The Psycho Presidency

On January 26, the Washington Post ran a headline "Bush Defies Lawmakes to Solve Iraq." The same front page included an article by Jennifer Loven, "Bush: 'I'm the Decision-Maker on Iraq.'" There has been much speculation on the Coward in Chief's Oedipal conflicts and their relationship to the war in Iraq, but in those two headlines--in the posture that generated them--you have it: Proof that George W. Bush is one sick puppy. If there were no Dick Cheney, who is even more mental, it would be good to get Bush out of office because he's mentally incompetent.
Here's why: A good leader, seeing a serious problem, one that is costing American lives and treasure beyond what he ever expected, one that has seriously diminished confidence in the United States around the world (and, frankly, at home), one that most Americans believe cannot be ended successfully, would accept help from any source to get out of it. A good leader would realize that if his opposition's plan didn't work, he could always point out that it wasn't his plan that failed. These days, he'd get high marks for bipartisanship, win, lose, or draw. And if the plan succeeded, he could show magnanimity by graciously pointing out that only the execution of the plan was his.
But that's not our Coward in Chief. Saving American and Iraqi lives and reducing the tension caused by American presence in Iraq is not as important to him as making sure that he gets to be the hero who won the war. And unfortunately, those few who still believe in him see this stubbornness as a principled man sticking to his guns. But a lot of his support comes from the South, where following a principle to death became a good thing when it helped people to cope with defeat in the Civil War. Actually, it was that same mentality that fueled the rush to secession and war in the cotton south.
This is self-destructive behavior, and self-destructive behavior is a bad thing. One of the first questions asked in a psychological evaluation is "Do you think about doing harm to yourself or other people?" In Bush's case, the honest answer--the answer of a man of integrity--would be "Yes. I'm committing political suicide daily, and knowing that there is an alternative, I am following a policy that leads to the death and injury of dozens of Americans and Iraqis daily." But Bush is not a man of integrity. Something along the line--maybe privilege, maybe a distant father, maybe realizing that his younger brother was the favored son--has made him crazy--or as a colleague of mine puts it "dangerous crazy."

A thought. A few weeks ago, Poppy Bush teared up when talking about Jeb, the son he thought would be president--the smart one, the one ho was something more than a frat puke. Well, Poppy, you get no sympathy from me. I've done all I could to dissuade my sons from doing things that I thought were wrong for them in any way. It was not easy, but I wanted them to think about possible pitfalls in a course of action. It didn't always work for me, but you, Poppy, had enough influence in the Republican Party that you probably could have pulled a few strings to make sure that Georgie didn't get the nomination. But your commitment to dynasty kicked in, and you did nothing. So don't cry, Poppy. You're at fault. There's blood on your hands, too.

Clueless

If you're the kind of person who is fascinated by multi-car pile-ups, I think the Virginia Republican Party would be an acceptable substitute. Former Senator and presidential dreamer George Felix Allen started it out with Macaca, but that wasn't enough. He had to make it worse by announcing, after (finally) acknowledging his Jewish ancestry, that he had eaten a ham sandwich the day before and his mother made great pork chops. Those gaffes by themselves, positions on the issues aside, could have created Jim Webb's narrow margin of victory.
The leftovers from Jim Webb's victory parties weren't all gone when it came out that the Republicans in Virginia were at odds with each other about transportation funding. The wingers in the legislature thought that the localities should pay for new transportation initiatives. The Republicans on county boards and city councils were appalled. The groups started attacking each other until someone called a meeting and told them to play pretty. It looked like the party was going cannibalistic.
Comes then Virgil Goode, congressman, to express his disgust that an American-born Congressional colleague of the Muslim faith wanted to be sworn with his hand on (gasp!) the Holy Koran. Never mind that congresspeople can be sworn with their hands on whatever they choose (or, presumably, on nothing at all). Goode said that this was bad, and we'd all better adopt his position on immigration or we'd see much more of this. While a predictable number of neanderthals jumped to stand with him--my favorite wrote that he or she would never recognize the authority of any public official who was sworn on anything but the Bible--a lot of people expressed shock and disgust.
One would have thought that would be enough, that somebody would call the Republican officials into their big tent and point out that they couldn't say anything that popped into their heads and expect to stay in office, but it didn't happen. Instead, when a bill apologizing for slavery was debated in the House of Delegates, Delegate Frank Hargrove, Sr., said that black people should just "get over it." This wasn't enough to satisfy Hargrove. In the same speech, he asked whether the next step would be to ask Jews to apologize for killing Christ.
When the Republicans got started on damage control, it became clear that despite the experience they've had with the likes of George W. Bush, they aren't very good at that. One of their leaders in the legislature said that not all Republicans thought like Hargrove (and, presumably, Goode and Allen.) State Senator Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, whose extramarital affair with Representative Tom Davis got her some nice funding when he chaired Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, says that people in northern Virginia "understand the comments of those from rural areas versus those of us who represent northern Virginia and embrace its diversity."
The Republicans haven't grasped the real problem: there are some things that shouldn't be tolerated, and a political party that keeps its doors open to bigots and xenophobes gains a reputation for bigotry and xenophobia--not tolerance. It's less than a year until Virginia delegates and some state senators and local officials must run for office again. If the Republican party doesn't want to suffer the sort of crushing losses that the national party suffered last November, it's time for a purge. Senator Devolites Davis and her Republican buddies need to learn that if you don't immediately cut loose people like Virgil Goode and Frank Hargrove, Sr., people will start to wonder whether you really agree with them.

More Troops? For What?

I confess: I didn't watch the Coward-in-Chief's speech on his "New Way Forward." I decided that more of his self-serving lies would only make me angry and think that it would have been really nice if all of the people who now see his war as a mistake had seen it before the '04 election. I thought that people were doing a good job of getting out the word on the weaknesses of the plan. And I think there have been some good analyses of his plan and his presentation. The Howard Fineman piece in which he gave Bush credit for showing all the assurance of a perp in a police lineup particularly resonated.
Bush can say that victory will look different, that there will be no signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship, and he's right. But he still believes that victory is possible. There can be no victory in a war where every "success" strengthens the enemy's resolve and numbers. There can be no victory for a third party in a war that deposed a tyrant but left the factions that he had repressed to kill each other. There can be no victory in a war that was fought against the phantasms of terrorists who sought world domination or Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. In Iraq, the only victory that was ever possible was the avoidance of defeat, and that was only possible if we didn't get into a war in the first place.
But George W. Bush and his minions, all of them cowards, wanted to prove their courage, so they started a war. That war has now claimed the lives of over three thousand Americans. God only knows how many lives, American and Iraqi alike, it has ruined. They don't seem to have noticed that the Medal of Honor, the highest decoration given by the United States armed forces, is given for valor above and beyond the call of duty--and in many, if no most cases, the recipient has given his own life to protect others.
So when Bush calls for more troops in Iraq, more people to bleed and die in the faint hope that he can claim victory, we do well to insist on an end to the insanity--and then the impeachment, trial, and conviction of all of those who led into this debacle.