It's Do-or-Die time for the GOP
Sean Magers
Issue date: 11/10/05 Section: Editorial/Opinion
Indictments, Investigations, and Cronyism! Oh my! These are dark days indeed for the Bush administration. With the President's approval rating dipping to 35% in some polls and Dick Cheney's at almost half of that at 19%, it's hard to see how the White House can provide effective leadership for the remaining three years of this term.
Bush has seen his own conservative base turn against him with the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, and has to expect the possibility of a filibuster with his newest nomination. There have been indictments of majority leader Tom DeLay and the Vice President's chief of staff Scooter Libby, bringing about the prompt resignations of both. Even a major contributor to Bush/Cheney '04 campaign has been indicted on three counts of money laundering. This, of course, is all in addition to investigations underway on Senate majority leader Bill Frist. With Karl Rove astoundingly still employed and press secretary Scott McClellan sweeping botched jobs under the rug at break-neck speed, this all adds up to a lion's share of corruption and incompetence deeply entrenched in the bowels of this administration.
Is that all? Certainly not. Our fearless leader demonstrated just how dangerous appointing your friends to major positions can be in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. There's also the matter of the war in Iraq. We recently passed a grim milestone of 2,000 American deaths in addition to Iraqi civilian casualties that have been quoted anywhere from 27,000 to 30,000 deaths since March 2003. At least we're over there for a legitimate reason, right? At least the American public wasn't misled into supporting Operation: Iraqi Freedom, right? At least we went in with a legitimate exit strategy and haven't turned the entire country into a power vacuum . . . right?
What can Bush do to avoid becoming a lame duck and face a Democratic coup in the mid-term elections of 2006? The President needs to clean house as Reagan did in his second term when his approval ratings began to plummet. Bush needs to spend less time making speeches about the Bird Flu and focus on making good on his 2000 promise to be a "uniter, not a divider." With a massive cloud of suspicion surrounding those he is closest to, the President needs to fire Karl Rove and think about talking to Uncle Dick about stepping down.
Bush has seen his own conservative base turn against him with the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, and has to expect the possibility of a filibuster with his newest nomination. There have been indictments of majority leader Tom DeLay and the Vice President's chief of staff Scooter Libby, bringing about the prompt resignations of both. Even a major contributor to Bush/Cheney '04 campaign has been indicted on three counts of money laundering. This, of course, is all in addition to investigations underway on Senate majority leader Bill Frist. With Karl Rove astoundingly still employed and press secretary Scott McClellan sweeping botched jobs under the rug at break-neck speed, this all adds up to a lion's share of corruption and incompetence deeply entrenched in the bowels of this administration.
Is that all? Certainly not. Our fearless leader demonstrated just how dangerous appointing your friends to major positions can be in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. There's also the matter of the war in Iraq. We recently passed a grim milestone of 2,000 American deaths in addition to Iraqi civilian casualties that have been quoted anywhere from 27,000 to 30,000 deaths since March 2003. At least we're over there for a legitimate reason, right? At least the American public wasn't misled into supporting Operation: Iraqi Freedom, right? At least we went in with a legitimate exit strategy and haven't turned the entire country into a power vacuum . . . right?
What can Bush do to avoid becoming a lame duck and face a Democratic coup in the mid-term elections of 2006? The President needs to clean house as Reagan did in his second term when his approval ratings began to plummet. Bush needs to spend less time making speeches about the Bird Flu and focus on making good on his 2000 promise to be a "uniter, not a divider." With a massive cloud of suspicion surrounding those he is closest to, the President needs to fire Karl Rove and think about talking to Uncle Dick about stepping down.