Saturday, November 04, 2006
Rats leaving the ship of state? Bush preparing to "cut and run?"
I remember so vividly how I and others were glued to the TV election coverage in 2004, eagerly anticipating that Bush would be voted out of the White House. After all, it was pretty routine to tune to a reality TV program to learn who was just voted off the island.
It could have (and indeed, should have) happened. But it didn't, and the let-down, the disappointment, even the depression, was difficult to bear.
Hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths later, here we are in 2006, hoping that vote-stealing and machine-tampering in the mid-term election will not be enough to prevent voters removing Congress from Republican clutches. I hope we're not disappointed again. At least, the Democrats are prepared for bad news from 2004's bitter experience. It wouldn't be so bad for Republicans since they would still retain control of the White House and Supreme Court.
But how would President Bush take bad news?
Rumors have been flying that he has purchased a huge ranch in South America in case he has to "cut and run" in a personal way. The rumors originated when his daughter, Jenna Bush, was spotted on a 10-day visit to Paraguay and was supposedly going to "visit the land acquired by her father - relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves".
Could it be that Bush is planning an escape route in case a Democratically-controlled Congress decided to pursue an impeachment motion?
Meanwhile, an increasing list of prominent Republicans seem to be abandoning Bush. For example, Richard N. Perle, "the former Pentagon advisor regarded as the intellectual godfather of the Iraq war," split with the president in a Vanity Fair article described in today's Los Angeles Times.
The LA Times mentioned others who have split with Bush:
Odom's article was titled How to cut and run. Perhaps Bush is taking this advice on a personal level and has reserved an escape pad in South America.
It could have (and indeed, should have) happened. But it didn't, and the let-down, the disappointment, even the depression, was difficult to bear.
Hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths later, here we are in 2006, hoping that vote-stealing and machine-tampering in the mid-term election will not be enough to prevent voters removing Congress from Republican clutches. I hope we're not disappointed again. At least, the Democrats are prepared for bad news from 2004's bitter experience. It wouldn't be so bad for Republicans since they would still retain control of the White House and Supreme Court.
But how would President Bush take bad news?
Rumors have been flying that he has purchased a huge ranch in South America in case he has to "cut and run" in a personal way. The rumors originated when his daughter, Jenna Bush, was spotted on a 10-day visit to Paraguay and was supposedly going to "visit the land acquired by her father - relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves".
Could it be that Bush is planning an escape route in case a Democratically-controlled Congress decided to pursue an impeachment motion?
Meanwhile, an increasing list of prominent Republicans seem to be abandoning Bush. For example, Richard N. Perle, "the former Pentagon advisor regarded as the intellectual godfather of the Iraq war," split with the president in a Vanity Fair article described in today's Los Angeles Times.
The LA Times mentioned others who have split with Bush:
The excerpts [in the Vanity Fair article] include quotes from other neoconservatives who have turned against the war, including Adelman, a longtime friend of Rumsfeld who has received classified Pentagon briefings on the war as recently as March, according to a recent book by journalist Bob Woodward.An unprecedented joint editorial calling for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation scheduled to be published simultaneously in the Army Times, Air Force Times, Navy Times and Marine Corps Times, notes that
Active-duty military leaders are starting to voice misgivings about the war's planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, who happens to be a former head of the NSA, broke with Bush in an article published last week, becoming only the latest of several retired generals to split with the commander in chief. But it's no longer just retired generals. At least 100 active duty servicemen have begun a movement to petition Congress to end the US occupation of Iraq,
Odom's article was titled How to cut and run. Perhaps Bush is taking this advice on a personal level and has reserved an escape pad in South America.
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