Bush is cyclically repeating "bipartisanship" the way we're used to hearing him do with "9/11" because he knows all his cards are played. The death-I-mean-firing of Donald Rumsfeld was the break-up of the Dream Team. Jim Baker must have made it an advance condition of delivering his bipartisan (with co-chair Lee Hamilton) Baker Commission Report (after the Election Dust settle). Who else would have enough clout to trump Dick Cheney and eliminate his partner in the death machine? Only the man who made sure Jr. won the recount the first time around.
Take a look at this shot of Bush meeting today with the three top Democratic Senate leaders, the ones who beat him. Aside from El Presidente's toothless grin what stands out is the distance between Cheney where he's sitting and the three other guys, including his supposed sock puppet. Cheney's not really involved in the conversation, hands clasped together, visibly chastened. Denuded of his Rumsfeld, the guy who hired him in to the Nixon White House, his protector and collaborator at Defense.
Bush is a moron but he's not stupid, he knows he's failed. His only Iraq War policy is revealed to have been trust Rummy and now he has something to worry about. For six years his domestic agenda has been Karl Rove's puppy and on Tuesday Rove came crashing down. That's the closing bell, and two years with the opposition in majority takes a loooong time to pass. Bush is finally forced to confront a likely legacy of...estate tax elimination?
The day after the Election, Bush invited Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi to the White House, and you've gotta admire her poise. After saying things like this tsk tsk about our Presidente and by winning the election proving herself correct, it's nice to see her getting her first reproachful gander at her pitifully helpless charge. Note in this particular photo she's deliberately not looking at him, head turned away, focused directly on us through the camera while W. face looks wet and searching, for a way out of the daze.
Yesterday a friend of mine said that Bush will probably do well with Pelosi, just as he favors his mother over his father, just as he surrounds himself with nannies Karen, Harriet and Condoleezza.
Don't be fooled by Speaker-Elect Pelosi's deeply committed poise. She doesn't need another grandkid, so she doesn't have to baby this one as she raises him. And raise him she will -- Bush will be ecstatic to be seen signing some piece of actually useful legislation with Pelosi right behind him. It's okay if it isn't anything he'd normally support as long as it's to earn her approval, a look of favor, a genuine smile.
Today they're pretending he's the green President and maybe that will stick for awhile. That's right, pick an issue, not too complex, one that might make your nanny smile. Maybe it'll be one nice thing they say about you after you're gone. It's wussification, certainly, but little Prince Georgie wears it well.
And not a moment too soon.
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