Bush's Stairway To Paradise & How His Sheep Kiss His Ass (Sidney Blumenthal)

[kpete]

Update: Sidney Blumenthal discusses the new Draper book on Bush that speaks to why these Republican sheep are so eager to cover for him even at this late date:

Bush's stairway to paradise
Hoping that history will somehow vindicate him, the president has entered a phase of decadent perversity.
By Sidney Blumenthal

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/20/bush_draper/print.html?source=whitelist

Bush's deployed his fetish for punctuality as a punitive weapon. When Colin Powell was several minutes late to a Cabinet meeting, Bush ordered that the door to the Cabinet Room be locked. Aides have been fearful of raising problems with him. In his 2004 debates with Sen. John Kerry, no one felt comfortable or confident enough to discuss with Bush the importance of his personal demeanor. Doing poorly in his first debate, he turned his anger on his communications director, Dan Bartlett, for showing him a tape afterward. When his trusted old public relations handler, Karen Hughes, tried gently to tell him, "You looked mad," he shot back, "I wasn't mad! Tell them that!"

At a political strategy meeting in May 2004, when Matthew Dowd and Rove explained to him that he was not likely to win in a Reagan-like landslide, as Bush had imagined, he lashed out at Rove: "KARL!" Rove, according to Draper, was Bush's "favorite punching bag," and the president often threw futile and meaningless questions at him, and shouted, "You don't know what the hell you're talking about."

Those around him have learned how to manipulate him through the art of flattery. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld played Bush like a Stradivarius, exploiting his grandiosity. "Rumsfeld would later tell his lieutenants that if you wanted the president's support for an initiative, it was always best to frame it as a 'Big New Thing.'" Other aides played on Bush's self-conception as "the Decider." "To sell him on an idea," writes Draper, "aides were now learning, the best approach was to tell the president, This is going to be a really tough decision."

But flattery always requires deference. Every morning, Josh Bolten, the chief of staff, greets Bush with the same words: "Thank you for the privilege of serving today."

more at:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/pied-piper-of-crawford-by-digby-bizarre.html

[lisa58]

1. "Thank you for the privilege of serving today"?

What a bunch of a**holes!

[Frustratedlady]

9. That quote jumped out at me, too.

No wonder he thinks he is Boy King.

[lisa58]

10. I'd get fired in less than 30 seconds if I worked for him!

The thought of playing the "emperor's new clothes" everyday just makes me ill.

[Frustratedlady]

11. I have a secret fantasy....

That before his term is up (if it ever is), I have the opportunity to tell him, face to face, what I really think! I just haven't decided whether I want to spend the rest of my days in Cuba.

[bdamomma]

12. thank you for the privilege of serving today???

:wtf: we have some sick a$$ people ruining this government can we please round them up and get them behind bars.

[riderinthestorm]

16. "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

Sick frat boy mentality is what jumped out at me. Juvenile, petty and frightening.

[wilt the stilt]

2. Hubris

If there was ever a poster boy for hubris, * is it. Unfortunately, the tragedy is us.

[ThomWV]

3. This brings the word "Pissant" to mind

[KharmaTrain]

4. The Boooosh Legacy

Many of us who survived Nixon recall that a lot of the real crap that went on in that crooked White House was revealed after he was gone. We're starting to hear some of the "inside dirt" on this regime and how incompetent and out of touch booooshie really was (no surprise to most of us). His pettiness and ego aren't those of a "guy you'd like to have a beer with", but rather to kick in the ass.

The problem will face whomever takes over...there are sure to be lots of landmines and skeltons in the closet that we won't learn about until the executive is surrendered. Thus it does affect my thinking of who would be the best Democrat to handle this mess. Sadly, an ideologue isn't what we need...we've already had that...but someone who will spend a majority of those 4 years just cleaning up the messes of the booosh years (and some will be hard choices)...as while boooshie will be gone, his right wing hate/spin machine wlll still be out there attempting to revise history and obstructing every step of the way.

[TlalocW]

15. Love her or not

It's probably going to take another Clinton to clean up after another Bush (which is what I love telling my republican friends so I can watch veins in their heads throb). Hillary is as big a policy wonk as Bill, and it will probably take the both of them to pull America out of the crapper Bush has put us in. And they really should choose Gore as the vice-president again to help out. ;)

I remember a political cartoon from early on in the Clinton years of Bill and Hillary in bed. The caption was one word: Foreplay. The cartoon showed them sitting up in bed, each going through reams of paper, pencils behind their ears, a few laptops and piles of paper strewn over the covers. That's probably pretty true.

TlalocW

[leftchick]

5. "Bush is a classic insecure authoritarian"

that is one of the scariest fucking things I think I have ever read. Especially the part about cheney.


<snip>


Bush is a classic insecure authoritarian who imposes humiliating tests of obedience on others in order to prove his superiority and their inferiority. In 1999, according to Draper, at a meeting of economic experts at the Texas governor's mansion, Bush interrupted Rove when he joined in the discussion, saying, "Karl, hang up my jacket." In front of other aides, Bush joked repeatedly that he would fire Rove. (Laura Bush's attitude toward Rove was pointedly disdainful. She nicknamed him "Pigpen," for wallowing in dirty politics. He was staff, not family -- certainly not people like them.)

[IDemo]

6. I'm halfway through a Glenn Greenwald book explaining this behavior

A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency

Bush is not an idiot, nor has he ever been Rove or Cheney's puppet, as the popular mythology goes. But he is an emotionally brittle individual unable to grasp the concept that he could ever be wrong, and unwilling to tolerate anyone not in complete agreement with him.

[KoKo]

7. Laura Bush called Rove "Pigpen" for wallowing in politics...not one of us....

Bush is a classic insecure authoritarian who imposes humiliating tests of obedience on others in order to prove his superiority and their inferiority. In 1999, according to Draper, at a meeting of economic experts at the Texas governor's mansion, Bush interrupted Rove when he joined in the discussion, saying, "Karl, hang up my jacket." In front of other aides, Bush joked repeatedly that he would fire Rove. (Laura Bush's attitude toward Rove was pointedly disdainful. She nicknamed him "Pigpen," for wallowing in dirty politics. He was staff, not family -- certainly not people like them.)

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/20/bush_draper/index.html

[tetedur]

8. "[Bush] has entered a phase of decadent perversity,...

where he accelerates his errors to vindicate his folly.

Bush's ever-inflating self-confidence hides his gaping fear of failure.

The elder Bush committed a monumental error, empowering a regent to the prince who would betray the father.

The elder Bush has many reasons for self-reproach, but perhaps none greater than being outsmarted by a courtier he thought was his trustee."

It is a pleasure to read Blumenthal who has something to say and knows how to say it.

[Jim__]

13. The more I hear about this idiot, the scarier it gets.

Hard to believe someone this unstable is in charge of a nuclear arsenal.

[charlie]

14. Republicans keep putting ever-weirder freaks

into that office. Get ready for President Ted Nugent.

I remember Mike Deaver talking about one of the reasons they had to strictly control access to Reagan -- he could be convinced on an issue by the last guy he talked to. They crapped their pants and sprinted to the Oval Office one day when they found out Edward Teller had gotten in there and was yammering about a nutty space-based missile idea.