Frank Rich: The Faith-Based President Defrocked

[highplainsdem]

Free Link


New York Times
October 9, 2005
The Faith-Based President Defrocked
By FRANK RICH


TO understand why the right is rebelling against Harriet Miers, don't waste time boning up on her glory days with the Texas Lottery Commission. The real story in this dust-up is not the Supreme Court candidate, but the man who picked her. The Miers nomination, whatever its fate, will be remembered as the flashpoint when the faith-based Bush base finally started to lose faith in our propaganda president and join the apostate American majority.

<snip>

BUT Mr. Bush's dissembling wasn't limited to his Supreme Court nominee. Asked how he was going to pay for Katrina recovery, the president twice said he'd proposed $187 billion in budget cuts over 10 years - but failed to factor in his tax proposals and other budget increases. The real net total for proposed Bush cuts is $103 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, and even less according to some independent number crunchers. Turning to Iraq, Mr. Bush once again fudged our "progress" there with a numerical bait-and-switch, bragging about "30 Iraqi battalions in the lead." (Translation: in the lead with American military support.) Less than a week earlier his own commanders had told Congress that the number of Iraqi battalions capable of fighting unaided had dropped from 3 to 1 since June. (Translation: 750 soldiers are now ready to stand up on their own should America's 140,000 troops stand down.) For good measure, Mr. Bush then flouted credibility one more time to set the stage for the next administration fiasco. In the event of a bird flu epidemic, he said, one option for effecting a quarantine would be to use the military. What military? Last week The Army Times reported that the Pentagon, its resources already overstretched by Iraq, would try to bolster sagging recruitment by tapping "a demographic long deemed off limits: high school dropouts who don't have a General Educational Development credential."

Like most Bush fictions, the latest are driven less by ideology than by a desire to hide incompetence. But there's a self-destructive impulse at work as well. "The best way to get the news is from objective sources," the president told Brit Hume of Fox News two years ago. "And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." Thus does the White House compound the sin of substituting propaganda for effective action by falling for the same spin it showers on the public.

Beware of leaders who drink their own Kool-Aid. The most distressing aspect of Mr. Bush's press conference last week was less his lies and half-truths than the abundant evidence that he is as out of touch as Custer was on the way to Little Bighorn. The president seemed genuinely shocked that anyone could doubt his claim that his friend is the best-qualified candidate for the highest court. Mr. Bush also seemed unaware that it was Republicans who were leading the attack on Ms. Miers. "The decision as to whether or not there will be a fight is up to the Democrats," he said, confusing his antagonists this time much as he has Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

<snip>


Brilliant column...

[NYCGirl]

1. God, he's good! NT

[ginnyinWI]

21. Frank Rich and Bob Herbert are the best at the NYT! n/t

[Cha]

2. So I'm wondering why rove

chose miers?

[vogonity]

8. Is it possible * did it on his own?

Maybe this is a really dumb notion, but we have been hearing a lot lately about a certain amount of "distancing" that is happening between Chimpy and Rove and between Chimpy and Cheney as well?

Wasn't Karl under some kind of medical care, and Cheney in Wyoming during Katrina?

Could * just said "aw fuck it Ahm gonna pick me mah own surpreem cort justus."? Then looked around for someone whose got some lawyering done for him and someone who he sees as loyal to him?

[Cha]

9. The thought crossed my

mind but I had read something on DU that said..rove had his wart covered hand in this..so, since he's still "*'s brain" I figured he had some Machiavellian plan for miers and the sc.

[sunnystarr]

14. I had read that Rove was integral in the selection of Miers

It was on DU and a source was listed. I remember speculating that Rove has finally reached his level of incompetence.

[bunny planet]

12. So that any case against him brought up on appeal to the Supremes won't

go against him. He's got Roberts and Miers in place, loyal to the BFEE.

[me b zola]

24. That is what I think as well

This nomination is but one more tid-bit that makes me think that there will be no one untouched by the indictments in one way or another.

That said, I think it is all the more reason to defeat her confirmation. The in-fighting and fracturing that is occurring in the republican party has only just begun. The real fireworks will begin after the indictments get handed down. :)

:popcorn: :beer:

[hvn_nbr_2]

18. Right now Rove may be only a part-time brain for dim son

Between kidney stones, preparing for indictments, and the "distancing" thing, the puppet meister doesn't seem to have the old touch.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Thanks for the free link!

:yourock:

[highplainsdem]

7. You're welcome!

:)

[Don Claybrook]

16. Here's another free link

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_docid=10D235673A563FF8&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=3&p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=Q5ER5FWUMTEyNzEzNDYwNi40NzA4MTU6MToxMjpuY2RtaW51dGVtYW4


The infoweb site seems to have all of Rich's, Krugman's, and Dowd's columns, at least so far.

[highplainsdem]

17. Thanks for posting that. I've been using the infoweb links much of

the time when I post these columns (though I use tinyurl.com or snipurl.com to reduce the length of the links then, since the URLs for the individual columns are much longer than the one for that search page and DU won't post links that long), but Rich's column wasn't on the infoweb site yet last night when I posted the original message. Infoweb doesn't get the columns the evening before the publication date, as the Times website does, so I used technorati.com instead to search for it and found the page I posted a link for.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

19. Link doesn't work for me...

[highplainsdem]

20. Try this (another search page on the infoweb site):

http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb/?p_action=explore&d_search_type=keyword&d_sources=spiked&d_place=NYTB&&f_clearSearch=yes&d_issuesearch=&p_product=NewsBank&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=Q5ER5FWUMTEyNzEzNDYwNi40NzA4MTU6MToxMjpuY2RtaW51dGVtYW4


And here's the snipurl.com version of that link:

http://snipurl.com/iack

and a snipurl.com version of the link Don posted:

http://snipurl.com/iact

Those are just snipped versions of the URL and take you to the same pages with the complete URLs at the top.

If any of those work, you might want to bookmark the page itself (not the snipped URL) so you can find it again for searching.

[DemoTex]

4. "This is a sea change .." Rich (rich!!).

Like most Bush fictions, the latest are driven less by ideology than by a desire to hide incompetence. But there's a self-destructive impulse at work as well. "The best way to get the news is from objective sources," the president told Brit Hume of Fox News two years ago. "And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world." Thus does the White House compound the sin of substituting propaganda for effective action by falling for the same spin it showers on the public.

http://armwood.blogspot.com/2005/10/faith-based-president-defrocked-new.html

A piece too good to just read. Devour it. Snort it. Memorize it. To think that a NYTs art critic has become the Chris Floyd (Moscow Times) of our lame press. Thanks Frank.

[madaboutharry]

5. "Custer on his way to Little Bighorn"

And unfortunately we are the cavalry.

[kentuck]

11. Good analogy by Frank..

:thumbsup:

[ananda]

15. I feel like the ants and insects trod upon on the way.

nt

[NNadir]

6. Frank Rich has been eloquent and sharp through the 5 year crisis.

Now he's showing just how scary it has gotten.

[highplainsdem]

10. kick

[electron_blue]

13. I love it! He's right - Bush is so clueless he doesn't realize that the

Republicans are turning on him. Keep those blinders on, Bush, for just a little while longer!

[ginnyinWI]

22. he's in a bubble--news doesn't get through

His lackeys are afraid to approach him with any bad news.

He isn't willing to get it for himself by turning on the TV or reading newsapers.

Even if he gets information, he doesn't process it. He thinks with his "gut", remember. If his gut tells him it's Miers, then it's Miers.

He said that Miers will be the same in 20 years as she is today. Well 20 years ago, Miers was a Roman Catholic Democrat!! Today she is a Fundie Republican. Twenty years from now, who knows?

[renate]

23. someone here on DU--I'm sorry I can't remember who--came up with the BEST

nickname for * :

Chimp in a Bubble.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[jazzjunkysue]

25. Nope. Sorry. It's "President Etcho-sketch": Garrison Keillor

Rich is totally on the money, as usual.

So many good lines;

1. "James Dobson: America's foremost analyst of the gay subtext of Spongebob Squarepants."

2. "Beware of leaders who drink their own Kool-Aid."

3. "Such naked presidiential isolation from reality was a replay of his response to Hurrican katrina."

4. "Chances are that the number of americans who still have faith in the light at the end of either of these tunnels is identical to the number who believe Harriet Miers is the second coming of Anton Scalia, and Tom Cruise has found true love."

Is Frank married? Anyone got his number?