Current Round-Up

Asked for comment on the rapid deterioration of his second term, President Bush said, "Terrorism, terrorism, terrorism, nine-eleven, nine-eleven, war president, war on terror, take 'em out, take them terrorists out, smoke'em out, I'm a war president."

Alright. So I'm slightly exaggerating this story, which talks about Bushie's quick exit from DC to talk about anything and everything but today's events.

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"Thanks for the chance to get out of Washington," said Mr. Bush at the start of his speech in Norfolk, Va., to an audience that was dominated by military personnel and veterans.

The remark needed no explanation, but drew laughter and applause. It capped a week in which President Bush's choice for the Supreme Court, Harriet E. Miers, withdrew from the embattled nomination process, and the 2,000th American fatality was reached in the Iraq war. And today, the C.I.A. leak investigation approached a turning point when the special prosecutor released news of the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.

President Bush's senior adviser and deputy chief of staff, Karl Rove, will remain under investigation but will not be charged today, his lawyer said.
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Wow - that is a heckuva week. Bushie, you're doin' a heckuva job.

As you must be aware, Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald indicted Scooter Libby today, but is opting to let Karl Rove twist in the wind for just a while longer as he gathers more evidence, apparently.

Bush is going to have to come up with something quick to dismiss his detractors as Anti-American Freedom-Haters. Otherwise, this is going to get pretty ugly.

What's really amazing are some of the parallels between this White House and what I was just reading about the Nixon Administration in William Bundy's A Tangled Web - basically just the way Nixon was reelected for a second term and then things started to fall apart rapidly in the next year. While it was not necessarily on the minds of most Americans (polls showed most people hadn't even heard about Watergate until quite late in the game), there was just a slow buildup until everything just started caving in. During this time, the administration struggled to deal with business as usual, even as strict partisans began to turn against the president.

Of course, it's a liberal politico's virtual wet dream that the same scenario will transpire again with this administration. Like I've said previously, this is all beyond what I've ever expected. I didn't think we'd see anything remotely resembling this until G-Dubs was out of office, but I think most of the people who read this site on a regular basis are quite sure that the corruption reaches up and up, even if ol' Georgie isn't quite kept on the up and up with what's going on underneath.