Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides (Doug Thompson and unsourced quotes)

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.”

This is crummy reporting.

If someone spews this sort of language about President Bush without NAMING sources, I throw it out with the bathwater, knowing this author has one goal in mind, to shake the faith of America in our steadfast leader and to gain a little celebrity along the way.

Since the war in Iraq and our efforts to fight the war on terror offensively is successful, on just about every level, and since this effort has NOT swayed the American people away from staying the course, despite ALL EFFORTS from the MAINSTREAM PRESS to undermine our resolve, our President has FINALLY awakened ( at least overtly, doubt it is really news to him ) that we DO HAVE A VERY REAL AND INSIDIOUS ENEMY WITHIN.

We know this.

How many of you KNEW before the press conferance yesterday...that NINE MILLION AFGANISTAN PEOPLE have REGISTERED TO VOTE!???????????? NINE MILLION!!!!

Our Press did not report this to us.....OH NO...that is WONDERFUL NEWS.

SO OUR PRESIDENT HAD TO REPORT IT TO US.

Our Press reports NOTHING of the wonders going on in Afganistan and Iraq...if the news doesn't have death and blood in it...it does NOT GET REPORTED and I am SICK OF IT! Our tax dollars pay for this war and yet the news media have decided we do not deserve to hear of the successes. SCREW UM!!!! I dispise them!!!! ALl of them...when I see tom brokaw peter jennings or dan rather or katie colic, etc...I am just REPLUSED at their failure to do their jobs.

By way of what the press can do....Just as we know the Tet offensive in Vietnam was astoundingly successful, but one man, Walter Cronkrite, premiere body bag counter, stated it WAS A RESOUNDING FAILURE and in that one comment, coming from the 'most trusted man in America, ( whom we know know covorts with the kennedys on his yacht, is pro-homosexual marriage, detests conservatives, etc. etc.), shattered our resolve as a nation. Leanding his overt support to the anti-war cowards.

During that offensive, N. Vietnam lost over FIFTY THOUSAND MEN, more than we lost in the entire war effort there, and was about to go under....but the press, determined to make rather than report news, and determined to force their agenda....was able to change the course of a nation.

The same thing is happening now-only with a different angle. More liberal talking jerks are using innuendo and filtering the news to make Iraq seem like a failure when it is NOT, and, to the good, MORE CONSERVATIVE voices are being heard on Fox News Cable and talk radio and the internet.

Our PRESIDENT IS FIGHTING TWO WARS. That is TOOOO MUCH.

He is fighting terrorists who want to kill his nations citizens and he is FIGHTING LIARS in the press corp who are trying to undermine our effort to SMASH TERRORISTS into the ground.

I don't blame him for being mad.

HE needs to be....the press has gone to far...and it is DANGEROUS FOR ALL OF US.

I doubt President Bush is erratic. Staying the course and steadfastness is his strongest trait. Side by side with his faith in our Father. SInce bashing Iraq isn't working with the populace, it is time, ala klinton, to attack our President on a personal level, and his staying the course is the attack du jour.

I believe President BUsh is DECISIVE. This KILLS wishy washy 'please like me and please like America' liberals.

And I trust President Bush.

And I thank GOD he is our leader, as I believe most Americans do. And further, I believe he is LED BY HIS FAITH IN OUR FATHER. And I like that. A lot. When a man or woman is NOT LED BY THEIR FAITH, then they are led by the whims of the culture, driven by the need for popularity and willing to do anything to achieve their goals. God's commandments are unbeatable.

So Doug-as Teresa might say....SHOVE IT!

And a note to President Bush and his marvelous 'grown-up' team:

Since our mainstream media is not reporting the WONDERS going on in Iraq and Afganistan-tho they could, if I can get access to photos and comments of our ongoing efforts there from the Pentagon website, so can THEY, why don't you have our President ladle out the GOOD NEWS. Ignoring that would be genuinely difficult.

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