August 2006
Over the last year, the White House has led a campaign to clean up television by substantially increasing the fines against networks that broadcast foul language — even when it happens inadvertently, such as during live sporting events.
President Bush didn’t help his cause last month when he was caught using indecent language while talking with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a summit in Russia. “See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this [expletive deleted] and it’s over,” the president said, unaware of the live microphone nearby.
And, this was not the first time. At a campaign stop during his first campaign, a live microphone caught Bush making a derogatory comment about a New York Times reporter.
December 2005
The White House has had a bad fourth quarter: Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, growing dissension about Iraq, Scooter Libby’s indictment, low approval ratings, and so on. All the President wants for Christmas is an air bag to stop his free-fall.
Putting politics aside, the White House has done a poor job of managing multiple mistakes that created the current situation.
Here’s just one example: the White House justified the Iraq war in part because Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. When WMD failed to appear, someone inside the administration allegedly leaked the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame as revenge against her husband, who had debunked the Niger-Iraq nuclear connection. Then, Libby allegedly lied to the grand jury about the leak to protect someone inside the administration. It all adds up to one big mess.
And, then there’s Mike Brown. Horse show judge. FEMA director. Never mind, that’s too easy.
The real problem for the Bush Administration is problems begetting problems instead of problems begetting solutions. A problem is nothing more than a decision waiting to be made. If President Bush wants to salvage his legacy, he’s going to have to make some tough decisions and make them fast.
