George Bush’s Exceedingly, Surprisingly, Very and Quite Long Goodbye
I think we can now officially call this a lame-duck Congress:
WaPo: No-confidence resolution against Gonzales fails in the Senate.
I don’t mean to be cute about it. OK, I do. By the standard that’s been applied to President Bush, the Democratic Congressional leadership is toast. Hamstrung and hogtied. Sorry, insensitive choice of words. How about pistol-whipped. Bitchslapped. Lame. L-A-M-E.
But let’s hear it from the lame duck himself:
“They can try to have their votes of no confidence, but it’s not going to determine — make the determination who serves in my government,” Mr. Bush said, adding, “This process has been drug out a long time, which says to me it’s political.”
Here’s the standard of lame-duckness I’m talking about. By that standard, this Congress is done. Time to pack it in. It threw everything into ending this war, and couldn’t manage more than a moderate non-binding tsk tsk. It’s tried everything it can to force the resignation of Alberto Gonzales, with the press cheering it on, and can’t manage a vote of no confidence.
Lame.
Uh oh, it’s worse than I thought. Reid’s approval rating drops to 19 percent. According to Democratic standards, I believe it’s time for Reid to start bussing Bush’s table. His numbers are as bad as Scooter Libby’s. Dick Cheney at 38 percent has twice the approval rating Reid does.
Meanwhile, approval of Congress is at 10-year low. Pelosi below Gingrich.
It’s hard to blame those who repeatedly herald Bush’s lameduckness. Technically, he’s been in lame-duck territory for some time. There was the November election, the Rumsfeld departure, the Libby conviction, the Amnesty bill’s failure. But the notoriously inept chimp keeps defying them. He refused to cede his presidency as they demanded. His surge is moving forward without restrictions, the withdrawal measures and drop-dead progress dates jettisoned. They wanted a change in strategy in Iraq, he gave them one and there are signs it is working, whether they like it or not.
This Amnesty bill, as bad an idea as it was, was a deeply bipartisan bad idea that shows he is willing to reach across the aisle to Ted Kennedy of all people, one of his nastiest war critics, to pursue goals he supports, against the odds. He is operating boldly on his own terms. He has also been practical in the past, and we’ll see what comes out of his meetings with Republicans today. He promised reporters today he’d see them at the signing, but I don’t believe he spelled out what the bill he signs is going to look like. Even if he gets shot down again, I’d suggest it’s a little early to be announcing George Bush’s twilight.
Captain Ed’s take: Democratic Overreach, Part II.
DownWithTyranny: Reid Fails Again — Apparently Senate Has Confidence in Abu Gonzo.
Democratic Caucus’ Senate Journal: “Americans Have Lost Confidence in the Attorney General.” Not enough to get a vote of no confidence. SenDems apparently too demoralized to update the leadership blog tonight.
The Democratic Daily: “Kerry Says Gonzales has lost the confidence of the American People.” Not enough to get a vote of no confidence. Speaking of the confidence of the American people … uh, never mind.
The Daily Kos: Dem actions pointless. That’s how I read this, anyway:
- There really isn’t any such thing as a vote of no-confidence in our system;
- The resolution would be non-binding, and therefore in all likelihood (and in the face of this stubborn jackass of a president) would mean nothing;
- The “evidence,” despite the numerous hearings, hasn’t really been “publicly examined”, etc.
Kos Dreams of impeachment, acknowledges its futile.
Meanwhile, in other Congressional business:
Boehner: “This week on the House floor Democrats in Congress will begin their efforts in earnest to hide pork-barrel projects …”
Powerline: “Picture a gang of drunken sailors who have broken into the ship’s rum supply …”
Welcome, incoming from Instapundit, Captain’s Quarters, Driscoll, et al. If you’re hanging around places like that, you’re a smart reader, but you can never be smart enough. Ensmarten yourself here. It’s the latest thing. Even Paris is done with dumb. Shoe styles, that’s another issue. But you’d think al-Jazeera would smarten up and end its love affair with terrorists. Meanwhile, here’s a riddle to test your smarts: what do the porn industry and the news business have in common?
Topics: Bush
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:32 pm on Monday, June 11, 2007
15 Responses to “George Bush’s Exceedingly, Surprisingly, Very and Quite Long Goodbye”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
June 11th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
A Quick Index To Today’s Posts, Quick Hits, Open Post
Click here for a handy most recently updated posts at the top listing of the posts on this page. Click here to see a similar listing for the Old War Dogs site. 2006.06.11 No Illegal Left Behind Roundup Mark Steyn: A lame joke becomes reality Should Ref…
June 11th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Bill’s Nibbles, Open Post
Today at Bill’s Bites: 2006.06.11 No Illegal Left Behind Roundup Mark Steyn: A lame joke becomes reality Should Reform Be For Immigrants Or the National Interest? Mickey Kaus: Fool the Yahoos! Immigration: The New Third Rail New Vent: The First
June 11th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
The Long Goodbye
Eschewing conventional wisdom, Jules Crittenden isn’t afraid to declare a lame duck when he sees one. Or maybe two, depending upon how you look at them….
June 11th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Hmmm … the tryanny of low expectations runs riot in this post. Here is what Jules has positive to say about George Bush.
1 - He keeps in power an attorney general that has gone before congress and, under oath, enthusiastically sworn to his own incompetency.
2 - He operated boldly in pushing for the immigration bill. I think Jules has a typo and means operated badly here. So here we have something that ticked off his own supporters to a degree even greater than Harriet Myers, and then didn’t get passed. And Jules lists this as a Bush success! I would hate to see what a failure looked like. Of course, on the scale Jules is using, failure seems to be litterally impossible because even obvious ones show that at least Bush still has the power to umm … move his limbs around I guess.
3 - I won’t comment on the effectiveness of the surge, as at this point no one knows how it is going to turn out. I will only say that after about, what 17 announcements by the Bush Administration that things have turned the corner in Iraq and now are going to get better, all of which turned out later to be false, the enthusiasm with which Jules greets announcement number 18 certainly indicates a triumph of hope over experience.
Jules, you do understand that the people talking about George Bush being a lame duck don’t mean he is going to resign, or become comatose, or some such, don’t you? They simply mean that his effectiveness in getting things done is mostly gone. You seem to take it that it means he is dead, and so having an awful attorney general and failing at the immigration bill are successes because they at least show he has not choked to death on a pretzel. Well, by that standard, you are totally right, George Bush is doing a heckuva job! And to think some people doubted him.
June 12th, 2007 at 1:24 am
They simply mean that his effectiveness in getting things done is mostly gone.
Which describes Congress perfectly as well. Alas, given the double standards in use by the MSM and lefties, Congress won’t be impeached or accused of criminal conduct.
But I’ll give you this, CF……most members of Congress do know how to pronounce “nuclear”.
June 12th, 2007 at 2:33 am
[...] write more, but they’re really not worth my time. Jules Crittenden has [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 3:55 am
[...] Jles Crittenden has a post up at Forward Movement about the inability of the US Congress to get things done. [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 6:58 am
[...] I don’t mean to be cute about it. OK, I do. By the standard that’s been applied to President Bush, the Democratic Congressional leadership is toast. Hamstrung and hogtied. Sorry, insensitive choice of words. How about pistol-whipped. Bitchslapped. Lame. L-A-M-E Jules Crittenden [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 7:17 am
Latest Democratic Failure: Gonzales No Confidence Rejected
Is there anything Congress under Democratic leadership can get done? Democrats failed after several tries and 100+ days to end the war in Iraq through a shameful combination of slow-bleed and outright surrender; failed after a backroom “grand compromi…
June 12th, 2007 at 7:30 am
The Schumer/Leahy temper tantrum
Ready for more circus antics from Twittle Dum and Twittle Do Less?
“Majority Democrats in the Senate are forcing their Republican colleagues on the record about whether embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales should keep his job.
No one is pr…
June 12th, 2007 at 9:56 am
you are of course correct…the congress has been ineffectual…but that is largly due to spineless republicans who don’t vote their conscience, or what they think is right, but vote by group-think - tow the party line. this applys to both the so-called war and the ag. on iraq…if republicans had voted along the lines of what they were saying the results would have been far different. same with the ag. not one republican defends him…but they make a political statement with their vote.
my second point is that before the election we had a terrible sec of defense, and a “stay the course” strategy from the white house. these things have changed drastically, although not enough to actually effect the course of this mis-adventure. this change has been due to the pressure exerted by the new congress. so perhaps they have not stoppped the so-called war in iraq but they have had an effect.
June 12th, 2007 at 10:03 am
[...] Jules Crittendentakes the occasion of the failure of the Gonzalez No Confidence vote, Harry Reid’s 19% Favorable Rating, and the democrat Congress’s 27% Approval Rating ( 10 Year Low) to remind Americans that it is actually possible to be doing worse than George W. Bush. By JDZ Feedbacks on this entry via RSS 2.0 Please leave a Comment or discuss via Trackback! Comments Please Leave a Comment! [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 11:02 am
[...] Blogger Responses: State of the Day, Rook’s Rant, Jules Crittenden [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 11:14 am
[...] Jules Crittenden says “we can now officially call this a lame-duck Congress”. Well, yeah. Rasmussen says Harry Reid’s approval rating is at 19%. Yikes! Even Dick Cheney has an approval rating of 38%—-how (fast) the might have fallen. [...]
June 12th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
[...] Dept of what rock did you crawl out from under? Dept of Are Worms Turning?: Jules Crittenden looks at what it means to be a lame duck. [...]