Sociopaths sometimes get caught for their crimes, but they never accept responsibility or express real contrition.
We saw two examples this week from AG Gonzales and President Bush. Gonzales seemed angry and intensely resentful as he delivered his odd resignation statement. He gave no reason for his resignation, but he did praise Bush, while he implicitly boasted about his own achievements by pitying his father.
But the visibly angry Bush upstaged Gonzales in asserting:
"It's sad we live in a time when a talented, honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding [sic] from doing important work because his name has been dragged through the mud for political reasons."
Bush's careless speech (praising the bumbling ideologue Alden Pyle in Graham Greene's The Quiet American and incoherently comparing Iraq to Vietnam) before the VFW last week was another example of the accelerating incompetence of Bush's personal White House staff. Are sophomore summer interns from Falwell's Liberty University writing this chaff?
Far more important than the sloppy grammar was the unhinged tenor of Bush's statement on Gonzales' resignation. Bush's facial expressions and tone of voice were not those of a politician who was merely acting for effect; they seemed to be indicators of a genuinely disturbed, paranoid, cornered personality. This spoiled child of privilege is becoming more and more frustrated at not getting his way.
Watch also Bush's demeanor and listen to his tone of voice at the American Legion Convention in Reno on August 28th. Especially observe him when he spits out:
"I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities."
These disturbing performances could as well have been directed by Leni Riefenstahl.
Today U.S. troops stormed a hotel in Baghdad and seized several Iranian Power Ministry officials who were apparently in Baghdad to sign a power supply agreement with Iraqi counterparts. Was this a provocation ordered by Bush and Cheney to underscore the threats in Bush's speech?
The judgment of someone in Bush's current mental state cannot be trusted. Let us hope that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid see the clear warning signs and can manipulate enough levers in Washington to avert further catastrophic blunders by Bush and the other Boys in the Bunker in their remaining 16+ months in office.
It increasingly appears as though whatever policy deliberations-as opposed to purely reflexive efforts at self-preservation-are taking place in this Administration are being managed by VP Dick Cheney and his Chief of Staff, David Addington. SecState Rice has been reduced to a cipher who is allowed to take an occasional meaningless trip and smile at the cameras. SecDef Gates has been extremely cautious and quiet of late-a true "quiet American." It appears that he has been ground down by the relentless Cheney/Addington infighting machine. At this point it is hard to imagine that Gates would rouse himself to defy Cheney's wishes and press for real policy options, whether on Iraq or Iran. Gates seems to have reverted to predictable form as a Bush family apparatchik who robotically takes his orders. We can no longer realistically hope that Gates will stand up to the neocons and oppose their agenda.
Fed Chairman Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson seem to have longer leashes and more real discretionary power as they scramble and improvise to try to keep the financial markets from collapsing. They, of course, seek to protect major investment banks and hedge funds from getting hurt by the subprime mortgage crisis, by the accelerating collapse of the housing bubble, and by increasingly volatile markets in derivatives. All the same, Bernanke and Paulson may well be tethered to Cheney's and Addington's policy wishes as well. And whom do you think those wishes would most benefit? Yup. The corporatists themselves. The Big Boys.
In short, it appears that with Karl Rove's departure, Cheney and Addington are essentially completely ascendant. What further surprises, domestic and foreign, have they planned for us?
Meanwhile, back at the ranch in Crawford and after Labor Day in the Oval Office in Washington, Bush will continue to surround himself with fawning cronies and courtiers, such as the doting Clay Johnson III, who will help Bush retain the illusion that he, not Cheney, is making the real decisions. Maybe Bush and Johnson can harmlessly pass the time playing with dolls and toy soldiers in Johnson's office (Johnson adoringly keeps a doll of Bush on his desk).
With Rove and Gonzales gone, which courtiers shall now have the privilege of bearing the royal chamber pot through the hallways of Versailles on the Potomac?
And which servants shall be given the task of heaving the chamber pot's contents at the increasingly restive throngs assembling outside the gates? Oops. Forgot. Tony Snow and Dana Perino have already happily shouldered that burden.
Outside the gates there are not merely restive throngs, but surviving True Believers. Some stand with eyes uplifted, arms outstretched, and mouths agape-eager to catch the chamber pot's contents, which they swear are holy dew and manna from heaven. Those in the front rank will always include the likes of Fred Hiatt and David Broder at The Washington Post, David Brooks and Michael Cooper (the new Judith Miller) at The New York Times, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, William Kristol, and Bill O'Reilly and the entire cast and crew of Fox News, the official franchise for chamber pot content distribution.
And so it goes.
