The Shrub is showing a new facet to his personality, his penchant for putting on a big show, puffing up like a little toad, as a future relative in Texas put it, then spinning a victory out of the defeats he’s been dealt. The first of these was the bill to prevent torture. The devolution of the Bush stand was almost comical: First the Shrub says, no way, I’ll veto the bill! Then he sends in surrogate and presumed voice of God Cheney to say, okay, can’t I just let the CIA torture people every once in a while, just a little? Then to acceptance of the fact that he could have exercised the first veto of his presidency and have that overridden by a Congress that, finally, seemed to have grown a backbone. His buddies in the awl bidness were dealt a further defeat yesterday as Democrats and the few Republicans with a conscience defeated Senator Ted Stevens’s attempted end-run of the legislative process and, once again, defeated his masters’ wishes to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Then Democrats and a few Republicans with consciences defeated the attempt to ram a Patriot Act extension down the Congress’s throat.
Going into ’06, Shrub has a few more problems. The NSA wiretaps won’t go away, indeed, he’s put on his bluster to say that no way will he stop them. Will articles of impeachment follow his contempt of Congress or will he cave. I’m betting the Strong Leader will cave. The Iraq war isn’t going to go away either and the way things look, the new government will be more friendly to Iran than to Washington. The economy seems to be handing him a bit of low-hanging fruit, although if you earn wages, you don’t seem to benefit from the economic recovery. It’s also handed him a problem: How do you justify tax cuts to stimulate the economy when the economy is chugging along just fine without them.
So the Shrub has had a rough go of it. I only hope things get worse for our Prevaricator in Chief as his majority in the House either vanishes or fades, as Delay goes to trial and as Abramoff implicates more of the right of the aisle, as Scooter is tried and as the Iraqis lean in the direction of Sharia law. Only then will things finally start to get better for our country.
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