mcdermott, waPo, blatherWatch, and jerry springer predict more scandal, chaos, underachieving and death

"'They expect to hear it from me--but when it's from you, it takes on a whole new meaning.'"

The speaker was Congressman Jim McDermott, (who was against the war before it was cool) telling BlatherWatch about a conversation he had with fellow House member, conservative Republican Wayne Gilchrest who broke with the Bush Administration last week, saying "American troops cannot abandon the Iraqi people, but the United States should have a timeline on when to pull troops out of Iraq."

The wheels are coming off public and GOP support for the war effort and the Administration is playing Wack-a-Mole with gathering scandals, McDermott said Saturday at a small private gathering in Seattle.

The Delay/Abramoff influence peddling got an indictment last week; the Karl Rove CIA agent outing, and the "coingate" scandal which could unseat the Republican Ohio governor, are simmering away in the hands of ambitious prosecutors.

Of course, to obfuscate things, the right is focusing on the shocking ads NARAL ran against Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. The confirmation, which even Democrats have said for weeks ago is in the bag, is the subject of many straw man erections (you know what we mean...) by Republican surrogates trying to change the subject.

(The dude is faceless, has a faint paper trail and even has given pro bono help to gays & lesbians. This last fact makes him more palatable to Democrats but hasn't seemed to faze the religious right who have apparently drunk the holy water on this guy spooned to them by Bush. Hell, maybe he is Jabba the Hut--nobody'll know for sure until it's too late).

Gilchrest told McDermott there were more Congressional Republicans "laying in the weeds" waiting for the right time to distance themselves from the war and trying to find a graceful way to avoid the oncoming tsunami of scandals.

"These guys are all going to [military] funerals and facing the families," McDermott said. "And they all know what bullshit they were fed leading up to this war."

Oblivious George, on the other hand, said Saturday in his radio address: "Iraqis are taking control of their country, building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. And we're helping Iraqis succeed."

Iraqi officials are struggling to agree on a draft constitution by a Monday deadline for an October vote. Chances of meeting that deadline look pretty remote at this point.

McDermott says, "They've got all the issues settled except for the Kurds and Shiites [who want special status], the role of Islamic Law and women's rights."

Those are some pretty big exceptions and that doesn't bode well for the sunny Administration predictions of Iraqi autonomy and stability to come like up like thunder across the bay after the magic bullet of a new constitution.

The insurgency has escalated--attacks on American troops in Iraq have doubled in the last month, going from about 40 attacks a day to about 80.

Last week was the fourth-worst week of the war for U.S. combat deaths and August already is the worst month for deaths of members of the National Guard and Reserves.

The Washington Post reports today that the Administration is "significantly lowering expectations" of what can be achieved in Iraq.

...the realities of daily life are a constant reminder of how the initial U.S. ambitions have not been fulfilled in ways that Americans and Iraqis once anticipated. Many of Baghdad's 6 million people go without electricity for days in 120-degree heat. Parents fearful of kidnapping are keeping children indoors.

Barbers post signs saying they do not shave men, after months of barbers being killed by religious extremists. Ethnic or religious-based militias police the northern and southern portions of Iraq. Analysts estimate that in the whole of Iraq, unemployment is 50 percent to 65 percent.

Frank Rich thankfully back from his vacation, writes in the New Times, today that the war is over:

A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968. (The two presidents' overall approval ratings have also converged: 41 percent for Johnson then, 42 percent for Bush now.) On March 31, 1968, as L.B.J.'s ratings plummeted further, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election, commencing our long extrication from that quagmire.

But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.

Meanwhile, Camp Casey, outside Bush's Crawford, Texas ranch continues to grow. The encampment, named after fallen Marine Casey Sheehan, whose mother Cindy invoked this outpouring by plunking herself down alongside the dusty Texas country road is inhabited  not only by the usual lefty activists but also with growing numbers of parents and spouses who have lost sons and daughters, wives and husbands in George Bush's ill-conceived war.

Sheehan, despite being slathered in shit by the right wing press and bloggy moonbats, waits for a chance to speak directly to the President. And 60% of Americans polled believe he should give her that chance.

The longer he ignores her, the longer the impassioned opposition to this bloody failure by military families stays above the fold and in the face of the American people who need the large print sometimes to stay in the room.

Washington now does not expect to fully defeat the insurgency before departing, but instead to diminish it, officials and analysts said. There is also growing talk of turning over security responsibilities to the Iraqi forces even if they are not fully up to original U.S. expectations, in part because they have local legitimacy that U.S. troops often do not.

"We've said we won't leave a day before it's necessary. But necessary is the key word--necessary for them or for us? When we finally depart, it will probably be for us," a U.S. official said.

Bush has always been able to skate through the scandals and the fuck-ups. Always the optimists, we don't think he can do that forever.

And forever may be even nearer than 2006.

Comments

[sparky]

Too bad the mainstream can't correct some of the falsehoods floating around out there, such as the ones regarding her family not supporting her. Suddenly, she has hundreds upon hundreds of disgruntled relatives who wish she would just shut up and come home. In truth, ONE sister-in-law----her husband's sister, is the author of that letter disagreeing with her. This is a long term disagreement, and they have been feuding for a long time, ever since Cindy's inlaws voted for Bush and support the war AFTER Casey was killed. Ms. Sheehan has not spoken to them since. Interestingly, her husband called her right after that was published, to let her know that he still strongly supports her, as do her parents, kids and other relatives on her side of the family. The stress of Casey's death has caused them to separate, but he still supports her in this.
Of course, you will never hear about this on Fox, or CNN, nor will you read about it in the Washington Post...

[Duane]

Cindy Sheehan can do as she pleases. But, who is bankrolling her? Is she a wealthy limosine liberal who can afford to take as much time as she wants to act like a "nutcase" and so aptly coined by Fred Barnes? I also hope she follows through on her htreat to NOT pay her federal income taxes. She has just about every far left, anti-war organisation backing her. BFD. She met with President Bush over a year ago and came away with a totally different story. I wouldn't invest all my eggs in Cindy Sheehan's "basket". You can, if you want. Why aren't the 1800 mothers of other dead servicemn down there in Crawford? Could be they have a very different view. Cindy Sheehan is a disgrace, literally spitting on her sons' grave. Perhaps she even has the original copies of Bill Burketts files on George Bush's military service. Call dan Rather, QUICK.

[chris]

Do you need all 1,800 mothers of dead servicemen and woman in one location to make a point? Duane, that is so fucking Un-American of you to say that a womans protest, specifically aimed at the president, is spitting on her sons grave.

You don't like dissent, your only recourse is to take a less-than-cheap shot at someone and millions more who want the truth.

I dare you to go down there or anywhere else where there is a grieving mother and say that to their face. What Cindy Sheehan has on the president, is a lie on the reasons for going over there. nearly 70% of Americans of all backgrounds say that bush shouldn't have gone over there. Are you willing to stand behind a liar that gets you killed?

Iraq wasnt a threat to the United States and you know it--We controled the Soviets for 40 years and they had nukes...

It's all about oil and empire building and you boy is getting people killed for it.

We know Bushler is a wealthy limo neo-con, he was passing the protest to attend a fund-raiser with his "pioneers", those who have pledged 6 figures to watch a president kill people world-wide and smirk about it.

[sparky]

Meanwhile, we can all take comfort in knowing that Bush realizes he "has a life and needs to get on with living that life". (A4 main section of Sunday's Tacoma News Tribune.)

Golly, somehow I seem to think that 1850 young men and women would like to have gotten on with their lives too.

Absofuckinglutely unbelievable. He might as well have said " Let them eat dirt."

[Duane]

Naw, "he" wants you, sparky and chris, to eat dirt. You've both made my day. There is no doubt losing a son or daughter is tragic. But Cindy Sheehan is about as much a mom as I am in regards to the memory of her son.
She's being used by the far left. NOTHING at all will come of her actions. Even the press will find much more things to do when August is over. As you well know, August is the month where the press has to find much "ado about nothing" to sell their rags. What about the "wag the dog war' Bill Clinton put our troops in to deflect the spotlight on his scandal a week scandals? You guys have wonderful selectivity. I'm learning how to use it now.

[Fremont]

I would say, Duane, that her actions have already produced "much ado", and that ado and MSM's attention to it are, and will continue to be, catalysts for further negative polling results that will have to be spun into sweet servings of cotton candy by Rove, et.al. Swallow that b.s. with a spoonful of sugar!

[blathering michael]

If you haven't seen the updated version off this post--please read it and click on Frank Rich's column in today's NYT. It's eye-opening. This chippies are finally falling where they may.

[sparky]

yes I read it Michael...

"A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968."

and

"But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press." ( yesterday the Pentagon announced they will take former military ages 50 to 70! )

and

" The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)"

and

" The resolutely pro-war New York Post editorial page begged Mr. Bush (to no avail) to "show some leadership" by showing up in Ohio to salute the fallen and their families. A Bush loyalist, Senator George Allen of Virginia, instructed the president to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the mother camping out in Crawford, as "a matter of courtesy and decency." Or, to translate his Washingtonese, as a matter of politics. Only someone as adrift from reality as Mr. Bush would need to be told that a vacationing president can't win a standoff with a grief-stricken parent commandeering TV cameras and the blogosphere 24/7."

" Nothing that happens on the ground in Iraq can turn around the fate of this war in America: not a shotgun constitution rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline, not another Iraqi election, not higher terrorist body counts, not another battle for Falluja (where insurgents may again regroup, The Los Angeles Times reported last week). A citizenry that was asked to accept tax cuts, not sacrifice, at the war's inception is hardly in the mood to start sacrificing now. There will be neither the volunteers nor the money required to field the wholesale additional American troops that might bolster the security situation in Iraq."

"Thus the president's claim on Thursday that "no decision has been made yet" about withdrawing troops from Iraq can be taken exactly as seriously as the vice president's preceding fantasy that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The country has already made the decision for Mr. Bush. We're outta there. Now comes the hard task of identifying the leaders who can pick up the pieces of the fiasco that has made us more vulnerable, not less, to the terrorists who struck us four years ago next month."

So, spin it anyway you want, boys. Try blaming it on the Mighty Clenis, liberals, Michael Moore, Cindy ( not a mother? okkkk) and all the others you can think of.
The rest of the country knows exactly whose lap this mess sits in.

[Duane]

Oh, Cindy is a mother. I'll give you that. The mother of all idiots.
Other good news is the air america scandal is growing by leaps and bounds, NARAL screwed up royally.
By the way it's nice to see you're helping O'Reilly's ratings by tuning in. Just as the old politician said..."I don't care what you say about me as long as you mention my name."

[Scrilla]

HEY!!?
I've reread the entire post (and links) and can NOT find word ONE about talk radio in Seattle!
Next thing ya know, there'll be restaurant reviews and recipes!
And I'm guessing you don't blog those for free.
I am so depressed that I have to crucify a kitten on an orphanage door just to CHEER UP!

(tip: talk to people who've actually worked near/with Brian Maloney. Very creepy stories.)

[sparky]

hmm
You get a B for word usage but an F for comprehension..lol..

[chris]

Bill O'Reilley is trying to get his falafel back from Coulter's hoo hoo

[Lump]

Scrill sez, "I've reread the entire post (and links) and can NOT find word ONE about talk radio in Seattle!
Next thing ya know, there'll be restaurant reviews and recipes!" And the ratings would be higher than AAR gets now. Unless they are cooking the books. Oh, that's right, they are.

[sparky]

Coulter does not have a hoo...or if she does, it was surgically created during the "switch"....