Finally.... It's Over!

Last night Bush The Decider wistfully bade farewell (WaPo).... trying to paint a good face on the stinking corpse of his administration with self-serving "I was willing to make tough decisions" legacy-speak.

Excuse me, but isn't the job of the president making tough decisions?

As Georgie piled on the lipstick, we were reminded that he never could color within the lines.... so now we're left to clean up the smeary mess of his eight years of misapplied ideology.

Which brings us to what he did right.

As Robert Creamer so pithily points out (Huffington) .... "History will record that George W. Bush made one critically important contribution to our country -- and to the entire world. He and his administration provided unquestionable proof of the bankruptcy of radical-conservative ideology, and set the stage for a qualitatively different progressive era in American politics.

"By assuring that all of the fruits of the growth of productivity in our economy went to the wealthiest 2% of our population, the Bush administration set the stage for the current economic collapse.

"By actually putting into practice the Neo-Conservative theories of pre-emptive war and unilateralism, George W. Bush demonstrated their failure more persuasively than could the most articulate progressive critic.

"By abandoning our historic commitment to due process and sinking into the dark world of torture, George W. Bush and his partner Dick Cheney isolated themselves from the growing worldwide commitment to human rights."

The last few weeks we have watched Bush and his Rovian enablers relentlessly apply his legacy lipstick. But a suffering nation knows the truth beneath the rosy facade..... "he will be remembered as the man who set the stage. He has played the Hoover to Obama's Roosevelt, the James Buchanan to Obama's Lincoln."

The omens are good.

Yesterday while Bush was trying to prop up the toxic remains of his poor judgment, lousy execution and disastrous outcomes, a skilled pilot guided (WaPo) his crippled passenger jet to a hard, but safe, landing on the Hudson River in New York.

Rescuers rushed in and with "level-headed teamwork" saved all the passengers.... "the weak and infirm, including an infant and an elderly woman in a wheelchair."

It's a good sign as next Tuesday Barack Obama takes over the piloting of our distressed nation that a reckless Bush administration put on course for a crash landing. With Obama's thoughtful leadership and a spirit of teamwork we can all come through.

Big Three: Bush, Hoover, Buchanan

Harold Meyerson looks George W. Bush in the eye and calls him what he is.... Herbert Hoover.

In "Bush's Final Fiasco" Meyerson compares the Bush administration's handling of our downward-spiraling economy to the actions of the 1930's Great Depression president .... "Herbert Hoover, we should recall, had a program for dealing with the Depression. It consisted of lending to banks but opposing fiscal stimulus or direct aid to individuals. Which is why Hank Paulson's frenzied endeavors to prop up the banking sector and Bush's dogged resistance to assisting anybody else amount to pure neo-Hooverism.

"As the 1930s began, Hoover believed that the coordinated actions of the private sector could save the beleaguered economy. It soon became apparent that the only action that private-sector businesses could agree upon was closing down factories and offices and throwing people out of work. Under immense pressure to do something, in late 1931 Hoover asked Congress to establish the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, to provide funds to banks it deemed creditworthy.

"Having done his bit to bail out the banks, however, Hoover rested. He opposed provisions that would have enabled homeowners to hang on to their homes."

Sound familiar?

As Meyerson points out, "The Bush administration's approach to today's meltdown is to direct all its energies and largess to lending institutions. There is, as yet, no program to help floundering homeowners renegotiate the terms of their mortgages. The president is opposed to further stimulus programs, even though private-sector investment in the United States has all but ceased."

Meyerson asks, where's the outrage? He suspects that the answer "is that you can only irreversibly give up on a president once. Further catastrophic failures on the president's part elicit only diminishing returns. Buchanan did nothing while the South seceded: That was it for him. Hoover did nothing as farmers, workers and middle-class America got wiped out: With that, he was beyond rehabilitation. Nixon had Watergate: Enough said. One mega-strike and you're out."

And when it comes to mega-strike outs, Bush has swung and missed over and over. Meyerson counts three biggies.... "He misled us into a nearly endless war of choice to disarm a threat that never really existed. He let a great American city drown. And now he stands by while the economic security of tens of millions of Americans is vanishing.

"Yet in the hearts of his countrymen, Bush's place is already fixed. Even before the financial collapse, he was in the ninth circle of presidential hell, with Buchanan and Hoover. At his own party's national convention this summer, his was the name that no one dared speak.

"And so, though his mishandling of the economy is criminally inept, he is being spared one more outbreak of public rage by two countervailing public sentiments: Americans' relief that he soon will be gone and their kind reluctance to kick a corpse."

Bush justifies his record by saying he kept us safe for eight years (he myopically doesn't count 9/11 or the myriad of victims of his ill-conceived policies).

That's kind of like saying that despite his rampaging through our domestic and foreign landscape like a bull in a china shop one tea cup survived..... but President Decider, that tea cup was made in China.

Will the GOP Evolve?

There is a battle being waged in Texas and within the GOP party.

The outcome of that battle will determine if they go forward toward the liberating cultural complexities and scientific advances of the 21st century. Or, if they will continue their backwards fall into the embrace of the suffocating superstitions of religious fundamentalism.

Case in point.

"State education panel hears evolution debate." (Dallas Morning News) "Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution grabbed center stage Wednesday as State Board of Education members heard from dozens of Texans trying to influence the panel on how evolution should be covered in science classes of the future.

"College professors, science teachers and pro-evolution groups urged the board to drop a rule that requires the strengths and weaknesses of Darwin's theory to be taught in science courses, while conservative groups aligned with a sizable bloc of board members said the rule has worked well and hasn't forced religion into those classes as critics charge.

Of course, conservatives aren't fooling anyone. Their religious wolf under the cloak of "educational freedom" is trying to ambush impressionable hearts and minds.

The first vote on the issue by the state education board will be in January. At stake are the science guidelines for elementary and secondary schools and the materials used for state tests and textbooks. The guidelines would remain in place for a decade after their approval by the state board.

The state's most famous Texan, George "Is Our Children Learning?" Bush, has already weighed in on the debate. In 2005 he famously told reporters that he believes that intelligent design.... creationism repackaged.... should be taught alongside evolution as competing theories. (WaPo)

The report on Bush's remarks explains that "Much of the scientific establishment says that intelligent design is not a tested scientific theory but a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious -- especially Christian -- thinking to students.

".... Bush's remarks heartened conservatives who have been asking school boards and legislatures to teach students that there are gaps in evolutionary theory and explain that life's complexity is evidence of a guiding hand."

It isn't just the Texas education system at the crossroads, an increasingly marginalized GOP is trying to read the what-went-wrong tea leaves after their defeat in the last election.

As Kathleen Parker said in her recent editorial, "Giving Up on God," (WaPo)..... "the evangelical, right-wing, oogedly-boogedly branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue" to do so unless the GOP faces "the gorilla".... perhaps that should be monkey.... "in the room."

Parker diagnosis is, "Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party."

Texas, don't let it kill your educational excellence too.

Obama Taking the Wheel

"The first step is half the longest journey."

In this case, the longest journey is back from the rusting gates at the junkyard of our economy if the U.S. automobile industry collapses.

The first small, but significant, step is "Rep. Dingell Loses Energy Post - Waxman to Head Key Panel; Change Is Blow to Automakers." (WaPo)

Why, you may ask, is this change a blow to automakers. Because in Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) they are losing from the House Energy and Commerce Committee chair their premier gas-gussler enabler to no-nonsense Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) fresh from the chairmanship of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Waxman's victory signaled the rise of a younger, more environmentally conscious party eager to support the policies of President-elect Barack Obama. Waxman's supporters said his win probably would mean a smoother ride through Congress for Obama's energy agenda, which focuses on spending $150 billion on research for producing renewable fuels and 1 million new plug-in hybrid cars.

"Dingell, 82, who was first elected to represent his Dearborn-based district in 1954... has been chairman or ranking Democrat of the energy committee since 1981, at times feuding with fellow Democrats, including Waxman, over efforts to impose fuel-efficiency standards on cars."

Dingell kept the better-gas-mileage-brakes on for the the resistant, short-sighted Detroit manufacturers.

For the automakers who jetted into D.C., the hearings before Congress were a car wreck.

Eugene Robinson points out today in "Detroit: Get a Clue".... (WaPo) The Detroit CEOs "could have hitchhiked to Washington to beg for alms and they still would have been raked over the coals. But the fact that they came in their corporate jets was a bit much."

So the CEOs were sent home with a roadmap for reaching their $25 billion bridge.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) demanded of the jetsetters, "Until we can see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable and a plan for viability on how they go into the future... we cannot show them the money." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid echoed: "We can only help if they (the automakers) are willing to help themselves." (WaPo) The plan is to be submitted to Congress on December 2.

Robinson suggested that "Richard Wagoner of General Motors, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford should begin the inevitable cost-cutting by firing their public relations consultants.

"They left Capitol Hill empty-handed, but they're bound to get some kind of federal help, however grudging. In the end, I don't think either George W. Bush or Barack Obama wants to be remembered as the president who lost the auto industry."

Or needlessly lost millions of jobs in an unforgiving economy.

(It was just announced that GM is selling two of its private jets.)

All of these course corrections are just baby-steps tottering toward an uncertain future for the U.S. auto industry, an industry that is a critical keystone underpinning the rescue of the American economy.

The longest journey can be successful if it travels.... at last.... in the right direction.

Lame Duck Dines on Quail

The world economy is in meltdown mode. People are losing jobs, homes, life savings, pensions and more. The backbone of the U.S. economy, the automobile manufacturer's Big 3, are tottering on the brink of bankruptcy, bankruptcies whose shock waves would ripple out to millions of households.

So, last night visiting heads of state of 20 countries met at the White House for a dinner held on the eve of a financial summit prompted by global economic distress. There was a "Full Plate at White House for G20: Economic Talk and Quail." (WaPo)

And quail? Is this a meeting of AIG bailout-billionaires?

No, it's a meeting of twenty world leaders, representing 90% of the world economy, meeting to discuss "global economic distress," who at their "working dinner" are dining on, among other delicacies: "... fruitwood-smoked quail, thyme-roasted rack of lamb and baked Vermont brie with walnut crostini, along with three wines."

The theme of the meeting is "Let Them Eat Cake."

These heads of state who allowed or fostered the deregulated "globalization" of the world economy have no shame. Especially the host, The Decider, who will happily dine on lame-duck until he dumps his eight years of garbage on Barack Obama on January 20.

Out: Bluster In: Brains

Among the most pressing unresolved issues facing president-elect Barack Obama are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he, and the nation, can celebrate the GOP-fostered conflict in which he emerged victorious.... "Obama and the War on Brains."

As Nicholas Kristof exults, "Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual."

For eight years the country suffered through an incurious George, who as Kristof explains, "adopted anti-intellectualism as administration policy, repeatedly rejecting expertise (from Middle East experts, climate scientists and reproductive health specialists). Mr. Bush is smart in the sense of remembering facts and faces, yet I can’t think of anybody I’ve ever interviewed who appeared so uninterested in ideas."

We can all name a "is our children learning" Bushism. George relished his lackadaisical education, bragged that he didn't read newspapers and squirmed if his briefings exceeded five minutes.

The antithesis of an intellectual, Bush stubbornly held to his narrow ideology.... perhaps afraid that if challenged his intellect would be unable to assimilate new facts, ideas or complexity.... his was "my way or the highway."

As the country labored under The Decider's "stay the course" governance they increasingly rejected his intellectual superficiality. As Kristof says, "leaders self-destruct when they become too rigid and too intoxicated with the fumes of moral clarity."

Happily, with the election of Obama, intellectualism is in, and dopey unlettered mediocrity is out. Are you paying attention, Sarah?

Gordon is "Nobel" Krugman's Man

Congratulations to American economist Paul Krugman whose credentials were already formidable.... professor at Princeton University, columnist for The New York Times... who today was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.

And today Krugman has also written an op-ed, "Gordon Does Good" (NYTimes) in which he asks, "Has Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, saved the world financial system?"

Not George Bush. Not Henry Paulson. Not Ben Bernanke. But our long-suffering staunch ally, Britain's Gordon in concert with his chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, by thinking clearly and acting quickly.

Krugman explains, "On Wednesday, Mr. Brown’s officials announced a plan for major equity injections into British banks, backed up by guarantees on bank debt that should get lending among banks, a crucial part of the financial mechanism, running again. And the first major commitment of funds will come on Monday — five days after the plan’s announcement."

"And," Krugman continues, "whaddya know, Mr. Paulson — after arguably wasting several precious weeks — has also reversed course, and now plans to buy equity stakes rather than bad mortgage securities (although he still seems to be moving with painful slowness)."

For anyone who has watched the painful politicalization of our government by The Decider, even of the office of Attorney General, it'll come as no surprise that Krugman believes that... "It’s hard to avoid the sense that Mr. Paulson’s initial response was distorted by ideology. Remember, he works for an administration whose philosophy of government can be summed up as 'private good, public bad,' which must have made it hard to face up to the need for partial government ownership of the financial sector."

Hopefully Krugman is on Barack Obama's short list for Treasury secretary. In the meantime, on a day when Krugman is receiving bouquets for his prestigious Nobel prize, he is also throwing bouquets of his own.... "Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis.

If we can all just keep a stiff upper lip.

Bush's "Hoovering" Legacy

One thing that can rouse The Decider to action.... his legacy.

He was trying for Compassionate Conservative. But, history may tag George as the Latter-Day Hoover.

The fate of our economy, and George's legacy, rests on the politically shifting shoulders of lawmakers and the fleet footwork of George's financial cavalry who arrived only after investment banks started to topple from their own excesses, taking credit pipelines down with them.

After a failure to launch the original $700 bailout plan in the House, "Lawmakers Revise Rescue Plan," (WaPo) as the Senate aims for its first vote on a plan tonight.

But, passage isn't certain, especially in the House, as the GOP have successfully inserted corporate welfar.... uhhh.... tax credits into the proposed legislation, without a corresponding tax increase or a way to recover the lost income.

Isn't this how we got here?

It may now be the "Blue Dog" bloc of 47 fiscally conservative House Democrats who oppose the new plan. They may dig in against extending tax credits unless there are other spending cuts or a way to pay for them.

There is one thing everyone seems to agree on.... there is a tremendous financial crisis that must be dealt with.... but, the devil is in the details.

The Decider should be grateful that Bush 41 and Babs didn't stick him with dad's middle name.... Herbert. But, George Herbert Hoover Bush does have a certain authentic ring, doesn't it.

The Decider is Denied

It turns out The Decider can't after all.... decide, that is.

The reason is glaringly clear, to everyone except those so blindly partisan they still think "trickle down" Reaganomics works.

In the face of a tanking dollar; monstrous and growing debt; historic loss of jobs; increase in poverty; trade deficits to the moon; obscene increases in entitlements and bureaucracy; corporate deregulation and tax benefits; and binge spending by a 6-year-GOP-majority Congress in the grip of corrupting lobbyists .... two men who both finished near the bottom of their class, The Decider and his sidekick McGoo McCain kept parroting their talking point. "The fundamentals of our economy are strong."

And, they kept saying it as bankruptcies and home foreclosures grew into the tsunami that finally engulfed Wall Street and threatened to drown the entire U.S. economy as credit dried up and large investment firms, banks and credit-reliant companies rolled over and sank.

Then, like the spoiled brat he is, Bush stamped his foot and demanded to be bailed out of his misjudgements.

He presented a 2-1/2 page bill to Congress, for 700 billion dollars. To be administered at the sole discretion, without oversight or accountability, by his appointed Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Paulson.... a former CEO of investment firm Goldman Sachs who finally understood the financial danger when it hit his street. Wall Street.

What followed was a balky negotiating process brought to a halt by McCain who thought he saw a chance for taking rescue credit.... rushing to D.C. to interject presidential politics, and the process ran into a wall.

No one in Congress wanted their fingerprints on this legislation to bail out the greedy raiders and failed policies. But the problem was presented as a choice between financial Armageddon and the possibility of a lifeline back from the edge of the abyss. After long negotiation, arm-twisting and compromise, legislation was finally presented to the House.... and failed.

There is a lot of finger pointing from all sides on why it failed... but the buck stops with The Decider. The Vote Underscores Bush's Loss of Influence. (WaPo)

"The plan had gone down to a stinging defeat in the House, in large part the result of opposition from more than 100 members of Bush's Republican Party.

"The vote marked the biggest legislative defeat of Bush's tenure and underscored the vanishing influence of a president who could once bend a pliant Congress to his will on wars, taxes, surveillance and a host of other high-profile initiatives.

"The defeat also brought into focus some of the key characteristics of Bush's troubled second term, including his weakened hold on his party, his tendency to delegate major responsibilities to aides and his continued reliance on alarmist rhetoric in an effort to get his way. Bush left much of the sales job for the rescue plan to Treasury Secretary Paulson., and his last-minute warnings that 'our entire economy is in danger' appeared to have little impact on the debate."

This entire mess is nothing short of a massive failure of Reaganomics. By voting for this gigantic economic-socialization bailout package, GOP conservatives would be admitting this.

And, many Democrats feel the very perpetrators of the crisis, the greedy Wall Street financiers and Bush administration enablers, would benefit more than the victimized taxpayers and resist the bailout.

So we're in the financial doldrums, drifting on the currents of panic. The ship of state is in uncharted territory without a captain.... just The Decider, thrown into the hold by his mutinous crew.

McGoo and his Fatuous First Mate are on deck, campaigning to take the helm to continue The Decider's destructive course....

November 4!

Bush Gets No Respect

As George W. Bush's ratings drop, and the Iraq war becomes increasingly unpopular for the majority of Americans, he did what he does best.... "give another chest-thumping victory speech."

As Dana Milbank points out in, "Commander in Speech," (WaPo) Bush rolled out his latest version of "Mission Accomplished" before a White House-assembled audience of a few hundred officers from the National Defense University at Ft. McNair.... to almost thundering silence.

"Bush got to his payoff line -- 'the Joint Chiefs of Staff have recommended that we move forward with additional force reductions, and I agree' -- but only one guy near the back of the room clapped. He stopped quickly when he realized nobody was joining him."

Bush's nodding acquaintance with the truth has caught up with him. The officers assembled knew that seven years after 9/11, and over five years after the invasion of the wrong country, a shift of some troops from Iraq to the real al-Qaeda hotbed in Afghanistan next February is disastrously overdue.

They knew as Bush presented the move as a product of the surge's success saying, "As al-Qaeda faces increased pressure in Iraq, the terrorists are stepping up their efforts on the front where this struggle first began," that in reality, the growing violence in Afghanistan came about largely because the United States was distracted in Iraq.

The stony audience knew that when their Commander in Speech was thanking the Coalition of the Willing for sending more than 140,000 troops to Iraq that there were, as Milbank notes, "only 7,330 foreign troops helping U.S. forces in Iraq; the number of troops apparently dropped so low this week that, for the first time, the State Department omitted the tally entirely in its weekly Iraq status report."

As Milbank points out, "There was a time, not long ago, when such a major presidential speech would draw 15 television cameras; yesterday there appeared to be only four, including Japan's NHK.

"The hosts set aside 24 seats for reporters, but there appeared to be only three reporters in the press section. Only two members of Congress -- both backbench House Republicans -- showed up for the talk.

"And Marine Lt. Gen. Frances Wilson, the university president, was comically brief in her introduction. She opened by saying she was 'honored to welcome our commander in chief,' then immediately closed by adding 'without any further ado, the president of the United States.'

" 'Thank you, General, for your kind and short introduction,' Bush replied."

The Decider has become the Rodney Dangerfield of presidents.... he gets no respect.

Deservedly so.

As Bush exits stage left in a few months, we can only hope that John McSame doesn't enter stage right to reinforce and continue Bush's failed policies. After all it was Barack Obama who years ago called for a shift in focus to Afghanistan and the terrorist strongholds in Pakistan.

November.

Ambition-Serving Slogans....

George Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" before arrogantly relabeling himself as The Decider, the dupe of neocons whose bumper sticker should be "Love Democracy or We'll Kill You."

But, during his 2000 campaign, Bush wanted to grab the GOP conservative base while still appealing to more moderate independents. It was only after he was elected to his second term that he dropped the pretense and proclaimed his true power-grabbing Decider ideology.... neither compassionate nor conservative as he continued to recklessly trash American lives, treasure, culture and good name in the pursuit of his petulant "I'm better than Daddy" crusades.

Grabbing pages from The Decider's sly two-prong playbook, last March McCain labeled himself a "realistic idealist".... just as a White House-aspiring then-governor of Texas Bush called for "realism in the service of ideals," playing to both neocon idealists and pragmatists.

James Mann explains today in "What Will the Pillars of His Foreign Policy Be?" the two factions vying for the upper hand in a McCain cabinet.

On one side is the inspiration for McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" warbling.... neocon favorite Joe Lieberman. On the other side is longtime McCain friend Richard Armitage who as deputy to secretary of state Colin Powell was an Iraq war skeptic who distrusted the hawks nesting with vice president Dick Cheney and then-defense secretary Don Rumsfeld.

Unfortunately, voters won't know what foreign policy pillar McCain's "realistic idealist" campaign sloganeering favors until he is ensconced in the Oval Office as The Decider II. Pray we'll never have to find out.

Iraq: Yankees, Go Home!

The GOP is desperate to put a happy face on the sad reality of the Iraq occupation.

George Bush trumpets that things are getting better, we're planting Democracy there.

John McCain proclaims we're winning and he would keep our troops there maybe a 100 years, just like in Korea.... bringing them home isn't that important.

So how to explain "Key Iraqi Leaders Deliver Setbacks to U. S.... Premier Rejects Terms of Proposed Pacts; Cleric Reactivates Militia." (WaPo)

"The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces."

Maliki said negotiations over U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had reached "a dead end,".... and that he was "astonished by those who are talking about how close the agreement is to being signed."

Meanwhile.... al-Sadr "called for a new armed wing of his Mahdi Army militia to fight U.S. troops." It would operate in total secrecy and attack only American forces.

The actions of Iraq's two most powerful leaders reflect the attitude of Iraqis "across the political spectrum" who have grown intolerant of the U.S. presence.

So once again U.S. citizens are being subjected to a stepped-up propaganda blitz in the face of the November elections. The Decider lied us into the war.... and now he, and John McSame who supports administration policy.... are lying to keep us there.

Fool us once, shame on them.... fool us twice, shame on us!

The Importance of "Important"

As Roger Cohen points out in "Bush Does Europe Incognito" (NYTimes).... "An American president is in Europe and nobody cares. That's a moment."

And, the result of president Bush's "chip-on-the-shoulder" temperament..... "he has proved mean, vindictive, surly, controlling and impatient, as befits his guns-at-the-ready gait".... the arrogance of self-importance.

The Decider's farewell limp around Europe reflects the "damage a flawed temperament has done to trans-Atlantic ties. Europeans got tired of being scowled at."

Indeed. And it probably didn't help that the resistance of Germany and France to the invasion of Iraq resulted in then-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld referring to them as "Old Europe."

Old and wise.

Cohen hopes for "some fresh thinking, but above all a fresh spirit, a fresh temperament."

He's obviously not referring to John McCain whose jaded rhetoric and hair-trigger temper promises more of the same.... after all when asked on the Today show yesterday if he knew when American troops could start to return home, McCain responded.... "No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq." (Huffington)

That about sums up the Bush/McCain world view, bringing our troops home from a deadly occupation that is sucking the national treasury dry, gutting our military, and isolating us from the world community.... while not making us safer..... is "not too important."

Not too important?

Bush Damns Us All

This is especially for those of you who say words don't matter when referring to the stirring words of Barack Obama. Or, that words do matter when referring to those of his pastor Wright who damns America in a sermon.

Following are some words for you to contemplate:

November 2005.... the White House was trying to renew the controversial USA Patriot Act. GOP leaders told George Bush that his push to renew the more onerous provisions of the act could further alienate conservatives still mad at him for his attempt to install Harriet Miers on the Supreme Court.

"I don't give a goddamn," Bush retorted. "I'm the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way."

"Mr. President," one aide in the meeting said. "There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution."

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a goddamned piece of paper!" (Capitol Hill Blue)

This was reported by Doug Thompson who said "I've talked to three people present for the meeting that day and they all confirm that the President of the United States called the Constitution 'a goddamned piece of paper.' " Thomson's report hasn't been discredited.

And.... these damning words weren't the words of Bush's pastor, or an advisor.... these are the unfiltered, willful beliefs of The Decider.

McCain's Free Ride

It's clear.... John McCain is getting a free ride from the media, maybe lulled by their chummy hops on his Straight Talk Express.

McCain has dodged his lobbyist ties to his bimbo eruption.... he's disarmed his misleading "safe" stroll around a Baghdad market while being guarded by the might of the U.S. military... he's silenced the fallout from his "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" warbling.... he's stepped away from his 100 years in Iraq commitment.... he's tamped down his Mad Max persona....

He's downplayed his pandering to far-right hate purveyor Jerry Falwell and seeking the endorsement of Catholic-and-gay-bashing televangelist John Hagee.... he's expounded unchallenged on his recommendation for less "regulatory, accounting and tax impediments to raising capital" in the face of the Bear Stearns billions bailout even though he admittedly doesn't understand the economy....

And, he's excused for his who-is-who stumbles in Jordan, that a hovering Joe Lieberman whisperingly corrected, on Iran training their enemy al Qaeda.

Just imagine.... imagine if Barack Obama had made these fumbles. He would be history. Imagine if Hillary Clinton didn't know that Iran and al Qaeda are enemies..... she'd be out of the race. But McCain.... the news organizations like the cut of his jib. Never mind that he's not up to the job, he's a nice guy.

Haven't we heard this before? Remember during his presidential campaign when The Decider couldn't name world leaders. Ha, ha, ha, the press said. Isn't that cute. Just like they are treating a not-ready-for-prime-time McSame.

As Harold Meyerson points out today in "McCain on the Red Phone" if McCain becomes president we had better hope that Lieberman bunks with him so if that call comes in the middle of the night he can whisper in McCain's ear.

Meyerson makes the case that McCain made the Iran-al Qaeda mistake more than once, it "wasn't just a passing thought. It was a thought that had taken up residence in McCain's brain.... Whether it was a simple mistake, a neoconservative delusion or a habit of mind that lumps together all of America's enemies we cannot say. What we can say is that the idea of any or all of these options is profoundly disquieting.

"The very thought of a president who deliberately conflates or erroneously confuses our adversaries with each other is appalling, though not without precedent. We're mired in a war that has its roots in George W. Bush's both imagining and fabricating an alliance between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Do we really want to perpetuate these habits of mind in the next administration?"

Meyerson points out that "McCain's meshugas didn't really get the attention it deserved.... he was fortunate that his descent into fantasy occurred in the same week as Barack Obama's reverend crisis and Wall Street's near-meltdown.

He got a pass from the media, Meyerson says, because his statement "ran so completely counter to his image as an expert on national security."

But just what is that expertise? Has anyone seriously assessed his beliefs? His neoconservative, war-first stance.... The Decider on steroids.

Meyerson bemoans.... "Hard to say what's more dangerous - McCain's approach to the economy or McCain's approach to the world. The thought of him answering the red phone at 3 a.m. fills me with foreboding. Hell, I don't want him answering the phone at 3 p.m."