UPDATE: Key Excerpt From NPR Report
Members of the president's party were getting tired of all the bad publicity surrounding these two Bush loyalists and were feeling less and less eager to defend them, especially as the president's job approval ratings fell. The same, by the way, would have been true of Idaho Senator Larry Craig, but he was convinced to leave within days of his scandal.
In any case, by allowing potential liabilities to fade into the sunset, Bush was making a strategic choice. He was trading political concessions for fiscal cooperation. More than anytime in his presidency, he will need as many Republican backers as he can find on Capitol Hill.
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The number of petitions signed and delivered; phone calls made, letters written, commercials aired on youtube: they don’t matter to this administration. I’m sick and tired of signing petitions that do nothing - not that it’s your fault.
I think it is reasonable to believe in and exercise your right to petition your representatives, (elected and unelected), and ask them to listen to you. Here’s the problem: that one big, unelected official we’ve all been trying to reach for the past 6+ years lives in an armed bubble. This man is a willing tool in a vast ring-wing conspiracy and if they don’t want him to see the protests they simply take away our constitutional ability to do so replacing them with so-called free speech zones. Who is telling whom to Move On?
So after istening to a report filed on NPR identifying that Bush traded Rove and Gonzales for policy votes from key Republicans read J. Birnbaum’s transcript, I am baffled by MoveOn's congratulatory email saying "You Did It!" Really? You think "I" did it (along with the thousands of other signers? I don’t believe my ideas penetrate that fortress of extreme isolation and solitude. (Sure it helps that you don’t like to read newspapers – Not that they are re doing much beyond outshining each other with their stenographic skills.)
The point is they trade something for something. Nothing and no one is un-tradeable: if they get something else they want, its a done deal. In this case, more war, more economic ruin via no changes to his apocalyptic tax and spending policy. The modus operandi die is cast from day 1 and will not change for the last see number of days left here, no matter how many generals or staff get rotated, indicted, or are forced to go spend more time with their family (or high-paying private sector).
Knowing this, does it still make a difference?
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PS and in case you do give Birnbaum's report a full read, no, I don't agree with his conclusion either --lapsing back to typical MSM 'benefit of the doubt'