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Monday, August 13. 2007
Bush’s Brain Resigns
His is the latest departure of a White House aid — the White House aid — from a president now so low in the polls, he’s become a joke on the talking head TV shows. Since the Democrats won control of Congress, these names have been erased from the rolls of the White House staff: White House attorney Harriet Miers, White House counsel Dan Bartlett, Budget Director Rob Portman, Political Director Sara Taylor, Deputy National Security Advisors J.D. Crouch and Meghan O’Sullivan and the biggie, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Here’s a name we may want to hang on to, should Rove get back into political campaigning: “Turd Blossom.” The president’s affectionate nickname for his favorite aid.
So, the news organizations, are they talking about his close call with the Valerie Plame case? If you recall, he was about to be indicted when his attorney, Robert Luskin, had lunch with a reporter from Time magazine whose loose lips tipped off Luskin to a conversation Rove had with another Time reporter, Matt Cooper, that Rove didn’t mention to the special prosecutor. Rove quickly met with the special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, to “set the record straight,” thereby avoiding indictment along with Scooter Libby. Nope, that wasn’t the topic of this news.
Were the news organizations talking about Rove’s involvement in the firing of eight federal prosecutors for political reasons? So far, executive privilege is protecting “The Architect” from appearing in front of the Senate Judicial Committee, but how long will that last? Harriet Miers invoked the privilege — which isn’t even in the constitution — and so far has not been forced to testify. No, that wasn’t the first topic of speculation.
Just for consideration, before Carol Lam, the federal prosecutor appointed by Bush for the Southern District of California, was forced to resign, she had successfully prosecuted big-time Bush supporter and former congressman, Randy “Duke” Cunningham for taking bribes in return for favorable legislation for some defense contractors. Had she remained in office, Lam, it is rumored, was looking at current congressman Duncan Hunter for the same charges — with the same contractors who brought down Cunningham. The White House insists of course Lam’s dismissal was due to performance and policy issues relating to immigration cases, she wasn’t doing enough of them or using enough resources to prosecute them. When Lam testified before the Judicial Committee of the U.S. Senate, she produced documents from the Justice Department praising her efforts in prosecuting immigration vilations. It was Karl Rove who trotted out into public the falsehood about Lam not adhering to the administration’s policies regarding immigration.
Was it the details of Rove’s actions as a political advisor during Bush’s two presidential campaigns? You know, linking Senator John McCain to a bi-racial baby born out of wedlock to an alleged mistress, and in 2004, the Swift Boat kooks. Naah, they didn’t even give a passing mention to those little political deeds, like they danced around the preceding topics.
So, what was the big topic regarding the departure of Karl Rove? Whose presidential campaign will he work for now that he isn’t tied to the White House. The pundits are guessing either Fred Thompson or the chickenhawk-in-chief, Mitt Romney.
Oh yeah, ole Mitt’s been out on the campaign trail advocating for an escalation to Bush’s war in Iraq and opining on the possibility of re-instating the draft, which he is categorically against. For good reason: he has five sons who are of draft age and by god, who in this day and age really wants their children going to fight a no-win war in the Middle East? Hell yeah, I’d be against the draft too if I had five boys of draft age. Or, I’d be against the war … Besides, according to the former governor who was once pro-choice but is now anti-woman, his five sons are being of service to their nation by driving him all over Iowa for Mitt’s presidential campaign. Well that’s sorta the same as going off to fight a real shooting war — fuckin chickenhawk-in-chief.
Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty good topic of speculation. It makes sense that Rove would leave now, rather than sit out the political season to beat all election cycles. If Rove can get hooked up with a winning Republican campaign—and then take it to the White House in 2008—that could confirm his status as “the Boy Genius.” Only, he isn’t really a boy anymore. He’s older than me.
A little history about Karl Rove: like his puppet George Bush, Rove dodged the draft during Vietnam using a student deferment (2-S), even though he was only a part-time student at the University of Utah and withdrew from classes at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was eventually able to secure a “1-H” classification after he left U of M, which meant he was “not currently subject to processing for induction.” Rove had to work a little harder for his draft dodge than the president. Rove also has a son (Andrew), by golly, of draft age. You know Bush’s Brain is glad there is no draft today. But not to worry, if the old man could get a deferment in 1970, it’s no stretch the old man could get his son a deferment today if one was needed. Thankfully, with the all-volunteer military, Rove doesn’t have to worry about it.
Of course, later in the day Chris Matthews brought up a few of the particulars of the current Karl Rove controversies, but then the bulk of his program, Hardball, was dedicated to Rove’s future plans: which campaign will Rove be “advising” in the coming months.
This screed had originally started after watching 60 Minutes Sunday Night. On that program was an Anderson Cooper segment about the “no snitching” rule in the urban streets. Basically, criminals get a free ride from the communities where they commit the majority of their crimes because everyone want to maintain their street credibility and cooperating with the police violates those “ethics.” That’s right, the people who adhere to the “no snitching” rule consider it ethical.
Except for 50 Cent, who acquired an “order of protection” after he was stabbed by some rival rappers (Murder, Inc) and then he wrote a song about a major New York drug lord, McGriff. 50 Cent — a.k.a. Curtis Jackson — was later shot nine times but didn’t give up the name of the shooter. Jackson said the shooter was killed a few weeks later. What’s the bottom line for this attitude? Street cred, but deeper than that is record sales, multi-million dollars worth of record sales. The major corporations that reap the profits from selling these records—like Warner Brothers—aren’t about to stop the performers from writing and recording songs promoting this “no snitching” rule, record sales depend on it.But this has gone on long enough, nearly 1,000 words. And I haven’t even inserted an obligatory “sex sells” tactic to get more readers interested! So I’ll just briefly mention my favorite Playboy models, Melody Pressley and Nikki Fiction — she just posted some new photos on her MySpace page. What the Heck, I’m going to Hell in a handbasket anyway, might as well enjoy the view.
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