Rerun Season
Jun 28th, 2005 at 5:06 pm by Susie
As Digby predicted, looks like Bush is going with the Richard Nixon “peace with honor” speech. We’ll see whether it works; Digby has some solid reasons for believing it won’t. (For one thing, Bush can’t blame his predecessor for the war, the way Nixon did.)
Lots of other wonderful quotes from Flounder “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son” McClellan, though:
Q When the President talks about high gasoline prices, he often cites the demand for gasoline and crude oil from China. Is the President comfortable that the company partly owned by his campaign media advisor is assisting the Chinese in their attempt to purchase Unocal?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, in terms of that matter, we are following those reports closely. If a bid were to go through, like all foreign-based transactions, there is a regulatory process that is in place that will be followed to address any national security concerns. So in other words, there are procedures in place, and if a bid goes through, then we would expect the appropriate procedures to be followed.
Q But is he comfortable with this company that was so closely aligned with his —
MR. McCLELLAN: I don’t know about any such involvement.
Q Well, Public Strategies out of Austin, Texas is helping CNO buy Unocal.
MR. McCLELLAN: I think you have to look at what I just said. That’s the — that’s the President’s view when it comes to this matter.
Q But it’s just that it’s a really close tie to the White House, and would the President be comfortable in using this company again for any further media strategies that he may have to engage in, or is this just part of free enterprise?
MR. McCLELLAN: The President would want to make sure that the procedures that are in place are followed, and that’s what we would expect if a bid goes through.
Bad question. One of the first things they teach you in sales is, don’t give your prospect specific reasons to say no. Don’t anticipate their response - get them talking.
Now, this is pretty funny in an inadvertent kind of way:
Q Two questions. First, you’ve said in the past that, on the matter of Matt Cooper and Judith Miller that the President supports the investigation. What specific steps is the White House taking to support it? Has the President called people into the Oval Office?
MR. McCLELLAN: What I said is the President wants to get to the bottom of the investigation; no one wants to get to the bottom of it more than he does. It is a very serious matter and the President has said that if anybody has information, they ought to provide that information to the prosecutor so that they can continue forward on their investigation.
Q Has he called specific people into the Oval Office to ask them if they —
MR. McCLELLAN: What we made a decision to do was to support the efforts of the independent prosecutor to move forward on the investigation and that’s what we’re doing. If there are any specific questions you have about individuals, those are questions that are best directed to the special prosecutor in this matter.
As opposed to interfering with the investigation, he means? So that’s the much-ballyhooed “support” Bush gave to the Plame investigation - he didn’t actively impede it?
As if we believe him, anyway.
As a conservative, I have one simple question. Where are you guys going with this? You can’t possibly be thinking impeachment, not with this congress. Even if, by some strange act of Democratic voter fraud there is a major turn around in the senate I don’t think you are going to get it. If we couldn’t nail Clinton for lying under oath, you guys are not gonna nail GW on possible ethics violations.
So the honest question becomes what are you actually going for? I realize that hate fests are a real blast and all, but you as a blogger risk irrelivance if you are just whining.
Do the yourself, your party and the USA a favor and choose a positive direction. It can reflect your core values like abortion on demand, crippling taxes, expansive failed social engineering projects, government siezure of private property, gay marriage and a gimped military that will be unable to defend you from people who seriously do mean all of us harm. Just phrase it in a positive light. Not I’M ANTI BUSH AND ANTI WAR! Try instead, “This is what we plan to do to address the growing economic and educational crisis that has gripped this country for too long”. And hey, if you happen to crash land the country in the process, at least you’ll do it with a more positive message than whining about things that aren’t going to change.
PS. I am pretty unhappy with Bush too right now. He has screwed the pooch on almost every issue but the war. I fail to see why we wouldn’t vigorously defend our borders during a war with an enemy who favors infiltration as a tactic. I don’t like anything that helps China because we are going to go to war with them one day if things keep up (more likely than Iran in my opinion). Why hasn’t he made use of his party’s majority in congress to ram some conservative stuff home straight through the Democratic opposition? We have the majority, it’s literally a use it or lose it situation. Heck, I am really unhappy about the man’s out of control spending too. You don’t cut taxes without cutting spending, that’s lunacy. He’s a lousy conservative. IMO the only reason that he got elected was that the Democrats chose someone who scared the bejesus out of us more than GW.
It’s late and I’m tired, but here are a few thoughts by way of a partial reply. First. even Chuck Hagel has noted that the Bushies are disconnected from reality; and John DeIulio, Richard Clarke, Joseph Wilson, Paul O’Neill, etc. have called attention not only to the tendency of the Bush people to let politics dictate policy, but also to their thoroughgoing mendacity and corruptness (on which see also the DSM). Given that such people have a virtual death grip on the reins of power, what else can we do but proclaim, and give examples of, their dishonesty and abuse of power, in the hope that enough people’s eyes will be opened to the danger these people represent? You can call that “whining” if you want, but mere namecalling is neither useful nor enlightening. And you really should ask yourself just why Kerry scared you so much; it looks like you were a sucker for the misrepresentations and smear tactics perpetrated by the Bush crew and its enablers in the MSM (continuing the trend that they started against Gore), despite your professed dissatisfaction with this sorry bunch.
Is the President comfortable that the company partly owned by his campaign media advisor is assisting the Chinese in their attempt to purchase Unocal?
Thirty years from now, that question will still echo in McClellan’s brain. Now, if only we could get someone to ask him once again about Zalmay Khalilzhad …
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=11&ItemID=7593
and
http://www.wanttoknow.info/020110independent
The quote from Animal House is: “Fat, drunk, and stupid…..
Oops, brain fart. I just watched it the other day, you’d think I’d remember. Thanks, Mike.
Bush can’t blame his predecessor for the war, the way Nixon did.
Now you’re being silly. Everything is Clinton’s fault. EVERYTHING.