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for FEBRUARY 2000... |
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... Politex's |
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for FEBRUARY 2000... |
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In more general terms, he's been described as lacking in gravitas, arrogant, lightweight, smug, insincere, callow, inexperienced, and a tool of both the establishment and the special interest groups that have financed his campaign. On the other hand, he's always been thought of as a good campaigner because he stays on message, but isn't that really a positive way of saying he can't think on his feet? To do so with conviction demands a wider range of experience and a deeper knowledge than Bush has. Then there's the problem of the Bush ego and his short temper that he has been seen to exhibit for hecklers in the crowd, members of the press, and inner sanctum aides. Bush has often said that he thought he did fine in his early debates, although many Bush backers do not agree. His ego is such that he is often blind to faults and mistakes that are obvious to others. This is not good for a man who wants to be President of the United States. During the Christmas break the Bush media people made up a tape of his debate behavior and gave it to him without comment. From the reports in the press, the impression was left that Bush's advisors are fearful of his reactions and are reluctant to point out his failings to him. Since then, his performance has improved somewhat, but he still tells the press that he thought his early debates were just fine. In light of the New Hampshire debacle, we wonder how long it will take for the reasons for that loss to get from the body to the head, from the aides to the candidate. Take his use of establishment icons, for example. Yesterday, a "prominent" Bush backer was quoted in the NYT as complaining, "They trotted out the icons of the Republican past." We know from exit poll interviews that some who voted against Bush did so because of a perception that Dubya used the live props of politicians such as Jack Kemp, John Sununu, and Poppy Bush to take the place of straight talk at Town Meetings. Naturally, Bush missed all of this when asked to comment: "If people expect me to distance myself from my family," he said, "they've got the wrong candidate. My family is part of me." That's not the point, George. So what does Dubya do yesterday? He brings out Dan "The Mouthpiece" Quayle to back him. Some voters are bound to see this pair together as a kind of political roadshow version of the Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniel's film hit, "Dumb and Dumber." Picking up on a Bush theme that hasn't been used in months, indicating how far out of the loop Quayle is, he said, "We know that we have prosperity today, but let us be very clear that prosperity without values is no prosperity at all. Governor Bush has the values to be president of the United States." Quayle ought to know about presidential values, once having said he was Robin to Poppy's Batman. And here's an earlier comment by Quayle on Daddy Bush's supply side economics that Junior says he will also practice: "Ever heard of [the] theory of 'trickle down?' That's ridiculous. We're talking about trickling up. We're talking about climbing up the ladder." In Dan's world, perhaps liquids can run uphill. In short, not only is Bush continuing one of his New Hampshire errors by using a GOP establishment prop, his selection of Quayle as his first spokesperson can only remind voters of his own verbal misadventures. For example, here's an under-reported one Bush uttered last weekend in New Hampshire-- "I think we need not only to eliminate the tollbooth to the middle class, I think we should knock down the tollbooth." And while we're at it, let's tear up the highway ! Here's another-- at a campaign stop Bush proposed "a law that provides liability to teachers who enforce discipline in the schools." Bad teachers ! Two other mistakes that we think Bush made yesterday in his South Carolina campaign is resorting to a negative attack ad against McCain and holding a campaign rally at a venue that some might label racist. The Boston Globe concluded that "the hard edge to the ad was most evident in two unflattering pictures of McCain side-by-side, with the announcer's voice declaring, 'Saying one thing and doing another - that's the real John McCain.'" Yesterday, Bush spoke to thousands at fundamentalist Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., and the AP reminded its readers that "the Christian university lost its tax-exempt status in the 1970s for refusing to admit blacks. It now accepts black students but still bans interracial dating." --Politex, 2/3/00 ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, FIGHTING FOR GEORGE BUSH...
"While many regard the Nation of Islam to be an anti-Semitic group, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush recently had some kind words for the followers of the group's leader, Louis Farrakhan. When asked by the Fox network's Tony Snow on Sunday if the Nation of Islam is a faith-based organization, Bush said, 'I think it is. I think it's based upon some universal principles,' such as 'love your neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself.' Bush said that those in the group who accept that notion have their hearts 'set right to help a neighbor in need.' 'If the principles that he's speaking about are hatred, anti-Semitism and fear and loathing of others, then he is right,' said Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council. 'But if he means anything else, he clearly does not understand the first thing about the Nation of Islam.'" "....Bush has pledged to funnel $8 billion in public funds into faith-based organizations and set up an office at the White House to deal with the issue....Bush has not spoken about maintaining safeguards in the manner of Gore and Bradley, saying religion is fundamental to the success of the programs." --Michael Shapira JTA, 2/3/00 Bush has previously "suggested that a program's roots in a church, synagogue or mosque should not disqualify it from public money, even if religious obligations are imposed on those it helps." Austin Statesman-American, 8/28/99
This Just In... This morning the New York Times' Maureen Dowd gave Bush Watch's Politex a new name, "The Press." Pretending to be the inner voice of George W. Bush, she writes, "I posed with Quayle even though we knew the press would caption it 'Dumb and Dumber.'" Please send us other examples as you find them, Bush Watch readers, but even though the "Dumb and Dumber" idea is pretty obvious and others must have said it, to the best of our knowledge the member of the press who actually wrote it is Bush Watch's own Politex. On Feb. 3 he wrote, "So what does Dubya do yesterday? He brings out Dan "The Mouthpiece" Quayle to back him. Some voters are bound to see this pair together as a kind of political roadshow version of the Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniel's film hit, 'Dumb and Dumber.' (see below) When contacted in Austin early this morning, Politex was busily working, not hiding under a pillow, which Dowd reports Bush as doing a few scant miles from Bush Watch central. Told of Dowd's renaming of Politex, he said, "It's an honor to be given a special moniker by a woman whose wit we've admired lo these many years. While I'll still sign my work 'Politex,' I have no problems with others calling me 'The Press,' now that Dowd has clarified the term." --Bill Brasin, 2/6/00 More from Dowd's Dubya... "I'm dog tired. This dog won't hunt. I ain't got no dog in this fight. Snoop Doggy Doggonit! I miss my routine. I miss coming down in the morning and feeding my cats...I miss walking my dog. I miss my jogging. I miss my girls. I miss my down time. I miss my down comforter....How did I get into this thing anyhow? I'm not consumed by ambition....I'm not even sure, deep down, that I would make a better president than John Wayne McCain. I'm turned inside-out: Am I the insider's outsider or is he the outsider's insider? Where are my Topsiders?... Nobody likes me....Mom and Dad always liked Jeb better. Let him run. See if I care." --NYT 2/6/00
Talkin' 'bout Texas justice? "Elisabeth Semel heads an American Bar Association project that focuses on legal representation for people facing the death penalty....Ms. Semel used a boxing analogy to describe the disparity in resources and experience between prosecutors and defense lawyers in most death penalty cases. 'It's like a match between Mike Tyson and Martin Short,' she said, 'and the referee -- the judge -- is on Tyson's payroll.'" --NYT, 2/5/00
Suddenly, reports the Houston Press, when "six cheerleaders and a makeshift marching band came prancing around the corner belting out 'When the Saints Come Marching In,' it was clear that number 117 was not routine. In pigtails, letter sweaters and red-pleated skirts, the fresh-faced drill team chanted, "We are Texas" and "Go, George, Go." As the antis struggled to maintain their circle vigil, the pros turned into fans at a football game." Here is what they shouted:
"Fire up, fire up
Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar
P, P-O, P-O-W-E-R The pros were saying, "We didn't do this !"
Execute, execute, sis, boom, bah
Florida oranges, Texas cactus
Kill 'em to the left The antis were saying, "We didn't do this !"
We're number one, can't be number two
Texas is good, Texas is great
George, George, he's our man
Who's the best on the killing scene? A nearby scoreboard read, "George 117--Jeb 2."
Gimme a "D"
Pardons are for wimps! A member of the group was heard to say, "Desperate times call for desperate measures."
Nah, nah, nah, nah
Who did it? (Click here.) Hint. He got Alan Keyes to jump into a mosh pit.
Further Reading:
by Bill Brasin BUSH SEES MCCAIN'S SHADOW: SIX MORE WEEKS OF PRIMARIES. A gathering of citizens and out-of-state visitors as well as crews of international reporters watched as George W. Bush stepped outside into the South Carolina sunshine early this morning, looked at the shadow in front of him, and shouted, "It's McCain!" amidst groans from the members of his campaign team. It was previously determined that if Bush saw the shadow of Republican rival John McCain in his path on the morning of the second day of February, he would have to wait at least six more weeks before even thinking about the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Karl Rove, Bush's political guru, said, "It's something unusual, something you can say you did once." It was not immediately clear whether Rove was talking about his viewing of the Bush Hog Day event or the Texas Governor's landslide loss yesterday in New Hampshire. (www.bushwatch.com)
It's those trees! Houston has become "a world-class Shit City, the most polluted in the United State....Trying to put the best possible spin on a grim situation, Governor George W. Bush and his mouthpieces...have announced "historic" and "aggressive" measures to reverse the trend that has catapulted Houston past smog-bound Los Angeles....Estimates of emissions from vehicles and "biogenic" sources (trees, for example) have been too high; those for industry have been too low." Some have estimated that the tools used to estimate industrial pollution, developed in 1926, are up to 1,000 % inaccurate. "The state of Texas, always cozy with Big Oil, won't be demanding accurate data anytime soon....Exxon-Mobil executive Jeffrey Siegell, who sits on a federal panel that addresses environmental management issues in the petrochemical industry,... [wrote] 'Any improvements in the prediction of [storage tank emissions] would still need to result in the same actual emissions.' [sic]... The likelihood that industry will voluntarily hack its emissions by 90 percent, for example, is slim. Bush is too dependent on campaign contributions from industry (he has already raised millions from Texas polluters) to start pissing them off with pricey demands....[A Sierra Club representative] sees no evidence of change, which may solidify Houston's position as Shit City well into the next century. 'That's their strategy,' he says. 'They're gonna get Bush in the White House, and they're gonna try and gut the Clean Air Act.'" --Bob Burtman
The New Yorker, Jan. 31 A profile portrays George W. Bush as a man driven by the desire to avenge his father and to best the intellectual elite who bugged him in college. Bush is the last of the silver-spooners, born to privilege before meritocracy ended easy access to elite universities and golden-ring jobs. "He'll come to the presidency with a lighter résumé than anybody has in at least a hundred years." --Slate Revenge of the Bush Dynasty A new book by George magazine executive editor Elizabeth Mitchell. With Poppy's career as background, covers Junior from birth in 1946 up to his Texas gubernatorial race against Ann Richards in 1994. A short, sketchy final chapter covers the years since. The "revenge" in the title has to do with Junior's desire to get even with Clinton's defeat of Poppy by defeating Clinton's surrogate. Unlike the revised Hatfield Dubya biography, this book has end notes connecting specific pages and quotes to documented sources.--Politex Tim Russert asked Bush who on the Supreme Court he most admired. "Scalia," said Bush promptly. And after a second's thought, "and Clarence Thomas." He sure can pick 'em. If you are a heavy-duty right-winger, as opposed to the moderate, compassionate conservative, Scalia is a good pick. First-rate mind, hideous politics. But no one covering the Court, regardless of politics, has ever chosen Clarence Thomas as a standout. The best I've ever seen written about him, by people who consider Scalia a great Justice, is that he's adequate. Everyone else, including those of no noticeable ideological persuasion, considers "adequate" far too kind....Thomas, of course, was W.'s daddy's pick. W. does have a daddy problem. Pretty much the entire record of his life is daddy, but it's not his fault. His name is not George W. Smith: What the hell was he supposed to do? Be a big enough fool to throw it all away? Nevertheless, it does sometimes trap him into ridiculous positions.--Molly Ivins
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Bush "is suddenly fashioning himself a savior of the Bible belt. Arriving in Greenville, he was greeted by 5,000 Christian students at Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist institution that bars interracial dating and bans visits by gay alumni. Bush and his wife, Laura, were introduced as “sweet spirits who love the Lord.” The Bush Team will work the upstate Bible belt the old-fashioned way: with radio and direct mail. In one radio ad, Newsweek has learned, the Bush campaign will say that the McCain tax plan will adversely affect charitable deductions — in other words, the financial health of your local church." --
