The Bush press conference just over contained discouraging clues as to how he proposes to cope with yesterday’s political tsunami.
Bush began by saying “It is clear the Democrat Party had a good night last night.” Later in his remarks he would refer to the “Democrat leadership” and the “Democrat leaders.” This is an old rhetorical device used by the lowest sort of Republics to insult Democratics. Just how it amounts to an insult is unclear, but still it is a peculiar locution for any president to use who claims eagerness to “work with Democrat leaders in Congress.”
The Republic leader went on to say, “We cannot accept defeat [in Iraq],” and “I’m committed to victory.” He then suggested, as he has before, that the whole mess he has made of the Middle East will have to be cleaned up by the next president.
In English this means he knows perfectly well that he has already been defeated in Iraq, but he will continue to deny the plain facts until the blame for defeat can be laid at the feet of his successors. This is the same murderous and cowardly strategy followed in the Vietnam war by Kennedy and Johnson.
In Bush’s press conference today we also saw the first floating of a new oratorical trope to replace “Stay the course” and its many recent paraphrases. Now we are to have adjustment: “While we have been adjusting, we will continue to adjust … Perhaps I have to do a better job of explaining that we’re constantly adjusting.”
The president adjusted today’s adjustment of Rumsfeld to private life by saying that he had yet not decided to fire his hapless secretary of defense when he told reporters last week that he would never fire him, and the reason that he hadn’t yet decided was because he hadn’t yet had a chance to meet Robert Gates, the man he had evidently already decided to replace Rumsfeld with. Besides it would have been bad for the morale of the troops to fire their beloved boss right before the election, although presumably they will be able to bear the shock on the day after it.
All very confusing, but then it is indeed a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.
Oh, by the way, Mr. Bush, about those drapes.........
Posted by: Cranky Daze on November 8, 2006 5:08 PMIn English this means he knows perfectly well that he has already been defeated in Iraq, but he will continue to deny the plain facts until the blame for defeat can be laid at the feet of his successors. This is the same murderous and cowardly strategy followed in the Vietnam war by Kennedy and Johnson.
Of course he has lost. So long as a single bomber is out there, he has lost.
Its curious presidents don't have the courage to declare an end to fighting. They always prefer to let the "next guy" have to take the fall, but how is stopping the killing viewed as "bad"?
Posted by: SPIIDERWEB™ on November 8, 2006 6:32 PMSorry about that, Cranky. I had that bizarre interior decorating joke (which fell completely flat) in my notes, and overlooked it. Thanks for the catch. For those who missed it, Bush said he had suggested to Nancy Pelosi the names of some good Republican interior decorators to pick out drapes for her new office. Women, as you know, just love girly things like that.
If Bush had (A) a sense of humor and (B) a memory stretching back farther than yesterday, I might have thought he was referring to Nancy Reagan's interior decorator. He and his significant male other once slept over in the Lincoln bedroom as guests of the first lady. They were among the very few thus honored who had not contributed obscene amounts of money to the Republican Party.
Posted by: Jerry Doolittle on November 8, 2006 10:35 PM"Just how it amounts to an insult is unclear."
My first memory of a Republican use of "Democrat Party" is Senator Joseph McCarthy. I always assumed it was his attempt to futher an aural fusion of "Democrat" with "bureaucrat."
Posted by: Douglas Scott on November 9, 2006 12:47 PM