DC gasbags blaming "weak-kneed" American people for Bush's war gone bad

[BurtWorm]

Josh Marshall, for one, is enraged by the gasbags:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011343.php


It really does seem as though the cardinals of DC punditry are constitutionally incapable of believing that George W. Bush has ever -- in the real sense -- gotten anything wrong or that they, the Washington establishment, has gotten anything wrong over the last six years.

I don't like to use such words but I can only think to call the denial and buck-passing sickening. I can't think of another word that captures the gut reaction.

Here's the lede to Mort Kondracke's new column in Roll Call (emphasis added) ...

All over the world, scoundrels are ascendant, rising on a tide of American weakness. It makes for a perilous future.

President Bush bet his presidency — and America’s world leadership — on the war in Iraq. Tragically, it looks as though he bit off more than the American people were willing to chew.

The U.S. is failing in Iraq. Bush’s policy was repudiated by the American people in the last election. And now America’s enemies and rivals are pressing their advantage, including Iran, Syria, the Taliban, Sudan, Russia and Venezuela. We have yet to hear from al-Qaida.

Let's first take note that the 'blame the American people for Bush's screw-ups' meme has definitely hit the big time. It's not Bush who bit off more than he could chew or did something incredibly stupid or screwed things up in a way that defies all imagining. Bush's 'error' here is not realizing in advance that the American people would betray him as he was marching into history. The 'tragedy' is that Bush "bit off more than the American people were willing to chew." That just takes my breath away.

Now come down to the third graf. Bush gets repudiated in the mid-term election ... "And now ..." In standard English the import of this phrasing is pretty clear: it's the repudiation of Bush's tough policies that have led to the international axis of evil states rising against us. Is he serious? The world has gone to hell in a hand basket since the election? In the last three weeks? The whole column is an open war on cause and effect.

This is noxious, risible, fetid thinking. But there it is. That's the story they want to tell. The whole place is rotten down to the very core.

[blm]

1. Then help lead the battle against the corpmedia, Josh and TPM. Join with MediaMatters

and don't give the corpmedia an ounce of credence for the drivel until they start acting like a real news media.

[patrice]

2. Predicated on the class difference they assume:

The nobility who, due to noblese oblige, must make the hard decisions for everyone else and who, by virtue of their natural "nobility" and the responsibilities inherent thereto, are NOT supposed to have to DO anything that they REQUIRE of the rest of us.

[Sapere aude]

3. The gas bags see that the Bush legacy and by association, theirs is failure.

The whole republican, neocon, PNAC, right wing conspiracy has failed because the American people have rejected it. So they have to blame the American people since they refuse to look in the mirror.

Imagine all the effort they put into taking over the world. Now they are going to be empty handed.

[enid602]

4. Bush

Bush unilaterally attacked a non-threatening sovereign country, and that attack has caused loss of life in the hundreds of thousands. Furthermore, the war in Iraq leaves the US defenseless, as we've already spent our wad. And oh, yeah, we're an extra $3 trillion in debt thanks to his earmarks, unnecessary wars, tax cuts for the rich, etc.

[angry_chuck]

5. Apologists always try to rewrite history

But screw them. America is awakening to the MSM mouthpiece. We ate up all that shit bush spewed because it sounded good to the good ol' boys (They hate us so let's kick their asses. Yeah!). Maybe they got that sentiment right about the American psyche but they have got another thing coming if they think that America will sit idly by and be blamed for that shit! The same unconscious desire to kick ass when an American flag is waved in front of some also carries with it a desire to not be blamed. We are many and bush is but a few (a giant corp masquerading as a single man?). It is much more comforting to say, "He is the one who f*cked us! Let's get him to save the rest of us." Face it, deep down most Americans believe, at least to some degree, in utility. The good is maximized through us sacrificing up bush and cheney to redeem the rest of the populous. Everyone is happy; those of us that feel they are criminals and should be punished are vindicated, those who think he defrauded us are vindicated, those that (sadly) feel we were right to go to Iraq but that Bush just screwed the pooch there are even vindicated. We must stand by the irrefutable facts and push fore even more. The truth will be ugly and hurtful to most but that is the price we must pay for redemption. The truth must be told; shouted from every window and door, across every hill and valley, until there is no place for the evil, deceptive message of the MSM and their corporate paymasters to hide. They shall be vanquished by truth seekers the world over. It starts here. Free, uninhibited discourse is requisite to real freedom. The kind of freedom that our forefathers intended. If that is the story that they would tell, it shall not be heard. The sounds of truth shall resonate with fury that the lies shall falter and collapse of their own burdensome, grotesque weight. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. That saying has been attributed to many peoples, from Jesus to Edmund Burke, and it will be as true as the day it was conceived and for infinity henceforth. Trust those who seek the truth, question those who claim to have found it. Why let someone else decide for you, especially dicks like Bill O'Liely or Tucker 'I'm 35 and wear a bowtie" Carlson? The unexamined life is not worth living. That being said, I read a study (i can't remember where, sorry) that showed people who got all their news from fox would have been better informed about the truth surrounding our invasion of iraq had they not read anything at all. Just make sure you are the one who does the examining, and not some horrible psycho like Ann Coulter. Too often we surrender our trust to those who are not deserving of it. Every action we take toward regaining our own authority is countered and usurped by a coercive force virulently ravaging our land. Time to take back our sovereignty of heart and mind. "...And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers..."

[sarge43]

6. As memory serves, Hitler said much the same in his

last will and testament. It was the fault of German people that they were defeated; they didn't do what he demanded of them, didn't sacrifice enough.

It's the true mark of the beast; it is never to blame, never truly accepts responsibility.

[acmejack]

8. Adolf served in the trenches of Ypres in terrible combat.

Morton served as a reserve while in graduate school under arduous conditions in DC 1960 -1963.

Adolph

Morton

[sarge43]

15. I'm aware of Hitler's WWI service

The fact that a non-German enlisted man was granted the Iron Cross is significant. The German army never gave that one away. He is also the prime example of why combat experience, let alone military service, does not automatically mean an individual has sympathy for the suffering of other soldiers. Hitler's orders to stand fast at Stalingrad was the worst sort of indifference. He forced a hundred thousand men to endure a hell that made the Western Front look like a Sunday school picnic and for no other reason except to protect the perception of his infallibility.

[acmejack]

17. Please don't attempt to paint me as a Hitlerian sympthathizer Sarge

That is not necessary. Nor would any student of Military history ever claim Ypres was a Sunday school picnic. First poison gas attacks on enemie troops conducted here a new era in warfare.

edit: A mere 1.7 million dead, some "picnic"! http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/ypres.htm


Ypres Salient pockmarked by shelling

[sarge43]

18. I don't think I did, acmejack. Had I thought you were, I would have

ignored your post or said so.

Nor did I say Ypes was a picnic. I made two statements, neither aimed at you personally. One, egomaniacs tend to blame others for their mistakes and, two, military service doesn't automatically give an individual sympathy for the plight of soldiers.

As neither of us were at either battle, the comparison is academic and certainly not worth a flamer.

[acmejack]

19. Sorry Sarge that came out wrong.

Didn't mean to inflame.I certainly could have worded that more judiciously. I agree.

[ComerPerro]

7. any weakness is because we don't have enough troops, because Repigs aren't enlisting

[roamer65]

9. Typical Rethug neocons.

It's ALWAYS someone else's fault, never theirs.

[warrens]

10. Blame gravity when you trip and fall

What a pack of morons. If the Preznit fucks up, it's our right to cut him off at the knees. He's not our king.

[benddem]

11. do any of these guys

have any skin in this game? None ever served in the military. Don't listen, read or watch them.

[ProfessorGAC]

12. I'd Like To Add A Comment

But, i can't improve upon what you wrote. Great job.
The Professor

[Jack Rabbit]

13. Better a tree-hugger than a Bush-hugger

!!

[ljm2002]

14. "This is noxious, risible, fetid thinking." ...

... "But there it is. That's the story they want to tell."

Pretty much says it all. And it carries a bit more weight, coming from Josh Marshall, given his usual reluctance to make such strong statements.

What I wonder is, how are the Beltway insider press able to filter out the stench most of the time? Because most of us on the outside have long recognized the Beltway insider's club for the stinking, rotted corpse it has become. The horrid aroma wafts across the country in a putrid poisonous cloud of misinformation and propaganda worthy of the Soviet "press" in their heyday.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. The gas bags are acting like the American people betrayed Bush

I think it's the other way around. These types of shattered delusions are the wages of stolen elections, gerrymandered Congressional districts, and media complicity in ChimpCo's catapulting of propaganda.

The fact is, the American people never were with Bush. Gore clearly won the popular vote. But the American people decided to suspend their partisanship and give Bush a chance after September 11th. In return, Bush lied the nation into war. And when millions demonstrated against the impending war, Bush called them a "focus group". In 2004, instead of directly addressing the issues and convincing the American public that the war was a good idea, Karl Rove decided instead to spend every last bit of capital squeezing out every possible vote from the right wing extremist base, that isn't representative of mainstream America. It's not a question of the public having turned on Bush or betrayed him after the quagmire became apparent. Bush betrayed the American public and lost their trust after amassing mountains of lies that have now become too apparent to overlook or forgive.