the most devastating anti-bush article i've ever read ...

[welshTerrier2]

this Carl Bernstein guy is pretty damned impressive ...

the article is way too long to start quoting here ... i'll just offer this as a teaser:

"We have never had a presidency in which the single unifying thread that flows through its major decision-making was incompetence—stitched together with hubris and mendacity on a Nixonian scale."

read all seven pages; you won't be sorry you did ...

here's the link: http://www.vanityfair.com/commentary/content/articles/060417roco03

maybe if we each excerpt our favorite paragraph, it will help keep this kicked and get the article some visibility ...

[babylonsister]

1. "This Carl Bernstein guy..."

I imagine you know this, but if not, he is THE Bernstein of Woodward and Bernstein fame, the real journalists who broke Watergate wide open.
FYI for anyone who doesn't know...

[Sparkly]

3. Yup -- and I just wanna know wtf happened to Woodward?? nt

[babylonsister]

4. Yes, me, too. He sold out bigtime! nt

[Canuckistanian]

6. That's what we all want to know

There's someone by that same name as the associate editor of the WaPo, but he's a talentless hack, a conservative apologist and possibly involved in a massive government cover-up....

Naaah, can't be same guy.

[welshTerrier2]

8. i'm afraid they replaced his brain with a microchip

i love that movie "All the President's Men" about the Watergate saga and taking down Nixon ... i've seen it about a hundred times ... it just never gets old ...

it's hard to believe what happened to Woodward ... maybe, someday, he'll return to the light ...

[eppur_se_muova]

26. In Rudy Rucker's "ware" series, there's a politician who has half his ...

brain removed, and replaced by a robot rat.

I think that explains Woodward.

[gordianot]

10. Not sure Woodward was really on board.

He has some odd connections to the intelligence community "Naval Intelligence". Nixon had plenty of Republican enemies.

[Auntie Bush]

12. Maybe in order to get his exclusive interview...he promised in

return to never say anything negative about bush*...so Bernstein is taking up the baton. He sold his soul to the devil, literally!

[Stinky The Clown]

23. Well .... when one affixes one's

tin foil chapeau to one's noggin, one can go walking through tales of the CIA of yore. And one might come upon a dusty tome along the way. And in said tome, one might find a tale. The Tale of The Wayward Woody. One might be shocked at the sexual implication of that tome's title ... and one would be wrong to have so assumed about the content of the tale within the tome. For that tome, you see, contains the tale of the overthrow of a government. By forces darker than Belgian chocolate .... and infinitely more dense. Savor the chocolate and heed the tale. the Tale of The Wayward Woody.

Indeed ....

[Ian David]

11. Watergate? What's that?

(I'm kidding.)

[euroexpat]

2. Floyd has written a few dandies.

This being my particular favourite from earlier this year.

Snippets from....

Clowntime is Over: The Last Stand of the American Republic

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=369&Itemid=1

...There is no third way here, no other option, no wiggle room, no ambiguity. The much-belated exposure of George W. Bush's warrantless spy program has forced the Bush-Cheney Regime to openly declare what they have long implied -- and enacted -- in secret: that the president is above the law, a military autocrat with unlimited powers, beyond the restraint or supervision of any other institution or branch of government. Outed as rank deceivers, perverters of the law and rapists of the Constitution, the Bush gang has decided that their best defense -- their only defense, really -- is a belligerent offense. "Yeah, we broke the law," they now say; "so what? We'll break it again whenever we want to, because law don't stick to our Big Boss Man. What are you going to do about it, chump?"

That is the essence, the substance and pretty much the style of the entire Bushist response to the domestic spying scandal. They are scarcely bothering to gussy it up with the usual rhetorical circumlocutions. The attack is being led by the fat, sneering coward, Dick Cheney, who has crawled out of his luxurious hidey-holes to re-animate the rotting husk of Richard Nixon and send it tottering back onto the national stage. Through the facade of Cheney's pig-squint and peevish snarl, we can see the long-dead Nixonian visage, his grave-green, worm-filled jowls muttering once more the lunatic mantra he brought to the Oval Office: "If the president does it, it can't be illegal." This is what we've come to, this is American leadership today: ugly, stupid men mouthing the witless drivel of failed, dead, discredited, would-be petty tyrants.

But not even Nixon was as foul as this crew. When he was caught, he folded; some faint spark of republican conscience restrained him from pushing the crisis to the end. He was a vain, stupid, greedy, grasping, dirty man with blood on his hands, but in the end, he did not identify himself with the government as a whole. He did not say, "l'etat, c'est moi," he had no messianic belief that the life of the nation was somehow bound up with his personal fate, or that he and his clique and his cronies had a God-given right to rule. They just wanted power and loot -- as much of it as they could get -- and they pushed and pushed until the Establishment pushed back.

It has long been evident, however, that Bush and Cheney do believe their clique should by all rights rule the country -- and that anyone who opposes their unrestrained dominion is automatically "anti-American," an enemy of the state. For them, there is no "loyal opposition," or even political opponents in any traditional understanding of the term; there are only enemies to be destroyed, and herd-like masses to be manipulated. They believe that their dominion is more important than democracy, which they despise as a brake and hindrance to the arbitrary leadership of an all-wise elite -- i.e., them. They are the state; a police state.

Elections are just necessary evils, a way to manufacture the illusion of consent, shake down corporations for big bucks and calibrate the loyalty of courtiers. Democracy is simply another system to be gamed, subverted, turned to factional advantage -- in precisely the same way that Enron gamed the California electric grid. This accounts for the strange, omnipresent tang of unreality that permeated the last three national elections, in 2000, 2002, and 2004. It's because they were unreal: the results were gamed, sometimes in secret, sometimes in plain sight; the "issues" and rhetoric were divorced from the reality that we all actually lived and felt -- and the outcomes were as phony as an Enron balance sheet.

Dominion seized on such sinister and cynical terms will almost certainly be defended -- and extended -- by any means necessary. That is the great danger. The Bushists have already pushed on further than Nixon ever dared; will they "bear it out even to the edge of doom"? This is the crux of the matter; this is the crossroads where we now stand. Will the American Establishment push back at last? Will they say, This far we will go, but no further; this much we will swallow, but no more?

[welshTerrier2]

9. that's beautiful!!

i just love "hidey holes" ... how quaint and how insulting ...

[Karenina]

17. Chris Floyd is a treasure.

Punkt.

[donsu]

30. agree

nt

[cliss]

18. WOW Love the bold section...

whew... "pig-squint and peevish snarl"

"his grave-green, worm-filled jowls"

"ugly, stupid men mouthing the witless drivel of failed, dead, discredited, would-be petty tyrants."

Worm filled jowls?

He's outdone me.

[smitty]

5. Wow! A damning summary of the wrongs and stupidities

of the Bushies. If Bernstein is right, even the Republicans are tired of this corrupt and incompetent administration. If the voters join the ranks of the fed up, we can look to a Bush-free Presidency for the next two years.

[HardWorkingDem]

7. WHY are we so surprised?

GWB's life has been nothing but acts of incompetence, so why is anyone surprised at where we are at in this country?

The only thing he is good at is getting himself in trouble and then somehow getting out of it. He is definitely the new gold standard as the "Teflon President".

I'd think that the new money making bumper sticker will be,

"Don't blame me. I voted for the other guy."

[DaveColorado]

13. Woodward has always been a Republican

Even during Watergate.

I should know I did a 2000 page research paper on Watergate lol.

[welshTerrier2]

16. they referred to this in the movie "All the President's Men"

to convince one of the republicans to grant them an interview, Woodward "lied" and told the person he was a republican ... in the movie, the information was conveyed as a joke ... it's not that funny now ...

here's the relevant excerpt from the script:

A MIDDLE-AGED MAN--IN HIS DOORWAY

MIDDLE-AGED MAN: I know who you are and I'm not afraid but that don't mean I'll talk to you either--you're just a couple Democrats out to stop Nixon getting re-elected.

CUT TO: WOODWARD and BERNSTEIN, staring at the man.

WOODWARD: Democrats?
MIDDLE-AGED MAN: That's right.
BERNSTEIN: I hate both parties.
WOODWARD: And I'm a Republican.

The middle-aged man looks at him.

BERNSTEIN (surprised, turns to WOODWARD): Republican?
WOODWARD: Sure.
BERNSTEIN: Who'd you vote for?
WOODWARD: When?
BERNSTEIN: '68.
WOODWARD: Nixon.

[serryjw]

14. I'm sorry...This pisses me off

He will hear from me!
quote.......
The irony of the Valerie Plame affair, like the Watergate break-in itself, is its relative insignificance in terms of the greater transgressions of a presidency that has gone off the tracks.
end quote....

Only a stupid/uninformed person would say that.

[Make7]

28. relative insignificance

Compared to tens of thousands of Iraqi's killed and thousands of U.S. soldiers killed and many multiples more injured. Also compared to over a thousand deaths that may be the consequence of the failures in preparation and response to Katrina.

What do you believe is the relative significance of the politically motivated outing of a CIA agent?

- Make7

[serryjw]

29. You are kidding?

n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Superb article! Thanks for posting!!!

One of the more salient paragraphs:

Most of what we have learned about the reality of this administration—and the disconcerting mind-set and decision-making process of President Bush himself—has come not from the White House or the Pentagon or the Department of Homeland Security or the Treasury Department, but from insider accounts by disaffected members of the administration after their departure, and from distinguished journalists, and, in the case of a skeletal but hugely significant body of information, from a special prosecutor. And also, of late, from an aide-de-camp to the British prime minister. Almost invariably, their accounts have revealed what the president and those serving him have deliberately concealed—torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, and its apparent authorization by presidential fiat; wholesale N.S.A. domestic wiretapping in contravention of specific prohibitive law; brutal interrogations of prisoners shipped secretly by the C.I.A. and U.S. military to Third World gulags; the nonexistence of W.M.D. in Iraq; the role of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney's chief of staff in divulging the name of an undercover C.I.A. employee; the non-role of Saddam Hussein and Iraq in the events of 9/11; the death by friendly fire of Pat Tillman (whose mother, Mary Tillman, told journalist Robert Scheer, "The administration tried to attach themselves to his virtue and then they wiped their feet with him"); the lack of a coherent post-invasion strategy for Iraq, with all its consequent tragedy and loss and destabilizing global implications; the failure to coordinate economic policies for America's long-term financial health (including the misguided tax cuts) with funding a war that will cost an estimated $300 billion and that will drive the national debt toward $10 trillion; the assurance of Wolfowitz (since rewarded by Bush with the presidency of the World Bank) that Iraq's oil reserves would pay for the war within two to three years after the invasion; and Bush's like-minded confidence, expressed to Blair, that serious internecine strife in Iraq would be unlikely after the invasion.

[Joe Fields]

19. This IS the most devastating article I've read to date.

Carl Bernstein re-establishes his credentials as one of the true seekers and mouthpieces of truth to power.

He must secretly be ashamed of Bob Woodward. I have noticed on the two times I've seen them interviewed together, an unease on Carl's part, and a definite lack of warmth or friendship. I bet they rarely see each other.

[Robbie Michaels]

20. Kicked

:dem:

[Blue_Tires]

21. k+r

[Vanje]

22. Powell questions Cheney's "emotional stability"

My favorite paragraph from the article, so far:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here it may be relevant that Powell has, in private, made statements interpreted by many important figures in Washington as seemingly questioning Cheney's emotional stability, and that Powell no longer recognizes the steady, dependable "rock" with whom he served in the administration of George W. Bush's father. Powell needs to be asked under oath about his reported observations regarding Cheney, not to mention his own appearance before the United Nations in which he spoke with assurance about Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction and insisted that the United States was seeking a way to avoid war, not start it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[saltpoint]

24. Bernstein was recently in New Orleans, and his take on how that

storm aftermath was handled was compassionate and brilliant.

A very good man.

[demo dutch]

25. Just the greatest!

[tavalon]

27. I recommended this

and got a chuckle out of "this Carl Bernstein guy is pretty damned impressive.....". Yep, he always was and still is. His old partner, OTOH, is a pod person, unquestionably.

[long_green]

31. This is a conservative article.

It is an appeal to the Republican leadership in Congress, and it is an appeal for a long, legalistic, non-sensational investigation of the excesses of this administration. That an emotional, partisan investagation would only polarize the country further, and might do far more damage, is a theme of Bernstein's article.
It is an establishment article. While arguing for an investigation that might lead to the impeachment of the current administration, there is a sense that he makes this appeal to stop not only this outlaw administration but the most implacable of its opponents. Bernstein has done well by the establishment and would like to see its finer elements not only continue but assume control of our affairs.
Oh, I did like the article. The above are just my impressions.