered” to fight for the USA. They are just pawns in Busbies’ plan to make sure the rich get richer, “you know that 200 rich buddies”.
If you are a glutton for punishment read on Obama the Wimp. Wall Street Banks Investigation
How can we find out how many FBI Agents have been assigned to investigate the Wall Street Banks disaster on mortgages? I heard only 10 were assigned.
During the Savings and Loan mess 15 or so years ago there were over 1000 agents assigned to investigate, and over 1000 bankers went to jail. The Wall Street Mess is (I was told 40 times larger) so doing the math, there should be 40,000 Agents assigned, not 10.
The NY State AG is the one handling it, but looks like his hands have been tied behind his back and he has been blindfolded.
Hell, the repugs didn't think that daddy Bush was conservative enough and Dimwits was just a front for the "Project for a New American Century mob" who are still relentlessly working behind the scenes to scupper all attempts at democracy and at Obama in particular.
No wonder the country keeps sliding rightward.
So in addition to solidarity, we gotta let 'em know that some of us get a good chuckle at the wannabe's too.
We can bitch all we want about the idiots of the GOP, but they really got off easy. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and others are all free and collecting checks. And now the country is subjected to the parade of lunatics running for president. Lunatics who have shown that they care about as much for the people as did Stalin!
How many Americans are going to be stupid enough to stick with that disgusting party on Election Day next?
Come to think about it, "the word "party" is a misnomer. They're not a political party in the strictest sense of the word. They haven't been in decades. They are now an organized criminal enterprise.
Wake up and smell the elephant dung.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
One thing for sure: the Republican Party (Crime Family) has clearly come off the rails! Listening to Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, et al attacking Obama is just a jaw-dropping experience because the words don't even remotely add up to the reality. It IS akin to madness.
was elected President. That is what makes me ill.
You'd have quite a list of exhumées (is that a word?) if you started that stuff, chief among them the dreadful Dulles Bro's -the 40's, 50's and 60's equivalent to the Koch's except with more influence inside the government.
Then there are the other "conservatives" . These are the idiots, the dimwits and the others who are told what to believe by the Owners. It has been such practically forever in this country. The owners rile them up, organize them for the owner's benefit and 'sic' them on the rest of us.
The Owner's agenda? 1. An uneducated, propagandized public just smart enough to do the Owner's bidding. 2. Throw away labor who can be fired at any time for any reason. 3. Cheap labor - they want American workers at $1/day or worse. 4. No pensions, or retirement - so everyone has to work for the Owners or die.
Its at: www.thrivemovement.com and also http://worldwidetippingpoint.com/2011/11/the-thrive-movie-an-exclusive-interview-with-foster-gamble/
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