A Bad Day at the Office

04/16/2007

Paul Munnis


Friday the 13th is reputed to be an unlucky day but for G.W. Bush, Monday, April 16, was a really bad luck day.

It started with Congress returning from their Easter break loaded down with input from constituents who are demanding an end to the Iraq War. Chaney predicted the Congress would pass a clean Military Spending Bill but that is not what the members of Congress think. It looks like another lie from Chaney.

Then he got reports that violence in Iraq is rising and not dropping. John Edwards said the bombing in the green zone and the killing of the Iraqi Parliament members was proof that his surge strategy was a bust. All weekend people were saying the same thing but making their analogies over the bombing of the Baghdad bridges and the surge in sectarian killings.

Over breakfast Mr. Bush learned that a former Justice Department employee has fingered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who will try to defend himself tomorrow. The Senators are in a mood to fire Mr. Gonzales.

For lunch Bush learned that Congressional Conservatives are calling for Gonzales to resign; this in spite of the Bush call for Gonzales to stay on.

In between he learned that al Sadr is pulling his six seats out of the Iraqi Parliament and quitting the Iraqi government. That means that the Mahdi Army that he controls is about to lock and load. It also puts what’s left of the Iraqi government on the ragged edge of collapse.

About the time Mr. Bush reached for the antacid tabs somebody gave him a speech to use to decry the Democrats determination to end the War in Iraq. He no sooner gave that speech than Sen. Harry Reid unloaded on him saying he was bad for our troops and bad for our nation. Mr. Bush is supposed to meet soon with Democrats for an exchange and the tone looks ominous for any serious breakthroughs to happen.

Lee Iacocca has also unloaded on him demanding that he be given the boot from office. He is just one of many high profile people who are calling for Mr. Bush and Mr. Chaney to resign.

The 10am coffee brought news of more disintegration within the GOP Party.

Then there was news of the awful killings in Virginia. He had to respond to the parents of the dead children and speak the nation over that tragedy.

Wolfowitz is demanding Presidential support to keep his World Bank Presidency and Bush gave it tot him; now Ecuador said that if Bush didn’t get Wolfowitz to resign then he’d boot them out of Ecuador. The fear was this could start a landslide and then bring the World Bank down.


And his day is only half over and he has so much on his plate that just prioritizing it all is a migraine maker.

What is happening is that his Administration is falling apart, he has lost the confidence of the ordinary people, his Party, and the nation, and he is balancing on the knife edge of multiple disasters. Soon he will resign.

In the meantime Mr. Bush may be taking inspiration from the Boston Marathon runners who went out and performed despite record breaking bad weather. He is doing the same – just moving on as best as he can in the face of a violent storm of protest over his leadership and governance. He is not likely to win any trophies but he could manage to at least finish a tough marathon event.