The Second Term Bush White House: An Administration in Collapse

It seems the rudder broke.

George Bush has been running around the country on his "60 days for Social Security" campaign -- now an extended tour because, the more the country learened about it, the more they hated it. He's going to continue doing so, too, because he wants it to pass.

Dick Cheney is bogged down protecting fellow smoke-blower John Bolton's UN Nomination in the Senate; after Cheney pushed through the war in Iraq based on non-existent nuclear weapons, Bolton idolized him by pushing "biological weapons" in Cuba and even more WMD in Syria using the Cheney Technique: yell the fuck at the analyists who don't go along, and make outrageously wrong public statements about it, to bring on a war fever. Bolton's getting slammed for Cheney's technique, and his nomination will probably fail because of it. And if Cheney isn't careful, the House may come after him, later, to ask -- how is it you got away with it when Bolton shouldn't? Isn't lying to the public illegal?

Karl Rove is off pushing for the end of judicial fillibusters -- apparently oblivious that the public is 3-1 against that, in Schiavo-like numbers; an issue that Cheney expressed willingness to vote for in his bathrobe at 2am, much like Bush signed DeLay's Schiavo-law. Bill Frist will be the captain on the bottom-hugging ship.

Rumsfeld is AWOL, trying not to remind people he's still around just long enough that his presence doesn't prompt them to ask, "Aren't you gone yet?"

This, against a backdrop of scandal in the Republican party as the public learns more about illegal fundraising by Tom DeLay, and lobbyist-funded junkets to Scotland et al. It's gotten so bad, the Republicans in the House had to repeal "new ethics rules" they ginned up to protect DeLay, thinking he was more armor than target. Turns out, people are shooting at him, and the bullets have broken his armor and are wounding the party.

This is an administration in collapse. What one might call the pitfalls of catastrophic electoral success.

However, the Bush administration has practice in what to do in these situations, as does Tom DeLay. When you are politically on the run, exercise raw, undeniable power in a way that eclipses these problems, to remind people that it is you who are in charge. Examples: mass arrests. Or, a new, major war. Just do something which is so outrageous, that the backlash would kill normal mortals. That is when your friends hug close, your enemies are isolated. It's pretty much what the Bush administration does best.