This DailyKos article neatly sums up how poorly George W. Bush is faring with the American people right now. A job approval rating of 42% and a disapproval of 56% is not exactly something to write home about. Of course, Bush could always brag to mommy and poppy about the whopping 40% of Americnas who support his handling of Iraq. Or the 37% who currently believe the country is on the "right track." Or the even more impressive 35% who like the way he's handling Social Security (that's after months of stumping for his Social Security "plan," by the way, in staged, hand-picked "townhall meetings" and other such Rovian/Orwellian events). The pitiful thing for Bush about these poll numbers is that they come just as a major Administration scandal just begins to build. I'm talking, of course, about revelations regarding the involvement of senior White House aide, Karl Rove, in outing undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, the wife of Iraq War critic Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Here's what Wilson had to say recently about the potential damage caused by Rove's apparently illegal, possibly even treasonous, actions:
Just as general proposition, you have to assume that every project or program she was ever involved in has been rolled up. Whether there are casualties is something I don't know.The other thing you can assume that even if 150 people read the Novak article when it appeared, 148 of them would have been the heads of intelligence sections at embassies here in Washington and by noon that day they would have faxing her name or telexing her name back to their home offices and running checks on her: whether she had ever been in the country, who she may have been in contact with, etc.
Hello, White House? This is EXACTLY why revealing the name of an undercover CIA operative is illegal -- it can seriously damage U.S national security and get our "assets" (aka people helping us) killed. At the minimum, you'd think that George W. Bush, "resolute" and "decisive" guy that he is, would have acted swiftly to fire Karl Rove when news of this came out. Especially given the fact that Bush had strongly pledged to fire anyone in his Administration caught revealing Plame's identity (by the way, "what did Bush himself know about this "outing" and when did he know it?") The problem is, last time I checked, it's not possible for a human being to live without a brain. And let's be blunt about it: Karl Rove is George W. Bush's brain. These two aren't just joined at the hip, they're mind-melded, fused at the cerebral cortex or possibly the medulla oblongata.
So, there you have it. A President re-elected with a self-proclaimed "mandate" just 8 months ago has now completely lost it. Perhaps that has something to do with all the great things Bush has done with his "mandate": like, er., uh, ummm.... absolutely nothing. Let's see, there's no plan to get us off of oil from Saudi Arabia (15 of 19 hijackers on 9/11). No success strategy in Iraq (despite 1,756 Americans killed and at least 13,336 wounded). No idea how to balance the budget (the deficit for 2005 was revised downwards recently to ONLY $333 BILLION - now that's impressive!). No fix for Social Security (baby boomers about to retire). No help on health care (millions uninsured, costs skyrocketing). No Middle East peace plan (whatever Sharon wants, Sharon gets). No progress on the North Korea nuclear situation (how many nukes does Kim Jong-il have now?). No "reformer with results," no "uniter not a divider," nor any of the other empty slogans Bush threw at us during the 2000 and 2004 campaigns.
In other words, Bush's gas tank is empty and he's running - barely and sporadically - on fumes. And the American people overwhelmingly realize this. Amazingly, just like Poppa Bush, Dubya has fallen from 90%+ approval to pitiful numbers that can mean just one thing: lame duck. Speaking of lame, perhaps Jerry "the Duck" Kilgore can talk to Bush about all this when they get together next week in Fairfax for their big, joint fundraising event. Ah, soulmates...raising money from "the base" together. Isn't politics wonderful?