Bush Fiddles As Rome Burns
Bush has, finally, succumbed to the inevitable and let a member of his staff go. Andrew Card has become the man to fall on his sword as Bush eventually gave in to calls from Republicans that the administration, in the wake of disasters such as Katrina and the ongoing Iraq war, needed an input of fresh blood.
The whole thing carries the whiff of "too little too late", as there is no fresh blood to replace Card, who's role will be filled by the administration's budget director, Josh Bolten.
This spectacular lack of inititive and imagination has become indicitive of the second Bush administration, a group of people who seem to have replaced traditional American administration priorities, such an intellect, with arrogance and posturing.
With Bush's popularity in the polls almost in freefall, it's very hard not to see this as an admission of defeat - rather than as the staking of a new claim to legitimacy.
For Bush to have done the latter would have required him to go against all of the instincts that have served him so badly. He would have had to replace his love of loyalty with a more rational appreciation of reality.
He would have had to ask himself why his poll numbers are falling at such a disturbing rate. Any honest review of this situation would lead him to one word. IRAQ.
And the man overseeing his Iraq policy, the man that even arch Republicans are now calling for to be fired, is Donald Rumsfeld.
It would take great courage, and even the hint of an admission of defeat, for Bush to replace such a senior figure at this critical juncture.
The fact that he could not bring himself to do so, defines Bush's presidency.
All swagger and no sense.
In this latest act of rearranging the tables as the Titanic sinks, Bush confirms himself as a modern Nero, fiddling as Rome burns.
Related Articles:
White House chief-of-staff quits as Bush's approval ratings dive
Fresh Blood? From The Nation.
The Soon-To-Be-Forgotten Andrew Card
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