From The New York Times, 10/3/03:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/03/opinion/03HERB.html

Shaking the House of Cards

By BOB HERBERT

No wonder the sky-high poll numbers for President Bush have collapsed.

The fiasco in Iraq is only part of the story.

The news on one substantive issue after another could hardly be worse.

It's almost as if the president had a team in the White House that was
feeding his credibility into a giant shredder.

Despite the administration's relentlessly optimistic chatter about the
economy, the Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans
living in poverty increased by 1.7 million last year, the second
straight annual increase.

During those two years, the number of poor Americans has grown by 3
million.

Belt-tightening is also in order for the middle class.

The median household income declined by 1.1 percent, a drop of about
$500, to $42,400.

It was the second straight year for a decline in that category as
well.

Per capita income decreased, too.

It dropped by 1.8 percent, to $22,794 in 2002, the first decline in
more than a decade.

Boom times these ain't.

On Monday we learned that there had been a steep increase last year --
the largest in a decade -- in the number of Americans without health
insurance.

The international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas is
reporting that job losses in the U.S. have resulted in a sharp decline
in the number of dual-income families, particularly for those with
children under 18.

And so on.

With the federal government piling up massive deficits and local
governments struggling to provide the most basic of services (some
areas are closing schools; others are releasing prisoners
prematurely), Mr. Bush is asking the nation to go much further into
debt in the service of some vague notion of a civic renaissance in
Iraq.

Even Republicans are beginning to ask what the heck is going on.

Contributing to the growing sense of unease in some quarters and
outrage in others is the blatant war profiteering in Iraq by
politically connected firms like Bechtel and Halliburton --
profiteering that is taking place with the scandalous encouragement
and connivance of the Bush administration.

A front-page article in The Times on Tuesday said:

"A group of businessmen linked by their close ties to President Bush,
his family and his administration have set up a consulting firm to
advise companies that want to do business in Iraq, including those
seeking pieces of taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects."

Iraq is proving to be a bonanza for the Bush administration's
corporate cronies even as it is threatening to become a sinkhole for
the aspirations of ordinary Americans.

The vicious release to news organizations of the identity of an
undercover C.I.A. officer could serve as a case study of the character
of this administration.

The Bush II crowd is arrogant, venal, mean-spirited and contemptuous
of law and custom.

The problem it faces now is not just the criminal investigation into
who outed Valerie Plame, but also the fact that the public understands
this story only too well.

Deliberately blowing the cover of an intelligence or law enforcement
official for no good reason is considered by nearly all Americans,
regardless of their political affiliations, to be a despicable act.

According to an ABC-Washington Post poll, nearly 70 percent of
Americans believe a special counsel should be appointed to investigate
the leak.

Now that so much has gone haywire -- Iraq, the economy, America's
standing in the world -- the tough questions are finally being asked
about President Bush and his administration.

Perhaps foreign policy was not Mr. Bush's strength, after all. And
even diehard Republicans have been forced to acknowledge that the
president was surely wrong when he insisted that his mammoth tax cuts
would be the engine of job creation.

And nothing has ever come of Mr. Bush's promise to be the education
president, or to change the tone of the discourse in Washington, or to
deal humbly and respectfully with the rest of the world.

Americans are increasingly asking what went wrong.

How could so much have gone sour in such a short period of time?

Was it incompetence?

Bad faith?

Loud warnings were ignored for the longest time.

Now, finally, the truth is becoming more and more difficult to avoid.

__________________________________________

Hey there, Li'l Georgie. Time ta say so long, pardner.

Harry

So long, so long, so long
Gee, I hate to see you go - umm..