LA Times: "White House Plans to Deflect" - WH post-indictment game plans

[Nothing Without Hope]

It will be interesting to see if Shrub is willing to listen to these "GOP advisors" rather than indulging his petulance and fury. I am waiting for the moment when he finally cracks and throws in public - where it is filmed - the kind of hissy fit that he is said to be doing more all the time in private. He has to be nearing some kind of edge.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-assess27oct27,0,1051268.story?track=tothtml
NEWS ANALYSIS

White House Plans to Deflect

If top aides are indicted in the CIA leak case, the administration strategy is to keep its distance.
By Doyle McManus, Warren Vieth and Mary Curtius, Times Staff Writers
October 27, 2005

(snip)

Some key elements of the post-investigation game plan have emerged, GOP advisors said:

• Any indicted White House officials would immediately step down, and Bush would quickly name their successors. If Rove is indicted, more than one person might take over his many responsibilities.
  
  
• The president and other White House officials would limit their public comments on the case. Outside interest groups and allies would do most of the talking.
  
  
• Whenever possible, Bush and other administration officials would try to change the subject. Among the issues the president plans to put atop his new agenda are spending restraint, tax changes and immigration. In addition, Bush's foreign policy advisors have discussed launching a more visible presidential effort to prod Israel and the Palestinians toward peace, one official said.
  
  
• The White House would try to insulate Bush from the scandal allegations. Officials would argue that the president has not been accused of any direct involvement in the leaking of information in the CIA case or subsequent efforts to minimize the political damage. Although it is not yet clear who would coordinate the defense, several advisors said they expected Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman would be heavily involved. One official said former Cheney aide Mary Matalin was another likely participant. Neither Mehlman nor Matalin could be reached for comment.

(snip)

One does wonder who these "GOP advisors" are. And whether * will heed this advice.

Can't resist adding this great Toles cartoon:



Merry Fitzmas! As Botany says, "Treason is the reason for the season!"

[radfringe]

1. they are running out of subjects to change

spending restraint - bush* has never met an appropriations/spending bill he didn't sign

tax changes - unless it involves repeal of the wealthy-fair taxcut, it's not going to change the subject

immigration - bwaaa-haaa-haaa

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. So true! HERE's the kind of "spending restraint" they like:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1879809
thread title: Senate votes against increased spending for heating aid program (AGAIN)

"WASHINGTON --The Senate decided Wednesday the money wasn't there for a substantial spending boost for the federal home heating program, deflecting arguments that soaring energy prices could force the poor to choose between heat and food this winter."

[radfringe]

8. meanwhile.....

heard on the news yesterday - bush* is going to Florida today (thursday) for a photo op

[leftchick]

13. Isn't China on the agenda soon?

I thought I read he is going to China in early November. Isn't that convenient? I hope they didn't intend on KKKarl traveling with them.

[Spinzonner]

14. How many heating bills would the costs of the trip pay

[sepia_steel]

2. I'm shocked. SHOCKED! I say.

I can't believe they'd turn on THEIR OWN. :wow:

[Oversea Visitor]

4. Lets see

1) Chimp need new brains ok got that
2) Need new clothes for emperor with no clothes ok done
3) Ok lock step denial ok done
4) Ok chimp talk only on spending restraint, tax cut and immigration.
Poor guy no terra terra terra.

Meanwhile keep him around to take blame
He not allow to defend himself
Let others do.

Poor chimp poor excuse of an unelected president.

Me think you and saddam make good company hey.

One got booted out by a foreign power
now me wait see how you get out
:rofl:

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Yeah, that about wraps it up - and as a reward for your astute analysis,

here's my favorite "Emperor's New Clothes" cartoon. Toles is a GENIUS:

[Oversea Visitor]

19. Hahaha

OK now can get him for sex charges

I SEE NEW FBI PORN SQUAD :rofl:

[ima_sinnic]

6. can you imagine Clinton needing a bunch of babysitters and

handholders to shield him and prop him up during the lynching they put him through?

hey George, you loser, guess what? the country has seen through your act and you are NOBODY. you are less than a pus-filled boil on the ass of a diseased orangutang, nothing but the current "useful idiot" for the globalized gang-bangers -- so get a clue, George, and resign immediately, have AT LEAST as much integrity as the former record-holder for slime and incompetency while "holding the office" of "president."

-- and won't it feel good to you, too, to drop the pretense?--because you don't even fake it good--and you know it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. I think you will like the article I posted below

(reply #9). Though admittedly, "a kind of Forrest Gump from the Dark Side" doesn't have the resonance of a "pus-filled boil on the ass of a diseased orangutang." Though I do see some similarities...

[EFerrari]

7. But MIERS, MIERS, MIERS, MIERS, MIERS.

(yawn)

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. ***Good read: "Ladies and Gentlemen: The Real George W. Bush" ***

http://www.alternet.org/story/27385

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Real George W. Bush

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real. Posted October 27, 2005.

(snip)

Of course, for those of us who have covered the Bush family for years, it's no mystery at all. The best way to think of George W. Bush is as a beard for others. At every step in his career, individuals of wealth or power groomed him, and then used him as their front man.

These benefactors had learned long ago that there was more money and more power to be had in the shadows than in the limelight. All they needed was the right person to front for them -- someone with a name, a smile, a confident swagger. Vision, dreams, hopes and ethics were not only unnecessary, but liabilities in a beard. All they needed was a person they could program, wind up and send out into the public spotlight and deliver for them.

That's George W. Bush. He fit the bill to a T. Texas oil men -- and companies with international agendas and voracious appetites for government contracts -- had found their perfect front man in GW: a kind of Forrest Gump from the Dark Side. A man ignorant and proud of it, and willing to take direction from those he considered friends.

(snip)

And just as it looked as if he was on the way to fulfilling another assignment -- the elimination of the estate tax -- his beard fell off. It was the thing they had always feared most: the real George W. Bush went public. There it was, for the whole world to see: a chuckling, twitching dope of man standing in front of the American people, unleashed and unscripted. Worse yet, he was making his own decisions. He chose his friend and admirer, Harriet Miers, for the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

(snip)

[ima_sinnic]

21. good one, thanks!

the Toles cartoons are great, too!

kicking and recommending :kick:

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. OK, time for me to stop for the night. One more Toles cartoon to show

that it won't be so easy to get Shrub to perform on demand if Uncle Karl stays distracted:



Merry Fitzmas to us all! :hi:

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. ONE MORE TOLES CARTOON - shows the aftermath of Fitzmas!!!

I stole it from this thread because it was irresistable:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5187668
thread title: Fitzmas aftermath ?

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. kick for the morning crowd n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

16. I originally read that as "White House Plans to Defect"

...which gave me a little shiver of glee -- and I even took it at face value, since fleeing appears to be Numnutz' first response to danger. But then I started wondering which country would HAVE them if they defect?

Then I had another cup of coffee and read the headline again.

Durn it all, anyway.

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. Funny - when I first posted it I made exactly that typo - Freudian slip

undoubtedly. I corrected it, but the word "defect' must be hovering in the air!

[TheCentepedeShoes]

18. Me too.

Then I looked again. Besides, who'd have them?

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. Kick- Toles is an amazingly insightful, devastatingly funny cartoonist n/t

[yellowcanine]

22. "If Rove is indicted, more than one person might take over his many

responsibilities."

Heh. Yeah, one person to keep the skeletons buried, one person to "kneecap" wayward allies and enemies, and one person to wipe the presidential ass.

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. kick n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

24. another kick - it's still topical and the Toles cartoons are terrific

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. These predictions turned out to be correct. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

26. These predictions are being borne out to the letter.

For example:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2196249#2196811
thread title (10/30): Instead of setting agenda, Bush and GOP lawmakers are changing the subject

I'll post more examples here later.

[NYC Liberal]

27. Remember his statement about Libby?

He said (paraphrasing), "We're not gonna let us distract us, we're going to focus on Iraq, etc..."

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. kick - still topical - I think the WH ciminals must have read it n/t