The adventures of Flat Bushie: One day, four disses
What a year President Bush is having...
First, he gets called "numb-nuts" by Danny Devito on "The View"...
Next, it surfaces that he was out-and-out dissed at his own White House event by former Marine and onetime Reagan Navy secretary, and now Virginia Senator Jim Webb...
Then he heads to Jordan to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki, and gets stood up like a jilted bride standing alone at the altar in a full church in front of all the catty relatives. Maliki, who today saw his government reach the brink of collapse after Moqtada al-Sadr made good on his threat to withdraw his party's support from the government -- and he takes with him 30 members of parliament and 6 cabinet ministers, abruptly cancelled his confab with Bush and Jordan's King Abdullah. The official reason: he'd alredy met with the King. The real reason: a certain leaked memo portraying him as either "ignorant of the situation" in his own country, duplicitous, or incompetent. Not a good look on the day you're supposed to meet with a guy you previously dropped in on unanounced. Well now, it's Nouri al-Maliki that's doing the un-announcing. Could President Bush have been any more punked??? Damn.
Then, it keeps getting worse. Collin Powell continues his drive by assaults on the Iraq war, this time joining the small but growing chorus of people (and news organizations) that are openly calling the Iraq mess a civil war.
Whew. Kind of makes you want to chuck it all and get a job with Major League Baseball...
First, the lightest note. Appearing this week on "The View" -- Danny Devito started with a caveat: he'd been out drinking all night with George Clooney. Then, he let the other George have it, in an exchange that got the ABC censors leaning on their bleep buttons. Here's the report from the Bush bunker over at Newsbusters:
As Matt Drudge reported earlier, actor Danny DeVito seemed drunk when he went on an anti-Bush tirade on ABC’s The View on Wednesday. DeVito recounted how he last visited the White House during the Clinton years, warmly noting that "the place was, had that kind of Clinton feeling, you know," before denigrating President Bush as "numb nuts" (or something like that — ABC bleeped over the last part of that word).
DeVito then began what was supposed to be mimicry of Bush, making a variety of weird sounds and facial expressions.
... After his Bush-bashing, DeVito then asked the panel what they thought about "the hat trick last week — Rumsfeld, the House and the Senate," referring to the Democrats’ election victories and Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld’s stepping down. DeVito announced how he reacted to the news: "I took my clothes off."
Needless to say, Elizabeth Hasselbeck didn't look pleased...
Next, the exchange between Bush and Webb at a White House reception for in-coming freshmen, as reported by Bush's last remaining supporters, at Fox News:
The Washington Post reports— that Webb— who has a son serving in the Marines in Iraq and is a strong critic of the war— initially tried to avoid President Bush— but then had this brief conversation:
"How's your boy?" the president asked.
Webb responded, "I'd like to get them out of Iraq."
"That's not what I asked you," Mr. Bush answered. "How's your boy?"
Said Webb —"That's between me and my boy, Mr. President."
A source told "The Hill" newspaper— that Webb said he was so angered by the exchange— he was tempted to slug the president.
Ouch.
Next, Colin Powell plays throw Dubya from the train, telling an audience in Dubai that the president needs to wake up and smell the civil war:
CNN reporter Hala Gorani: Well, within the context of the leaders conference in Dubai and also within the context of this debate, this semantics debate, over whether to call what is going on on in Iraq a civil war, the former Secretary of State Colin Powell says he thinks we can call it a civil war and added if he were still heading the State Department, he probably would recommend to the Bush administration that those terms should be used in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground.
I’m paraphrasing what he told me. This was closed to cameras and this was something he said within the context of this academic debate with 2 or 3,000 people watching on in the region.
Make it plain, brother...
And now to the most serious issue: President Bush's incredible appearance of weakness following the Maliki snub (which comes at the same time rumors are flying that the White House could soon cave to the notion of a summit with Iran and Syria -- which would look rather like we were scurrying up the back gates to crash the kiddie party, wouldn't it, since Iran and Syria have launched talks with Iraq on their own ... without us...?
The WashPost is "No one should read too much into this," Bartlett said.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said that "there's no snub" by Maliki.
Two senior administration officials, at a contentious background briefing with White House reporters who repeatedly challenged their explanation, said all the parties involved believed it would be more productive to have two separate meetings, one on Wednesday between Bush and Abdullah and one on Thursday between Bush and Maliki. They noted that Bush and the king had a variety of issues to discuss, including broader Middle East peace initiatives and the situation in Lebanon. ... That would be Lebanon... where the other civil war is set to begin...
Hey there, Dubya, at least you can always count on Flat Stanley to be there for you...
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
