Posted on 06/04/2004 10:45:29 AM PDT by dead
President George W. Bush’s increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader’s state of mind.
In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media, Democrats and others that he classifies as “enemies of the state.”
Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge, increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.
“It reminds me of the Nixon days,” says a longtime GOP political consultant with contacts in the White House. “Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out to get him. That’s the mood over there.”
In interviews with a number of White House staffers who were willing to talk off the record, a picture of an administration under siege has emerged, led by a man who declares his decisions to be “God’s will” and then tells aides to “fuck over” anyone they consider to be an opponent of the administration.
“We’re at war, there’s no doubt about it. What I don’t know anymore is just who the enemy might be,” says one troubled White House aide. “We seem to spend more time trying to destroy John Kerry than al Qaeda and our enemies list just keeps growing and growing.”
Aides say the President gets “hung up on minor details,” micromanaging to the extreme while ignoring the bigger picture. He will spend hours personally reviewing and approving every attack ad against his Democratic opponent and then kiss off a meeting on economic issues.
“This is what is killing us on Iraq,” one aide says. “We lost focus. The President got hung up on the weapons of mass destruction and an unproven link to al Qaeda. We could have found other justifiable reasons for the war but the President insisted the focus stay on those two, tenuous items.”
Aides who raise questions quickly find themselves shut out of access to the President or other top advisors. Among top officials, Bush’s inner circle is shrinking. Secretary of State Colin Powell has fallen out of favor because of his growing doubts about the administration’s war against Iraq.
The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet Wednesday night is, aides say, an example of how he works.
"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and wouldn't hear of it," says an aide. "That would have been the opportune time to make a change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now."
Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked staff of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually described the decision as "God's will."
God may also be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration’s lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue threatens freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite. West Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft “the Blues Brothers” because “they’re on a mission from God.”
“The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion,” says one aide. “They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of God.”
But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also tongue-lash those he perceives as disloyal, calling them “fucking assholes” in front of other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and labeling anyone who disagrees with him “unpatriotic” or “anti-American.”
“The mood here is that we’re under siege, there’s no doubt about it,” says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. “In this administration, you don’t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment on the record.
What a pantload.
Sounds like toonmeister holdovers in the State Department, whining.
Me too. Certifiable is much more acceptable, than a freelance loonie like the un-diagnosed and un-medicated Senator Heinzgigolo.
Hope Capt. Ted of the SS Oldsmobile starts quoting this. HA!
I'm sure its gospel in San Francisco already.
I know, and left to me,
I'd ban Doug Thompson articles here
and I'd advertize the fact that his CHB
is unfit for publication on FR.
Holdover from the Clinton era, perhaps?
HOGWASH!!!
I wonder who Dougie's source is, Terence Wilkerson perhaps?
Thompson doesn't need actual sources when he has fictional ones like Terence Wilkerson.
You'll find some very interesting tidbits on the author of this piece right here on FR. Try doing a search on the author's name. He has a history of writing nasty hit pieces on the president and then later apologizing for them or admitting that his source was phony, etc.
And as I recall, Aaron Brown on CNN was pushing Thompson's faulty 'news' article several hours after Thompson published his retraction.
Whoa
I hear the Twilight Zone music. I think someone's gone 'round the bend and it ain't Dubya.
The answer is "Yes", Capitol Hill Blue published an article that was a complete lie.
Not only that, but it was timed to coincide with Joe Wilson's NY Times op-ed. Wilson's piece was Sunday July 6 and Thompson's lie posted July 8.
He's outdone himself now, not even trying to make it seem like his "sources" are real.
It's a lot more than the second. Though I believe it is the second in the last two days.
See my post #213 for one expose done on him already.
I kept checking to see if this came from the Onion.........
This is the biggest piece of sh$t I have ever read!
Thompson was easier to expose because he was already regarded by the mainstreams as a crackpot. They'll use his stuff when it is to their benefit, but he is easier to get the truth out over the noise of his propaganda. Wilson is nuts and a liar, too, but has better credentials, hence his story has stuck around despite having holes a mile wide in it.
seems like he wants GB to look like a tyrant like sadam husien
I see several people posted the link to the thread where Doug admitted as much as he was going to, but at post #213 on this thread I posted the link to the original thread where the sleuthing began.
Since you bring this up, I can't let this pass by unremarked.
The "lover" is Alex Polier and she just wrote the piece that was supposed to explain the misunderstanding all away.
One problem (of several) with her saga is she even notes herself that when the Drudge item appeared and *did not name* anyone, it was the AP itself that called her up over there in Kenya and said that "everybody knew" it was her.
Now, just simmer in that for a minute and think about the implications and then tell me how that was a rumor put to the winds that had little merit.
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