It's stunning, really.
This morning, browsing the national headlines at the NY Times website, my jaw dropped. Story after story seems to be calling the current president's bluff. On economic policy, on the outing of CIA operatives, on Bush's tarnished image among conservatives. You name it.
There's plenty of time for a surprise that might sway this momentum. But I'm increasingly optimistic that Bush is toast. Bless his little ol' heart; sure hope he can stay off the sauce....
The tone is increasingly skeptical, the issues, increasingly difficult for the current administration to avoid.
A synopsis of these stories follows (and this is from only one newspaper). I know, I know, you can read these for yourself at the Times website.
The point is: practically every story these days points right back at the White House and its increasingly untenable position vis-a-vis its policies, its actions, the opposition and, yes, even its own party.
President Calls Economy 'Strong and Getting Stronger':
highlights include the reinvigorated effort at blaming the previous administration on the recession, convincing an increasingly skeptical public that tax cuts will create 2.6 million jobs this year, and mollifying increasingly vociferous critics of the current administration's fiscal policy.
The Right Has Begun Standing a Little Less Behind Bush:
Republicans and right-wing pundits are incradingly vocal in their criticisms, particuarly of economic stewardship (c.f., Novak & Noonan's tepid responses to the SOTU and MTP performances respectively). Will things change when the democratic nominee is certain and Bush can mount an attack? (anxious Republicans await an answer...)
The Top Bush Aide Is Questioned in C.I.A. Leak:
The noose tightens. "The appearances of the press secretary, Scott McClellan, and the press aide, Adam Levine, reflected what lawyers in the case said was the quickening pace of a criminal inquiry in which a special prosecutor is examining conversations between journalists and the White House."
The 9/11 Panel Threatens to Issue Subpoena for Bush's Briefings:
More potential noose tightening as the 9/11 panel continues to weigh its options upon exasperating White House stonewalling -- "Members of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks warned the White House on Monday that it could face a politically damaging subpoena this week if it refused to turn over information from the highly classified Oval Office intelligence reports given to President Bush before 9/11."
The Panel Member Says Bush Erred on Details of Threat to Reactors:
Yet more evidence that the White House exaggerated threats -- "President Bush was probably wrong when he asserted in his 2002 State of the Union address that American forces routing guerrillas of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan had found designs for nuclear power plants, one of the three members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has said."
Democrats Suggest Inquiry Points to Wider Spying by G.O.P.:
the battle lines sharpen as GOP legislators question whether Hatch and Frist "have been too compliant to Democratic complaints."
E.P.A. Raises Estimate of Babies Affected by Mercury Exposure:
new data cast doubt on the prudence of the "market-based trading-pollution system" the Bush administration favors (which scraps a great deal of regulatory oversight, of course).
The Washington Talk: In Wartime, Some Argue, Commanders in Chief Do Best When They Really Command:
Article probes what Bush may have meant about keeping politics out of war in his comments on Sunday -- "The thing about the Vietnam War that troubles me as I look back was, it was a political war," Mr. Bush told Tim Russert on Sunday on "Meet the Press." "We had politicians making military decisions. And it is lessons that any president must learn, and that is to set the goal and the objective and allow the military to come up with the plans to achieve that objective."