George's Cozy Cocoon
George W likes to live in his own world. In fact, "being Bush" seems like a joyful, almost dreamlike experience. Reality, for example, never intrudes into his consciousness. And his lies, even his biggest whoppers, seem most sincerely to be believed by him – I have no doubt that he thinks he served in the National Guard, for example.
For his second term, George is drawing his world even tighter, moving swiftly to eliminate advisors and officials who might tell him things he doesn't want to hear, further shielding him from bothersome realities in the world.
Colin Powell was quickly ushered out the door. Even though he had dutifully (and unwittingly) lied for Bush about those non-existent weapons of mass destruction, Powell was always questioning the blind rush into the war, so George has now plucked this irritant from his administration. Condi Rice, his worshipful national security advisor, has been moved into Powell's chair, and Bush can certainly trust that she won't disturb his consciousness with anything that goes against his neo-con ideology.
Likewise, his longtime legal lackey, Al Gonzales, has been dispatched to head the Justice Department, where he can grind out memos to rationalize and legalize any little ol' thing that strikes George's noggin. Al, you might remember, is the guy who wrote the White House memo saying that torturing Iraqi prisoners was legally okey-dokey.
Then there's the CIA, which kept sending intelligence reports to the White House warning that the Iraqi invasion and occupation would have messy consequences. George didn't like to hear that, so now he's put political hack Porter Goss at the CIA helm. Goss is purging top agents who have disagreed with Bush's disastrous policies – and he has warned all CIA employees that their job is to "support the administration and its policies in our work."
Don't you feel better knowing that George won't be bothered by any unwanted advice or unpleasant reports?
