Babbling Bushit II

His cup runneth over and the nation is about to drown in it.

“It helps crystallize my thought to answer your questions,” he told conservative columnists called to the Oval Office this week. But he made it clear that his thoughts were contentedly calcified: “Let me just first tell you that I’ve never been more convinced that the decisions I made are the right decisions. I’m oftentimes asked about, well, you’re stubborn and all this. If you believe in a strategy, in Washington, D.C., you’ve got to stick to that strategy, see.”

Aside from Dick Cheney and Rummy, who don’t have all their buttons, we all long for W. to find better strategies on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, pretty much the rest of the world and national security.

Strategy. Now that's a joke because they didn't have a plan other than to invade Iraq. Since there weren't any flowers, they were lost, didn't have a clue as to what to do next since they didn't plan for the afterwar. These guys are trying to play Risk with a Battleship mentality while the rest of the world has graduated to Sudoku.

Whenever W. does something legally sketchy and morally ambiguous — from pre-emptive war to spying to torturing — he claims he’s doing it to protect Americans from terrorists. But there’s a more visceral agenda: Vice and Rummy have persuaded W. he will not carry a big stick if bound by Lilliputian legalities, tiresome checks and balances and Kumbaya international conventions. Rather than being alarmed at their battiness, the president naïvely admires what he sees as bravado.

Bravado. Is that what they're calling it these days. Blind, unreasoning arrogance is what springs to my mind.

“Ideological struggles take time,” he said, and the world expects “instant success.”

“Maybe it’s because there’s too many TV channels, I don’t know,” he told the columnists, noting that’s why a president must have patience.

Patience? We've been dutifully destroying another sovereign country with absolutely no benefit to American citizens and even less to American troops. We've been as patient with your inept bungling of Iraq for the last three years as any citizen who also watched one of their nation's own cities drown due to your indifference.

“I got into politics initially because I wanted to help change a culture,” he said. He wanted to banish the old 60’s “if it feels good, do it” culture and “help usher in an era of personal responsibility.”

Oh, you changed it all right and personal responsibility isn't your strong suit. While Harry S. Truman may have had the buck stop at his desk, Bush is only concerned with the ones that end up in his pal's pockets.

Nobody could have anticipated that one, now could they? Isn't that your excuse for everything else that has slipped past the presidential radar?