The "Strange Doctrines" Undercroft

Dubya's Habit Dies Hard

Richard Pryor once described how bad his drug habit had gotten, relating that he was so f***ed up on heroin that his dealer cut him off: "Rich, I can't let you do this to yourself, man."

It appears that President Bush's totalitarian habit is facing similar resistance from his own dealers.

Sometimes you just need help.

Not Again?

Bush finds out that running a sound foreign policy is just like riding a bike. (Yes--again.)

(Via Candi.)

Making the Grade

Released transcripts show Kerry enjoyed the same kind of grades at Yale that Bush 43 did. The moral some take from this is that Kerry isn't any "smarter" or "intellectual" than Bush. (Similar stories were published, and therefrom the same moral drawn, with regard to Gore's grades and SAT scores.)

Many smart people, both conservative and liberal, insist that Bush is a wise, or at least cunning, man. But I have a difficult time hearing the man speak and avoiding the conclusion that he is really quite dim. This is not merely because Bush "sounds" dumb. (I know many people who sound dumb but who are actually quite bright. And vice versa.) It's because (unlike the case with the  folks I parenthetically just mentioned) Bush serially makes statements that are dumb as a matter of substance.

Ah, comes the standard reply, but what about Bush's success? How come this "dumb" guy keeps beating the Democrats? Well, I for one do not see the mystery. Britney Spears and Ham the Chimp teach us that with the right team behind you, success is possible for just about anyone.

End Corporate Responsibility Now

Looks like President Bush is making headway on that front.

Amnesty for Thee but not for Me

The Bush Administration has apparently flip-flopped on Amnesty International's credibility.

(Via Prospect.)

Run Away!

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
--President Bush

(Via  Crooks and Liars, who also has audio.)

Orwellian Word Association

This Daily Show clip on Bush's fake Town Hall meetings is disturbingly good.  (The first half is the part really worth watching--the punchline is where Samantha Bee stumps GOP pollster Frank Luntz.)

(Via one good move.)

Talking (and Listening) about Social Security

According to President Bush (via Wonkette), "[T]here will be bad political consequences for people who are unwilling to sit down and talk about the issue [of Social Security deform reform]."

True. Yet even worse political consequences appear to be in store for those unwilling to sit down and listen.

Moving the Bets

Greg Djerejian chides Matthew Yglesias for failing to give due credit to President Bush for stipulated-to successes in Iraq:

[Yglesias claims that the president's] war policy was "grossly mistaken." But [also that] we are "in fact, succeeding." 'Dem chips always fall the chimps way, don't they? What a lucky guy he is! "Dumb luck", doubtless.

I'm not sure what Djerejian has in mind, here. Is he thinking of Bush's "victory" with the Medicare Prescription Bill? The Homeland Security Bill? The leading casus belli for the Iraqi invasion--WMD? Terry Schiavo? Social Security?

Granted, the chips often do go Bush's way. But far more important from a marketing perspective, it seems to me, is the fact that when they don't, Bush has nonetheless been positioned as having been on the winning side all along.

Credit on that score, however, goes to Karl Rove and associates (including commentators who help reinforce the market perception), not Bush.

Of course, some credit too should go to commentators who help reinforce the desired market perception. But I'm not going to name names.

The Jury's Out

MSNBC reports that Gonzales may have mislead the Senate Judiciary Committe regarding his role in Bush's avoiding his civic duty:

Bush's summons to serve as a juror in [a 1996] drunken-driving case was, in retrospect, a fateful moment in his political career: by getting excused from jury duty he was able to avoid questions that would have required him to disclose his own 1976 arrest and conviction for driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) in Kennebunkport, Maine—an incident that didn't become public until the closing days of the 2000 campaign. (Bush, who had publicly declared his willingness to serve, had left blank on his jury questionnaire whether he had ever been "accused" in a criminal case.) Asked by Sen. Patrick Leahy to describe "in detail" the only court appearance he ever made on behalf of Bush, Gonzales—who was then chief counsel to the Texas governor—wrote that he had accompanied Bush the day he went to court "prepared to serve on a jury." While there, Gonzales wrote, he "observed" the defense lawyer make a motion to strike Bush from the jury panel "to which the prosecutor did not object." Asked by the judge whether he had "any views on this," Gonzales recalled, he said he did not.

While Gonzales's account tracks with the official court transcript, it leaves out a key part of what happened that day, according to Travis County Judge David Crain. In separate interviews, Crain—along with Wahlberg and prosecutor John Lastovica—told NEWSWEEK that, before the case began, Gonzales asked to have an off-the-record conference in the judge's chambers. Gonzales then asked Crain to "consider" striking Bush from the jury, making the novel "conflict of interest" argument that the Texas governor might one day be asked to pardon the defendant (who worked at an Austin nightclub called Sugar's), the judge said. "He [Gonzales] raised the issue," Crain said. Crain said he found Gonzales's argument surprising, since it was "extremely unlikely" that a drunken-driving conviction would ever lead to a pardon petition to Bush. But "out of deference" to the governor, Crain said, the other lawyers went along. Wahlberg said he agreed to make the motion striking Bush because he didn't want the hard-line governor on his jury anyway. But there was little doubt among the participants as to what was going on. "In public, they were making a big show of how he was prepared to serve," said Crain. "In the back room, they were trying to get him off."

I hope Crain has a CYA file.

(Via Mark Kleiman.)