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Where Did the Worst of Bush's Cronies Go? To Work for Corporate Media

By Eric Alterman, The Daily Beast. Posted April 10, 2009.


In a post-Bush world Karl Rove and friends have just as deadly a job, only these days you'll find them posing for the media as pundits.

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When you consider the respective achievements of the folks who peopled the upper echelons of the Bush administration, I think you’ll agree that after their incompetence, ideological obsession, and general malevolence, their most impressive characteristic was, and remains, their audacity.

Think about it: George W. Bush is widely considered to be, if not America’s worst president ever, than certainly in the bottom four or five. His legacy to his successor includes: the worst economic crisis in eighty years, two unsuccessful wars, a thoroughly corrupt Justice Department, the destruction of time-honored civil liberties and hard-won rights, and the widespread contempt of almost everyone on the planet who was not a committed member of the conservative Republican base. And yet not only did Bush and company never own up to the catastrophic consequences of their actions, they gave one another medals for it. (It’s only a rumor, however, that Bush tried to rename the Presidential Medal of Freedom the “Heckuva Job” medal.)

In a society with any memory whatever -- much less one whose public servants enjoyed a modicum of self respect -- these folks would slink off into the sunset and lay low for a decade or two before taking up new careers doing something useful -- if not ministering to the poor like Jimmy Carter than at least sticking to charity golf tournaments like Gerald Ford.

Instead they’ve become pundits. And unlike ex-Democratic pundits, who tend to want to prove their mettle as independent analysts by attacking their ex-friends using Republican talking points -- demanding to know why presidential candidates do not wear flag pins and are BFFs with Louis Farrakhan and the like -- they keep up exactly the same shenanigans that landed this country in the screwed up place they left it. Admit it, it’s impressive.

Exhibit A in this category is ex-chief speechwriter Michael Gerson. Using the same kind of impeccable logic that led him to write speeches demanding that we invade a different country than the one that attacked us on 9/11, Gerson was punished for his crimes against the English language with a regular gig in The Washington Post and Newsweek, and a fancy fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. This week, he took the occasion of a recent poll by the Pew to attack Barack Obama as “the most polarizing new president of recent times.”

“Obama has been a unifier, of sorts,” he quips. “He has united Democrats and united Republicans -- against each other.”

As with so many Gerson-authored speeches for George W. Bush, the question one has to ask oneself upon hearing this is not whether the man uttering the words believes them, but whether he can even comprehend them. In Gerson’s case, he appears to understand his own audaciously dishonest claim because he undermines it a few paragraphs later. “The Pew report notes that this is the extension of a long-term trend,” he admits. Well, yes, there’s that. (The poll itself is here.)

And there are also a few obvious-to-everybody-else explanations for the tendency. As Michael Dimock, Pew’s associate director told Gerson’s Post colleague Greg Sargent, “It’s unfair to say that Obama has caused this divisiveness or to say that he is a polarizing president.” Not only is the trend one that’s been building over time, but it is driven in part by the fact that partisan divide is always stronger under Democratic presidents -- Bush II being the exception -- because Democrats tend to give their opponents a chance while Republicans do not. Second, two Bush terms that went about as well as Biblical flood -- see above -- have left the party denuded of all but its most ideologically-driven elements. A party answerable to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh is going disapprove of just about anyone and anything in what during the Bush years became known as the “reality-based community” simply because, well, it’s there.

Gerson goes on, again impressively, to blame Obama for failing to get Republican votes for his budget, for increasing the deficit, and expanding our dependence on China as if the past eight years never happened.

To be fair to Gerson, he is merely following in his mentor’s footsteps. Recruited by Karl Rove in 1999 for the Bush campaign, he has learned at the feet of an audacious master. Rove, if you’ve not been paying attention, appears to be campaigning for Nobel Prize in the category of keeping a straight face while spouting bullshit -- just as soon as the category is invented. This week he made the same silly argument that Gerson did, here but to be honest, one could pick almost any utterance by this honored Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and Newsweek columnist to make this point. Google and I just happen to stumble on one, in which, I kid you not, Karl Rove, who headed the Office of Political Affairs, the White House Office of Public Liaison, the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives, etc., is shocked, shocked that the Obama White House is (allegedly) being used for political purposes. I swear I’m not making this up. Here he is, during the Limbaugh flap, complaining to Greta Van Susteren:


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View:
Let's get real here, Eric!
Posted by: Tom Degan on Apr 10, 2009 4:10 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"Think about it: George W. Bush is widely considered to be, if not America’s worst president ever, than certainly in the bottom four or five."

Don't get me wrong, Mr. Alterman. Great article be a great writer. But to put Bush at any other position but the very bottom is wrong. Wrong I say!

Prior to the First Fool, historians were of the general consensus among historians was that James Buchanan was the very worst president in American history. Buchanan's failure to respond to the sectional unrest that riddled the American landscape led directly to the war between the states. But think about it, Eric, old bean: Buchanan's incompetence resulted in a mere 624,000 people losing their lives - about half as many lives lost in Iraq - the stupidest military blunder in American history.

Warren G. Harding? Teapot Dome? A pittance compared to the Bush scandals. Besides, it was Harding's cronies who were responsible for that scandal. He was guilty of nothing more than incompetence. as Harding himself said:

"I can handle my enemies. It's my damned friends who keep me walking the floors at night".

Grant? He looks like a political Einstein compared to Bush. Nixon? He looks like a saint.

Bush is at the bottom of the barrel. The very bottom.

April 9, 1939

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: Let's get real here, Eric! Posted by: Tom Degan
» Tom... Posted by: Quannah
» RE: Tom... Posted by: Tom Degan
Not our fault
Posted by: vioibi on Apr 10, 2009 4:49 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Hey just because Stephen Harper is a Bush wannabe of his lunatic right party who has yet to win a majority in parliament don't blame us. Harper had to prorogue parliament because his party didn't have an economic plan because they didn't think that Canada was having a downturn. When Obama came to Ottawa we were so happy and hoped that robot-like Harper wouldn't look too silly beside him. If our Liberal party ever gets it together we'll be rid of this guy and his cohorts from the west. The day can't come soon enough.

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"The Brain"
Posted by: Midway54 on Apr 10, 2009 5:09 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Here he is, Rove the so-called "brain" appearing quite properly on the Fox News Cesspool where he surely belongs with the rest of the scoundrels.

He is a guy who can spew half-truths, plain lies, and apparently with gusto ruin political careers and reputations when required and with no evident remorse. This miserable behavior makes him a "brain"? This is how his masters, the top Plutocrats in our Plutocracy, together with their pathetically ignorant Dupes who daily cheer for him from their fate of living in the dusty outbacks of Dupedom, U.S.A., see him.

While I was still in the trenches, I had colleagues who were deserving of being called "brains" through their superior intellects, style, decency, and high achievements. This guy Rove is no "brain". He is a disgusting hack.

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Rove's Mind
Posted by: Bob Horn on Apr 10, 2009 6:03 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It wasn't so much genius but an ability to have no moral compass at all that made Rove successful. He can lie with a straight face and could put flyers on car windows outside of fundamentalist churches saying Ann Richards will turn the schools over to gay child molestors (and not feel a thing telling such lies),..and he did a thousand other tricks high school kids can think of if they have too much time on their hands. I don't claim to be a genius but I could think of his tricks to run on conservatives (hmm, maybe I should). Rove is basically a guy who calls in to order anchovie pizzas to be delivered to all his enemies.

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Polarizing? Yep, 80% hated The Bushies- Very Unifying
Posted by: Purple Girl on Apr 10, 2009 6:36 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
seems as soon as they open their mouths with criticism or dissent, you know it will be an arguement which far more epitomizes them then anyone else.
Their Projectionism is so transparent. As soon as their mouths start moving you know they are about to say something which far more epitomizes the Bush years than Obama.
About as funny as that Article about the Religious Right claiming Gay marriage will cause mass Murder..By Who the Religious Right AGAIN?It was not a lefty Liberal who threw a pipebomb into a crowd at the Atlanta oylmpics. It was not a lefty Group who bombed clinics, or assasinated MD's.In fact it has not been a Liberal who killed 3 cops, or shot up a kids church recital.
Karl the old kids adage 'I'm rubber and Your clue' never held such a profound truth as it does when neo cons go after Liberals.If your Lips is moving your not just Lying, your confessing(unless, of course, your blowing Cheney again- Real 'lip service' ah Karl).
Besides the only writing Karl should be doing is on a Death Row cell wall.Karl not only politized the Justice Dept and leaked a CIA operative name..He was the propagandaist who sold the American people an Illegal War- killing not only 4,000+ americans but possibly Millions of other innocent M.E. civilians- That's a Crime against Humanity.

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Bush?
Posted by: alive on Apr 10, 2009 8:00 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Wait, were we talking about how bad the upper echelons of the Bush admin were, or is this the article about how morally bankrupt the highest levels of the Obama team are, I get so confused..."Obama's top economic advisor is greedy and highly compromised".

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» RE: Bush? - GOOD POINT Posted by: ds1st
» RE: Bush? - GOOD POINT Posted by: markw4786
What's new? The GOP always defends even its worst. Unfortunately, the other side invents excuses.
Posted by: Benn_Miller on Apr 10, 2009 9:44 AM   
Current rating: 1    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The Republicans have been defending Nixon even after he left. The Republicans will continue to do the same with Bush as they did with Nixon, Reagan, Newt Gingrich, and the likes. Most Democrats on the other hand will invent idiotic conspiracies theories to cover up their lazy and corrupted nature of accepting hush money. For example, I'll hear countless rants such as "If Obama does ... then he'll be shot just like JFK" when in fact such conspiracy theories of the assassination of JFK have already been strongly proven false. In essence you're excusing your leader for bad bahavior based on unfounded fears.

It's no surprise that Bush's cronies are laughing at us for sitting on unfounded conpiracy theories.

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diss and miss. the electric thermate match.
Posted by: remo on Apr 10, 2009 4:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the country that attacked you on 9/11 [article: Gerson, above] was itself. A major science study of the dust samples just released [The open Chemical Physics Journal, 2009, 2, 7-31] has clearly found unignited superthermate chips present up to 0.1% of the dust cloud. Unexploded . So that is just what was left. superthermate was NOT put in those building by osama mateys. And the world is a sorrier place because of it.

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Shinseki/Krugman
Posted by: Urstrly on Apr 11, 2009 8:10 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Maybe I'm not as picky about analogies as Alterman, but I get it: two men who are potential allies offer unwelcom advice counter to the administration's point of view and course of action. Shinseki was right, and he got the boot. To make it work, Obama would have to try to get Krugman fired, and we have no evidence of that. What's hanging is if Krugman's right or wrong. I keep reminding myself that Milton Friedman won the Nobel, too, and look what that brought us.

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» RE: Shinseki/Krugman Posted by: Quannah
leftbank
Posted by: markw4786 on Apr 14, 2009 5:25 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The real tragedy here is not that they are getting jobs in the private sector; the real problem is Obama has let them. These sociopaths should be investigated, prosecuted and taken off the streets. But no! Like Clinton, Obama insists that international war crimes don't apply to Americans. Obama thinks crimes against the Constitution are tolerated if these crimes are done by the "loyal opposition". Obama has become the ninny of the necons...CHANGE MY ASS.
PS Don Siegelman may be going back to prison soon because Obama has kept the prosecutors and judges that put him there in the first place in office. OBAMA...THE NEOCON NINNY!!!

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