Gray Clouds Above

George Bush is a lightweight! Wild Bill’s not saying that; George Will, Joe Scarborough, and a host of other conservative pundits are chucking the poor lad overboard even before half his second term is up. These right wing mavens are flat out saying that he’s simply not up to the job and can’t compare intellectually with his predecessors of living memory. Quack, Quack!

It takes a strong constitution to stand in the face of a hurricane and spit into the raging wind that Iraq’s not in a civil war. George plants his feet and lets go but you might wish to re-read the paragraph above to see why he’s getting the blowback. The Washington Post Outlook Section in today’s paper pulls no punches; Iraq’s factions are in a deadly struggle that we have little power to stop. Even the neocons are beginning to admit it; as if we didn't know. Is it time for an exit strategy from the right?

The old bull elephant is badly hurt and the hyenas of his own party have him surrounded and are tearing the flesh away pound by pound. Do you suppose he wishes he’d been on the wrong end of that Supreme Court decision in 2000?

Joe Lieberman has a big lead in the Connecticut senatorial race. The Republicans are dropping their own candidate and backing Joe. Initially, it looks like a cake walk for him, but I think Lamont will win going away. Those Democrats who stuck with Joe in the primary – mostly reluctantly – will drop him like a hot spud, and the independents and moderate Republicans who don’t like what they see in Iraq will drift toward Lamont or stay home. Joe’s icing a very stale cake, but there’s still time for him to come to his senses.

George Allen also had a bad week. He may (may) still win his senate seat in November, but he’s going straight to jail without passing go as a candidate to succeed his buddy, George Bush in 2008. He joins Mel Gibson in the wishes he hadn’t said that department.

A genius in another arena has feet of clay that seems to be metastasizing up his spinal column. Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein, the boy wonder who brought Bean Town its first World series Championship in eighty-four years, watched forlornly as the Sox caved three times (so far) before the mighty New Yorkers right in Friendly Fenway. The Knights of the Keyboard dropped their adoring façade and gave Theo a resounding Bronx cheer. He had walked away from Boston early in the year but was lured back. Sorry about that, Theo.

And you think you’ve got it rough.

Blog on!

Wild Bill