the fallen poster-child

There was a revealing article in the Washington Post a couple weeks ago. It was titled "Cheney uncloaks his frustration with Bush", and you can read it here. I found the following paragraph eye-opening for two reasons. . "In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," said a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney's reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming. It was clear that Cheney's doctrine was cast-iron strength at all times -- never apologize, never explain -- and Bush moved toward the conciliatory." . First is the statement that Bush "showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming". Which kinda confirms what many of us have said since 2000 - that Dubnutz was merely a pawn being moved by the real wingnut powers-that-be. Cheney, Wolfowicz, Limbaugh, etc. Folks, the deciderer was the Vice President, not the Prez. . To appreciate how jaw-dropping that is, substitute Joe Biden for Cheney, and Obama for Dubnutz. Or use Al Gore and Clinton. It's ludicrous to even entertain the idea that Biden or Gore dictate(d) to their respective Presidents what to say. But Cheney is telling us that's the way the Bush years were done.

The second thing that's eye-popping about the WaPo article is the way Cheney slams Dubnutz. My dittohead friend voiced the same sentiment last Memorial Day, when he said that "Dubya was okay until his last year in office, when he went totally downhill".

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Hmmm. I'm always suspicious when my right-wing friend voices an opinion a couple months before Cheney says the same thing. It smacks of Limbaugh drivel.

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The bottom line is - the right-wing nut-cases have thrown Bush under the bus. Their former poster-child has no value anymore, so it's time to badmouth him so that the voters in 2010 forget all about his incompetency. That's the Republicans for you. If they can't do a feeding frenzy on the Democrats, they'll do it on one of their own.

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It almost makes me a tad bit sympathetic for Dubnutz. They used him for his charisma (who'd ever vote for Cheney or Wolfowicz?), and now are tearing him apart like he was Hillary or somebody. .

One final point - keep in mind that Cheney, like every other Bush-era dittohead, is in the process of writing a book. And if saying that Dubya and Laura held weekly orgies in the Oval Office will help sell his book, Cheney's gonna say it. People buy memoirs because they want to read dirty little secrets, not because they want to know the truth.