THE POINT OF NO RETURN
The End of the Bush Presidency Is Far Nearer Than We Think. Whether he and Cheney are gone from rule and removed by law or whether their dark powers are removed from effect in fact, George W. Bush is done as an effective leader here and now and he has his Boy Genius, Bush’s Brain, Karl Rove to blame. Who was feared and thought to be a genius is no genius. The man who was the brain and thought golden is now found out to be made of something far less precious. Rove now is more like tin, now revealed to have a political tin ear. After this week the White House detectives who have taken a jolt of political courage and viagra will finally be doing their job.
The White House media will not be fooled any longer. Soon with vengeance they will tell the story of how they were never fooled by Rove, not by this President. They will tell people daily not to fooled by this President and Rove. The story about Rove will attach itself to a lying story about Nigerian yellowcake and Wilson and Plame and the run up to the war. The story about Rove and the treasonous betrayal of an agent will blow by Novak and Cooper and Miller and attach itself to the shameful truth of the Downing Street Memo. We were lied to about the reasons of why and when the President decided to go to war.
The longer Bush holds onto Rove, the worse it will be for Bush, but the better it will be for this country in the long run. People are going to ask Bush a lot of uncomfortable questions soon. How did you let Rove do this? Why did you let him do this treasonable thing, Mister President, and why do you hide behind words cut so thin even that your claims of bringing honor to the White House now lie in shreds, the net of lies draped all over you? The answer unable to be uttered, the reason now so apparent, is politics. The man who would be a posing war boy president will soon find the people make no peace with poseurs found to be only politicians. Bush is about to drown in his self made sea of cynicism. And he will wonder why he could not be more like his father George the First Bush, who had the sense to fire Rove long ago when dirty tricks were found out.
What does the White House look like now? First there are the dogs of war, the jackals of the press returned to the political savanna and the would be boy Lion King President locked in his White House. Or is Bush the Boy in a Bubble about to pop? Or both. However you look at it, there is now construction going on. Pardon our dust as we build this wall. The Nixonian Stone wall is now being built around the castle. Stone walls will a prison make of that house white where the black liar hides.
When people look back at how Bush was undone, yesterday will be remembered as the day the wheels flew of the cart and the BS wagon dumped its load in the White House Press Room. People will not soon forget White House Press Pool Boy Scott McClellan as he struggled to stay above water in an unscheduled match of political water polo. Rove was the ball the press threw by him constantly scoring point after point. It was both ugly and stunning to see. Contrast the McClellan words of yesterday July 11, 2005 with those of so long ago September 29, 2003. You will be drowning in tears or in laughter, cynical or true. Or better see the video of the pathetic contrast in performance provided by the White House itself for September 29, 2003 and yesterday July 11, 2005 and you will see far more than almost two years have passed
Scott McClellan has passed the point of no return. The press no longer attaches any credibility to his words. And if as McClellan says, he speaks for the White House, then the White House has no credibility on Rove, on Plame, on Wilson, on yellowcake, on Downing Street, on the run up to the war in Iraq and the lies that got us there. It all attaches to McClellan first, it attaches to Rove, and it attaches to Bush. What is it? It is hubris, the political rope by which once mighty men hang themselves and then hang around too long for people to see. Cut those bodies down please. You are frightening my children.
The lies that attach to McClellan, that string along to Rove, that will bring down George Bush were thrown out many times. The hubris that will hang McClellan and his masters was most seen in what will now be known as the infamous festival of lies hidden in macho challenges at the September 29, 2003 White House Press Briefing. (Get White House links have been cited BELOW, I am sure Crooks and Liars has downloadable videos to save for the historical record.)
For the record yesterday White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan hid and cowered cowardly from answering questions behind the lie that he couldn’t comment because the prosecutors in an ongoing criminal investigation preferred that he not make comments from that podium. Before we go any further, it should be noted that if George Bush really did want answers to who leaked the Plame name, all he would have to do is call in everyone involved and demand the leaker come forward and resign before being prosecuted as the traitor the leaker is. The President hasn’t done that and now will pay the ultimate price. But now we return.
We return to the moment of hubris on September 29, 2003. Scott McClellan challenged six top White House reporters and then discounted them. Scot McClellan hid behind the hypothetical “if” in 2003 in a way he can’t hide now. He was so bold and pointed, seeming slaying one reporter after another. The words now take a caustic cast that scars the face of White House liars. Do you have any specific information to suggest White House involvement? The suggestion back then was that if somebody did have specific information about Rove and Plame, then White House Press Pool Boy Scottie would have an answer. Here are the running lowlights:
Q You're saying the White House won't take a proactive role?
MR. McCLELLAN: Do you have any specific information to bring to my attention suggesting White House involvement?
Q Why wouldn't he proactively do that, ask people on the staff to say that they had not leaked anything?
MR. McCLELLAN: Do you have specific information to suggest White House involvement?
MR. McCLELLAN: Do you have specific information, Helen, to bring to my attention?
Q No. Are you --
MR. McCLELLAN: If you have specific information, bring it to my attention.
Q Scott, this is clearly a serious matter, with possible penalties being going to jail. It's not going to go away. Why -- and as you said earlier, there probably is a limited number of people with access to this information. It doesn't take much for the President to ask for a senior official working for him to just lay the question out for a few people, and end this controversy today.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, again, Ed, do you have specific information to bring to our attention?
Q -- and, yet, his spokesman is saying that there's no internal, even, questioning of whether or not people were involved in this and he's just letting that be handled at the Justice Department, and letting it be more of a criminal investigation, as opposed to almost an ethical --
MR. McCLELLAN: Dana, I mean, think about what you're asking. If you have specific information to bring to our attention --
Q You're still saying "if" --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, talk to the Department of Justice and they'll get you more information.
We saw yesterday that was not true. Scott McClellan and this White House have no answers for why they lied back then and continue to lie nowNow McClellan and Rove will pay a price. They are dragging this all out. They will try to drag this out past the nomination of Supreme Courts justices. They will try to drag this out past the midterm elections of 2006 if they could. They will not have luck in that. The truth is out. The CEO boy President needs to take responsibility for everything that has taken place on his watch. And he can’t blame the War on Iraq or his great desire for it on the man who came before him. And Bush can’t blame the shameful treasonous actions of Rove on Clinton either. If we let the media let McClellan continue to lie without calling him out, if we don’t hold Bush George responsible for Rove and for the war,we will have only ourselves to blame.
RELEVANT WHITE HOUSE PRESS BRIEFING LINKS
[TRANSCRIPT SEPTEMBER 29, 2003] [TRANSCRIPT JULY 11, 2005] [CROOKS AND LIARS VIDEO JULY 11 ,2005]
RELATED HERETIK LINKS
[ACTUAL REPORTERS SIGHTED AT WHITE HOUSE] [CASABLANCA 2005] [GEORGETOWN] [ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN'T] [ANIMAL WHITE HOUSE]
CHECK BACK FOR UPDATES ON
WHAT THE BLOGS/ONLINE MAGS ARE SAYING ABOUT YESTERDAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE
WHAT THE BLOGS/ONLINE MAGS ARE SAYING ABOUT ROVE
Where's Dick Cheney during all this? At his undisclosed location, no doubt.
The longer Rove can stay around, the more Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham will like it. But I think it's time to take a passenger van-load of these robber-baron-scumbags off to jail.
"LOOK! OVER THERE! RUMORS OF A TROOP WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ!"
Posted by: Jeff | July 12, 2005 at 08:04 AM
I've thought about that, too, Jeff.
Rove is just the scandal du jour. DeLay and Cunningham and CoinGate will resurface, eventually. There's just to many bodies bubbling up from below the surface of the Bush Crime Family. Kind of like Paris before the catacombs.
Posted by: Richard Cranium | July 12, 2005 at 08:48 AM
Great work Joe! My fingers are crossed. I linked this one! :)
Posted by: Chuck Ismyname | July 12, 2005 at 09:37 AM
Like an idiot, I posted this my comment under the wrong post, so I'll post it here again.
Excellent as always. Pretty much it comes down to the old saying, “live by the sword, die by the sword. Bush got where he is because of Rove and he’ll go where he goes because of Rove. To bush and his gang, I look forward to saying, as we say at my house, AMF (adios mother fucker)
Posted by: pissed off patricia | July 12, 2005 at 09:42 AM
Great post, Joe. Screw passing the popcorn -- let's roast McLellan, Rove & Co over the fire and dine on the kernels of hypocrisy that begin to pop.
Posted by: No More Mr. Nice Guy | July 12, 2005 at 10:54 AM
Rove broke the law!
and let us talk about ETHICS, where is Rove's Ethics??
and if the White House is saying that they have confidence in ol Rover - than my last question is...
WHERE DOES THE WHITE HOUSE STAND ON ETHICS, if they have confidence in a man that commits treason??
Posted by: Night Bird | July 12, 2005 at 01:06 PM
Karl Rove is most definitely one of Satan's minions, the archetypal Demon-seed Antichrist who quite literally eats Third World children for lunch.
He'd sell out his mother, America and God himself to get and keep a corporate figurehead in office. Everybody who knows anything about this political hack knows that.
If there were any justice in the world, this beady-eyed Republican butterball would be drafted and made to stand a post in Iraq. Too bad there's never a suicide bomber around when you need one.
Posted by: Aaron | July 12, 2005 at 06:12 PM