MUST READ: Paul Begala on Plamegate and the Bush WH:

[liberalpragmatist]

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/26/23727/338

What It's Like

By Paul Begala

From: TPMCafe Special Guests
Tom Petty was wrong. The waiting is not the hardest part.

Sure, all of what Eric Alterman dubbed "the punditocracy" has a severe case of indictus interruptus, but for President Bush and his White House staff, the worst is yet to come. To be sure, waiting on a decision to indict is an exquisite form of torture. But what lies ahead is worse. If special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald does choose to indict one or more senior Bush White House officials, they will be the first top White House aides to be indicted in a decade and a half.

This is when a White House staffer earns his pay. The pressure of a federal criminal investigation - especially one in the media spotlight - is bone-crushing. My guess is that the strain is taking a gruesome toll. Already we hear rumors of President Bush exploding at his aides, at the President blaming Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, and anyone else in sight for his woes.

This I know first hand: when The Boss explodes like that, there are two kinds of aides -- those who fight and those who flee. When he came to Washington, Mr. Bush surrounded himself with tough-minded people who seemed not to be afraid to stand up to him. But now his team is loaded with weak-kneed toadies, and Mr. Bush is home alone. Karl Rove, of course, is fending off a potential indictment. His prodigious brain has not entertained another thought in months. (That's why, I suspect, some months back Rove popped off and said liberals wanted to give terrorists psychotherapy after 9/11. It was a loopy, stupid, and distinctly un-Rovian, meltdown - the first public sign that the pressure was causing Karl to crack.)

***

There's more at the link. It's good - read the whole thing.

[crispini]

1. Oh ZING!

Mr. Bush would do well to augment his current staff, a C-Team if ever there was one, with some stronger characters. But to read the Bush-Miers correspondence is to gain a disturbing insight into Mr. Bush's personality: he likes having his ass kissed. Ms. Miers' cards and letters to the then-Governor of Texas belong in the Brown-Nosers Hall of Fame. You can be sure the younger and less experienced Bush White House aides are even more obsequious. The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups.

:rofl:

[tuvor]

2. Begala's been quiet lately. n/t

[Fiendish Thingy]

This is great- nominated!

 "But to read the Bush-Miers correspondence is to gain a disturbing insight into Mr. Bush's personality:  he likes having his ass kissed."
-snip-
" The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs:  someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups."

I love it!
If only Begala could have talked this way on Crossfire!

[Stand and Fight]

3. Good stuff. Kicking and recommending before I go to bed. n/t

[MuseRider]

4. Boy ain't that the truth!

Never happen, never in a million years. This guy is just going to get worse and worse until he pops off and he gets put in a car and carried off to the loony bin with what is left of our country with him. We are going to have a lot to clean up after he is gone.

Nominated and kicked.

[serryjw]

5. Truth to Power

That has always been Bushit's problem even back to the Tx days. He does like his arse kissed and that is exactly what got him in trouble. Unfortunately he took the country with him and 2000 kids. My BIG problem with all this is IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN. Half the country just didn't get what we all were fighting against. The double 'unfortunate' is the 'this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups.' He should spend the rest of his life in a Federal prison sharing a cell with Rummy and Chaney and the support neocons. Few will knew how close we came to losing it all. The 230 year experiment almost came to and end.

Just maybe Fitzgerald can save this country?

[RevCheesehead]

6. That was worth it.

Compared to these folks, I had it easy. I'd never met Monica Lewinsky, had no knowledge of the affair, which took place when I was living in Austin, and I knew that neither I nor any of my colleagues were in Ken Starr's perverse crosshairs. The Fitzgerald investigation is very different. It's not about the President's extracurricular activities. It's about the essence of how the White House works - and the suggestion that this White House has become deeply corrupt.

If the waiting is as painful for the Bushies as I suspect it is, it's only because they know how terrible the toll will be when the truth comes out.

Wouldn't you love to see the first meeting between Begala and Novak?

[Old and In the Way]

7. Hey, thanks for posting this! Begala pulls no punches in this essay.

My favorite-

"The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups."

Ain't that the truth. What I find fascinating is that in George's darkest hour...Poppy and Babs are watching Houston get swept in the series. I think there's a great book to be written about this "spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life" neer-do-well who always lived in Poppy's shadow, never quite meeting up to his expectations. And Poppy was always there to bail him out, fix his problems, and grease his Son's rise in politics. I'll bet Dimson hated it while he certainly took advantage of the situation.

I believe we'll find that Bush's quest to be a "war pResident" and take out Sadam has its roots in wanting to finally show Dad that he was his equal...or better. What a sad thought that 2000 Americans died as a some kind of psychological one upsmanship played out by a son of a President. Dad has never been close to Junior during his Presidency....why? His desire or his son's? "Dad, I can do it. I don't need your help."

I hate to think we are all unwilling participants in some kind of Shakespearean reality play that is essentially the playout of the strained relationship between the 2 principle actors in the House of Bush Crime Family.

[NJCher]

9. It's a karma thing for sure

But for the life of me, I cannot understand what such limited, undeveloped people are doing in the leadership position. There must be a skazillion psychologically immature, undeveloped jerks out there like the bushes. Why them?




Cher

[Stinky The Clown]

13. I honestly think this is the very essence of who Little George really is

and wh he is who he is.

The entire country is paying for the family therapy the Bushes have always needed.

[ClayZ]

8. I love the ending! Kick

"If the waiting is as painful for the Bushies as I suspect it is, it's only because they know how terrible the toll will be when the truth comes out."

:kick:

[upi402]

10. Paul Begala, not a betrayer of democracy

okay, he doesn't go to prison with all of CNN, Faux, and MSNBC.
You are free to go, sir.

[LVdem]

11. I like this analysis from Begala better than

anything he did on CNN. Good for him.

And I, of course, hoe those in the B*sh White House are not sleeping very well tonight!

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. I like the insight on how the investigation affects the daily workings

of the WH:

When a White House is under siege, no one wants to talk to anyone. Literally, anything you say can and will be used against you. When you're in a meeting and you see one of your colleagues taking notes, you start to wonder how long it will be before you're interrogated based on her notes. Maybe she's doodling. Or maybe she's digging your grave. The mind tries to focus on the task at hand, but the grand jury is never far from your thoughts.

Afraid to email, afraid to take notes, suspicious of everyone - under siege indeed.

They may be too sociopathic to feel a guilty conscience, but they know that their usual lies and dirty tricks are not going to work this time and they may actually face accountability for their crimes.

[GeorgeGist]

14. He lost me with this one...

"When he came to Washington, Mr. Bush surrounded himself with tough-minded people who seemed not to be afraid to stand up to him.

[Mend]

17. me, too....Ari Fleischer? Condi?

if anyone was tough, it was because they were in place already and he quickly got rid of them. I love the replies more than the original article.

[wildwww2]

20. Yep. He lost me on that one too. Bu$h`s election stealing helpers

are the persons whom he surrounded himself with. Oh and the placated lapdog media. They did a swell job of circling the wagons for that election stealing maggot. Tough minded people do not break the rules to steal elections. Begala just wants to promote a myth that the signers of his paychecks at that time wanted promoted.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President

[robbedvoter]

21. True that. Was going to post too. Rove, Karen, White which one was

tough? I cannot forgive Begala for his disgraceful conduct during the primaries and repeated disappointments with Crossfire.

[Neil Lisst]

15. Begala! I like him. He's a Texan, yall!

I remember his first election as a pro. 1984. Lloyd Doggett v. first Kent Hance, then Phil Gramm. Won the primary, lost the general. And the campaign manager for whom he worked? James Carville, when he still had hair.

Hook em horns.

He's on target with this article. The problem is the fool at the epicenter, Bush. The wheels are going to come off this baby once the indictments hit.

Like Jeff Bagwell, Bush always tightens up and swings for the fences, and he'll try that here. God only knows what this looney bastid will do.

[seaglass]

16. Just need to say it one more time, the best description of Bush

bar none.

The last thing this President wants is the first thing he needs: someone to slap his spoiled, pampered, trust-funded, plutocratic, never-worked-a-day-in-his-life cheek and make him face the reality of his foul-ups.

:rofl:

[stop the bleeding]

18. Nominated and once this thing goes to trial then the WH will be under

the microscope for all of their wrong-doings in regards to Iraq.

I always enjoyed hearing PB's insight into certain situations going on in DC, too bad he's not on crossfire anymore even though Tucker and Novak were/are DICKS.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. Isn't it ironic that when Rove popped off about liberals

wanting to give terrorists psychotherapy after 9/11, it was at that meeting in Aspen, Co that Libby might have been referencing? Rove popped off about a bunch other stuff while he was there. There was a list somewhere of all the crazy things he said that weekend, while at the same time he was supposed to be taking charge of the Katrina disaster. It nice to see Rove coming apart at the seems. Couldn't happen to a more deserving bastard.