I learned to resent Pseudo-president Bush during his sleazoid campaign against Gore, detest him when I saw how his mafia twisted the election of 2000, and then loathe him after reading Vincent Bugliosi's book detailing the theft of the U.S. Presidency. In five years, it only got worse.
After watching Bush in office, to paraphrase one of my favorite novelists, Terry Pratchett, I have gone straight through loathing and come out the other side into something unrecognizable. I am tormented because the decline of Bush is lockstep with the decline of my country but I think we need to bottom out.
If I try to step back and be objective about his free-falling poll numbers, the trends are still very bad. Not only is the approval rate dropping and the disapproval rate rising, as I look at the numbers, there is less and less middle ground. "Strongly disapprove" seems to be gaining momentum so even if his "approve" numbers stabilize and hover somewhere, they probably represent people who will never, ever budge off their support. Maybe it's even single-issue support, like anti-abortion rights or the "kill those brown bastards and take the oil God put under their deserts that he naturally intended for the Good Ole Yewessofay" crowd.
For a real picture of American sentiment, we probably need to put Bush's numbers up against the consumer confidence index and "America right track/wrong track" results. Be that as it may, as Bush closes in on better than 60% disapproval, and as that disapproval becomes more intense and entrenched, it would seem to me that it will take something almost mystical to interrupt the death spiral. But I just don't see it.
So I am asking all of you, "Is there something out there that can actually help Bush that I am overlooking?"
As I survey, I see only more problems. Every new revelation is bad for the Bush Orthodoxy, and there are a lot of lingering problems. For example, at some point, the FOIA court process will end and it seems inevitable that more Abu Ghraib material will come out. The Pentagon has already told us that the Islamic world will go berserk--in fact, it was their defense-in-chief to the FOIA proceeding. Thanks to Give 'em Hell Harry Reid, the Senate will finally begin pre-Iraq war intelligence hearings and that can't be good for the White House.
Whatever is revealed is going to converge with the G. Gordon Libby--sorry--SCOOTER Libby trial. Also, I agree with John Dean's analysis, found on Truthout.com, that Libby won't deal and that probably means more Fitz indictments, and who is at the head of the line but Karl Rove? I know, I know: Cheney. But even without an indictment, Dick Cheney's approval level equals the approval level for mosquito bites. Even some of the religious "wackos" must have abandoned him. Is it too early to seriously think about him being forced from office? I wonder, by the way, if forcing the truth out of the Republicans that they've used the zealots to carry their water, will make any difference? Probably not--the Evangelical Christianists I have seen, heard, or unfortunately read any of their thoughts might be diabolical, crafty, hateful bigots but they're also butt-hole stupid. Still, as Fats Waller said, "One never knows, do one?"
Back to the Senate, maybe the "Able Danger" pre-9/11 intel shutdown, which gets really, really close to treason territory if there is something there, gets hearing time, with Harry Reid maybe tag-teaming with Arlen Specter on that one.
Speaking of hearings, we have no idea how the Alito hearings will come out, whether they will help or hurt Bush. Even if they help, the effect will be limited to the base--which continues to shrink to its core "wackos" (remember?). And what about the Abramoff, Frist and DeLay matters? Is there guilt by association? Do they reveal a systematic problem with how the Republican party is managed at its most senior levels? Are there "anti-halo" effects from the constant negative drumbeat of bad news and familiar names--dwell on that: a crooked Republican lobbyist is now a "familiar name"--that drown out even a smooth Alito hearing and confirmation? As time passes, will other strange words like AIPAC and SISMI become as familiar as CREEP was during Watergate?
It's also only a matter of time before Wilson-Plame civil suits are filed (see my diary on that one). I just don't think there are enough theories of immunity in the world to keep them out of the courthouse, and even if the suit is delayed procedurally, the allegations will be damning. And again, there's that convergence with Fitz and the Senate hearings.
More bad news in Iraq is inevitable. Young men and women will die and be maimed for life in a war with a faulty run-up strategy and no peace strategy--all the Bushites knew how to do was the destruction part in the middle. Do any of the Iraqi elections matter to anyone but Bush and his supporters reaching desperately for policy affirmation? Even if we pull out of Iraq any time soon, and only Bush can give the word to bug out, will our departure simply affirm how lost we had become in that country in the first place? Let's not forget Afghanistan; is it getting better or worse? If I had to bet, I know where I'd put my money.
What will winter energy prices driven up by Katrina look like? Maybe they will hasten an inevitable economic slowdown. No president has ever repealed the business cycle and in case you didn't notice, we are in a "recovery." The housing market has cooled, inflation is lurking, and high productivity and cheap overseas labor took a big chunk out of the employment rebound; not a "jobless recovery" but pretty damn close. How fragile is the stock market? Meanwhile, health care benefits routinely get reduced or more pricey, for those lucky enough to have them at all.
Social Security privatization is dead; is the death of the extension of tax cuts for the wealthy far behind? How will Americans react when they realize their beloved mortgage deductions are on the tax table for chopping? Will Connecticut win its lawsuit against the Department of Education and prove "No child left behind" is unconstitutional? Will there be enough bad news by November 2006 that Bush's problems multiply with every seat the Democrats gain in the Senate and House, even if short of a majority?
Three more years is a long, long, long time, especially in politics. It's long for you and me because we have to endure what I hope is the end of a political philosophy based on lies, greed, corruption, and ineptitude. It's three more hurricane seasons. It's 1,000 days of White House staff, already sapped by brain-draining departures (mostly voluntary) and distracted by all of the bad news above, playing duck-and-cover. Does anyone think something good can happen for the Bush Administration? Anyone? Anything? What have I left out? Please, I gotta KNOW!