| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"maff" |
| Date: |
22 May 2004 01:56:45 PM |
| Object: |
OT: Panic on the Hill |
Panic on the Hill
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5032508/site/newsweek/
Republicans are reassessing Bush's leadership skills—and confronting
the idea that he could lose the November election
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:44 p.m. ET May 21, 2004
May 21 - Like the movie, "No Way Out," Iraq can only get worse; it
can't get better. Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command,
said as much when he testified this week before the Senate Armed
Services Committee that the violence would increase after the June 30
handover and that the Iraqis won't be ready to assume responsibility
for security until April 2005.
Eleanor Clift
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=18510aff.0310111100.188d2eca%40posting.google.com
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| User: "stoney" |
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| Title: Re: OT: Panic on the Hill |
24 May 2004 05:55:41 PM |
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On 22 May 2004 11:56:45 -0700, (maff), Message ID:
<18510aff.0405221056.694b2f32@posting.google.com> wrote in alt.atheism;
Panic on the Hill
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5032508/site/newsweek/
Panic on the Hill
Republicans are reassessing Bush’s leadership skills—and confronting the
idea that he could lose the November election
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 4:44 p.m. ET May 21, 2004
May 21 - Like the movie, "No Way Out," Iraq can only get worse; it can't
get better. Gen. John Abizaid, head of U.S. Central Command, said as
much when he testified this week before the Senate Armed Services
Committee that the violence would increase after the June 30 handover
and that the Iraqis won't be ready to assume responsibility for security
until April 2005.
advertisement
Who is President Bush kidding when he talks of turning over sovereignty
to the Iraqis? No one yet has been identified to give power to, and the
Pentagon's love affair with Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi is over.
American troops stormed Chalabi's residence and offices in Baghdad, a
remarkable reversal of fortune for a man who was on the U.S. payroll
until this month, and who provided most of the phony intelligence that
formed the Bush administration's basis for war.
The Bush juggernaut looks like the Keystone Cops. What's going on would
be pure farce, except it's tragedy because so many people are dying.
Missiles slam into what Iraqis said was a wedding ceremony, leaving
women and children among the dead. Israel is going crazy in the Gaza
Strip, bulldozing Palestinian homes and shooting into a crowd of
peaceful demonstrators. At home, gas prices are rising to an all-time
high and in Canton, Ohio, a steel plant that Bush touted as a model last
year announced it was closing, costing another 1,300 jobs in a state
that has already lost 170,000 in the manufacturing sector.
Surveying the wreckage, an aide to a prominent Senate Republican termed
it a "perfect storm of bad events."
ELEANOR CLIFT
Current Column | Archives
• Clift: New Democrats Rethink Free Trade
Even New Democrats are acknowledging that it is only elites who benefit
from the policy
• Iraq, Kerry and the Nader Factor
Voters don’t see much difference between Kerry and Bush on Iraq. Nader
has found a smart way to exploit that
It came home to Republicans this week in a way it hasn't before that
Bush could lose in November. The disarray is not only about Iraq, where
it's particularly vicious, but spills over into budget negotiations and
court appointments, where Bush's conservative base is turning up the
heat on wobbly Republicans. The high anxiety was evident when the
normally genial House speaker, Denny Hastert, had the gall to question
whether Arizona Sen. John McCain understood the meaning of sacrifice
during wartime. "Is he a Republican?" Hastert snidely asked, before
suggesting McCain might want to visit some of the wounded if he didn't
think Americans were making sacrifices.
What prompted Hastert's outburst was McCain's insistence on spending
restraints to pay for future tax cuts, as opposed to simply running up
the deficit. Where is the sacrifice, McCain asked, pointing out that no
war president has cut taxes while defense costs are mounting.
Considering that McCain spent five years as a POW in Vietnam, Hastert's
remarks were particularly impolitic. "He better watch it or he'll turn
our ticket," chuckled a Democratic strategist, keeping in play the
notion that McCain might become John Kerry's running mate.
That won't happen. The gulf on issues is too great, and McCain's party
loyalty too strong. But keeping the hope alive sends a signal to
Republican moderates that Kerry is acceptable should they bolt from
Bush.
Advertisement
Madam President: Shattering the Last Glass Ceiling
by Eleanor Clift
What's going on is a reassessment of Bush's leadership. It's not the
first time. Before the terrorist attacks, Bush was widely seen as
lacking, a genial caretaker with no agenda beyond cutting taxes, a
likely one-termer. After 9/11, voters saw him in a different light, and
Bush's handlers have worked hard to prop up the man to match the myth.
"Now they're re-evaluating the re-evaluation," says a Republican
strategist. "People, particularly women, are reassessing, and what
looked resolute and decisive now looks wrongheaded."
Bush is the first president to hold an M.B.A., and the streamlined way
he runs the White House and makes decisions won him praise—especially in
contrast to his predecessor. Bill Clinton's White House was more like a
graduate-school seminar with issues endlessly debated and discussed, and
decisions rarely made in a timely way.
Now Bush's management style is under fire just as Ronald Reagan's was
after the Iran-contra scandal broke. The week the country learned the
Reagan administration was secretly trading arms for hostages in Iran,
and that Reagan was allegedly unaware members of his staff were
diverting money from the arms deal to fund a rebel uprising in Central
America, Reagan appeared on the cover of Fortune as a model CEO. In a
similar awakening, The Wall Street Journal this week observed that the
traits that mark Bush's leadership—reliance on a small group of trusted
advisors, equating dissent with disloyalty and never admitting a
mistake—may not be the right mix given the combustible issues Bush
faces.
There is panic on the Hill among Republicans because if the bottom falls
out of the Bush campaign, they could lose the Senate. Except for the
seat of retiring Democrat Zell Miller in Georgia, which will be an easy
pick-up for the GOP, Democratic victories are within reach in both
Carolinas, Louisiana and Florida, as well as Oklahoma, Colorado and
Illinois. "If it wasn't for the rape of Texas, the House would be in
play," says a Democratic strategist, referring to the redistricting
pushed through by the GOP that ensures them an additional five seats.
Granted, it's early and a lot can happen. But a Senate Republican said
the week's events convinced him there won't be a Bush landslide. "And if
Bush narrowly wins, think how acrid the political atmosphere will be."
If Kerry wins, Iraq becomes his war, and he'll have to answer the
question he posed more than three decades ago: how do you ask the last
man to die for a mistake?
© 2004 Newsweek, Inc.
Stoney
"Designated Rascal and Rapscallion
and
SCAMPERMEISTER!"
When in doubt, SCAMPER about!
When things are fair, SCAMPER everywhere!
When things are rough, can't SCAMPER enough!
/end humour alert
alt.atheism military veteran #11
{so much for the 'no atheists in foxholes' rubbish}
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