Posted on 11/08/2006 8:38:59 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
Hell starts today for President George W. Bush and all those who have chained themselves to his fortunes with more zeal than good sense.
At best, he can hope to scrape through to an inglorious end as focus switches to the comic spectacle of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pillar of San Francisco Left-liberalism. At worst, disgrace.
After snatching the House with the closest thing to a crushing mandate ever likely in a system biased in favour of the incumbents, the Democrats now have their hands on the investigative machinery of Capitol Hill.
They can hire lawyers and detectives; they can subpoena documents and compel witnesses to testify under oath; they can mount show trials - or indeed real trials - subjecting their enemies to torment under the glaring klieg lights of the world media.
This is a powerful weapon, as Bill Clinton learned when Newt Gringrich stormed the House in 1994, breaking the half-century stranglehold of the Democrats. Newt’s Republicans did not rest until they had impeached the president for perjury and abuse of office in the Paula Jones/Lewinsky saga - even if the meaker Senate later opted for acquittal.
It is an even more powerful weapon in the hands of the Democrats, who can broadly count on supporting fire from the Washington Post, New York Times, LA Times, Newsweek, Time, and the big three TV networks - mostly Beltway liberals by cultural instinct. It was this Congressional-media synergy that gave Watergate its extra bite, dooming Richard Nixon.
If the top echelons of the Bush administration have done anything wrong over the last six years in power, they can now expect to see every vile detail exposed in one of those menacing wood-pannelled chambers on the Hill.
This will happen just as the chickens of spendthrift economics, botched diplomacy, and military adventurism all come home to roost, in concert, and with a vengeance. If the elections were a referendum on Iraq, George Bush has plainly lost the argument.
This was already written into the cards once the Iraq search team had failed to find weapons of mass destruction. It became inevitable when the fall-back pretext - “liberating” Iraq - crumbled into civil war after the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samara.
Iraqi deaths are now running at 3,000 a month, according to the UN. America has shot its bolt, squandering its power of deterrence by attacking a country that posed a minimal threat.
Would Teheran now be cranking up its nuclear weapons programme and supplying Hizbollah with missiles if the US now had three aircraft battle groups and a few army corps deployed against it in the Persian Gulf? Hardly likely.
Indeed, a seriously rattled Iran came forward offering pre-emptive concessions in early 2003 when America was preparing its Iraq armada. The bitter truth for George Bush is that he has unleashed the very Axis of Evil he aimed to contain.
The Democrats will harry him to his political grave for this.
And all against the backdrop of a housing market crash, with the risk of recession in 2007 rising by the day.
The price of new homes was down 9.7pc in September from a year earlier, the worst fall since the slump of 1981. The US Federal Reserve now talks of “ghost towns” to describe the bust flattening the once red-hot markets of Arizona and Florida.
The army of estate agents, surveyors, builders, and the like, made up 55pc of the 2m jobs created by the US economy from 2000 to 2005. Cash withdrawn from home equity reached 6pc of GDP last year.
If you believe the US economy can hum along briskly for another two years as this prop is smashed away, I’ve got an ocean-front property in Arizona that I could sell you.
For better or worse, the perfect storm is gathering with malevolent intensity right above the Oval Office.
I remember in the mid-90s when the Clinton Administration revoked Evans-Pritchard's visa because his articles were highly critical of Uncle Bubba.
LOL....Ambrose....you don't understand "hell" do you?
...as focus switches to the comic spectacle of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, pillar of San Francisco Left-liberalism. At worst, disgrace.
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I have to give an "attaboy" to the Telegraph on this one. Right on boys.
Well, at least he can get his immigration plan through Congress now. :(
I like George Washington's take and believe his wisdom will also ultyimately apply:
"No country upon earth ever had it more in its power to attain blessings. Much to be regretted indeed would it be, were we to depart from the road which Providence has pointed us to, so plainly; I cannot believe it will ever come to pass. The Great Governor of the Universe has led us too long and too far to forsake us in the midst of it. We may, now and then, get bewildered; but I hope and trust that there is good sense and virtue enough left to recover the right path. " - George Washington
We are in one of those times when we have become "bewildered", but we will find our way and come through it stronger...albeit, I believe, at tremdous csot to wake us up.
Some good thoughts here, but man, that one's such a stretch you brace for it to snap.
That's silly.
After all the pain and struggle of the last 6 years, this isn't anywhere near hell. Sending men off to war is hell. Killing yourself to protect a somewhat ungrateful nation and world is hell.
As ironic as it sounds, that's why he lost.
It shouldn't be anything more than a challenge to the uniter.
How in hell could they have revoked his visa? He was a British citizen working for a major British newspaper.
We pray it won't be at the cost of 200,000 lives from a single improvised nuclear device.
Good job.
What's it called when you have to pay, and then get a bit smarter?
TUITION!
You deserve the Islamofascist hell that the UK is on its way to becoming, Ambrose. What if you screamed out to America for rescue and no Americans showed up?
Pres Bush may be a lame duck as soon as the new Congresscritters are sworn in, but he is already doing the right political things so he will have as much say as possible.
Bush dealt with a Democratic State House in Texas and flourished. He might actually be more in his element now.
He overlooks the fact that the US has enjoyed domestic peace ans prosperity inder W, unlike the UK.
Just more proof that no matter how long a non-native born person lives and works here, they'll never truly understand all the intricacies of the American political system.
"How in hell could they have revoked his visa? He was a British citizen working for a major British newspaper."
***
I believe he had a work-related visa because he lived in this country for a long time while working as a Brit journalist. I read his comments on it several years ago after the incident, but I'd have to do some digging to get the details.
He has been in Hell since he got into office(Dems controlled it then) recession... then 9/11 then the Hurricanes..
"If the elections were a referendum on Iraq, Bush has clearly lost the argument."
Huh? This is a non-sequitor. The outcome of a referendum is irrelevant to the question of whether the argument is correct. Its no secret that the war has been unpopular for sometime now. Does this mean that the argument in favor of it is flawed? No way.
Sure. But it will not stop there. Hamas has already called for all muslims to attack Americans everywhere. Perhaps you were speaking tongue in cheek, but this country is in for some serious injury well beyond the White House lawn.
We weathered eight years of Clinton. Two years of Pelosi is a cake walk - especially if the moonbats turn on her when she doesn't try to stab Bush in the eye with her pen when they meet for lunch.
No Child Left Behind
Prescription Drug Coverage
Runaway Spending
Open Borders
Excepting the War On Terror, Bush now has an amendable Congress.
You can put whatever happy face you want on this but let's get real. The fact is, this was a self-inflicted wound. For the most part, the Pubs proved, when it comes to governing, they have NO stones. I'm not sure this loss will awaken them either.
Some day you'll see that you could have had a good immigration policy if only you had been agreeable to SOMETHING, ANYTHING, other than "send them all home."
At least he tried. Never good enough for you purist though.
Reap what you sew, and all that.
Oh please, immigration was a small blip on the radar this election cycle. If anything, being a hardline on immigration was a net loss for the GOP, especially with the Hispanic vote. The robust economy made it a moot point. Now if there is an economic downturn (a real one, and not an MSM concoction) then I can see immigration becoming a bigger issue, but it sure wasn't this time around.
Don't try to bring facts into this trashing, my friend. :-)
Which will either be (1) Not much, or (2) complicit with dems anyway, as in open borders and trilateral agreements, PC treatment of islamists..name it. It's coming. Fast and furious.
We'll be lucky if we get number (1).
You ain't seen nothin' yet, queen of the cut and run.
This is a huge opportunity for Republicans and 08'. They need to be aggressive on defense and expose the liberals hiding behind their "new tone".
If I was the author, sitting in Great Britain, I don't think I'd be taking any satisfaction in what happened over here. The Islamofascists are closer to him than me. And Democrats have a long tradition of abandoning alies. Remember 'Nam? The Shah?
And thus the conservative base cuts off it's nose to spite it's face. Good job! Tell them what they've won! A liberal controlled congress with even more republicans heading toward the left.
Anything that includes any form of amnesty is a bad immigration policy. We tried that once and we got the flood we have now.
We need to secure the borders, but the Administration won't do any more than it's already doing on that now. And we need to crack down on employers who employ illegals and begin deportation of as many as possible. At the saem time, we need to reduce the ridiculously bureaucratic procedures that you have to go through to come here legally and review our immigration quotas. But we can't be rewarding illegal behavior unless we want more of that illegal behavior. The Dimmycraps clearly do want more of it.
I guess this is to be expected. After all the Republicans brought this purge on themselves. You just can't condone crooks and sexual misfits in your midst without turning the public against you. Congress-critters never learn.
Having seen the value of the various predictions in the past weeks, I would not even try to guess what the Pres will do besides continue what he has been doing.
They are not as stupid as this Euro typist.
As if anybody in America outside of the moonbat fringe wants to face years of partisan second-guessing and circular snipe hunts. The Democrats know that this would be a recipe for a guaranteed exit after two short years.
The Clintons, especially, want no part of this sort of stupidity. The are shopping for a big white house in two years.
The world is bigger than Texas. Bush was Governor pre 9-11 as well. Bush's new tone is obviously falling on deaf ears around the rest of the country. And it has since he's been elected.
Bush has bent over backwards being nice to the socialists dems. Where has it gotten us? Nowhere. Because democrats are evil. They do not listen to the righteous.
Yep.
As goes America so goes the world.
I think what threw Bush off was the resistance from within his own party. At least with the Rats he knows what he's dealing with.
A different situation with very different dims but the way he did it was to embrace anything they did and claim it for his own.
And just to remind you, even the Sainted Ronald Reagan made deals with Tip O'Neill.
Pritchard made his bones with me in his book " The Secret Life Of Bill Clinton". That said, Ambrose,exactly what did Bush do wrong ? Tell the truth ? Attack those who killed and want more killing ? Ambrose,you know the answer to that.
Next, history's review of two term presidents at the final's stage midterm elections. Ambrose you too know that.
You also know the solidity between Bush and Tony Blair and you know why. You even wrote your agreement of why.
More: Your pile on tactic of mentioning the housing market.
You know the previous value run up was justified and the bottom of that effort is finding herself. You know that Ambrose,yet you threw that like an intended dart of distruction.
To conclude.....Pritchard's difinitive quack quack of the obvious didn't look as deep as was offered into the crystal ball.No Pritchard couldn't find a Coca Cola in his fridge but was too lazy to look behind the maynoise.
America is about to find out what socialism means and what marxism means and why the democrats and her siblings the unelectable drive by media never told you. You are gonna puke in revile disdain. That is a fact and needed necessary consequence of willingly not looking deeper in that crystal ball so eagerly offered. These next two years are gonna slap America and the world in the face like a coming to Jesus meeting for real.
...you knew that too Ambrose.
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