What's the plan now, George?

As you probably know by now, former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has released a book called "The Price of Loyalty", in which he calls Bush a "blind man in a room full of deaf people".

I particularly love his account of a "Crisis Meeting" on the weekend after September 11. As reported by the SMH, while O'Neill sat poring over CIA documents detailing plans for regime change across the globe:

"The President had gone to bed. Across the room, the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was singing hymns, accompanied on the piano by the Christian fundamentalist Attorney-General, John Ashcroft."

Or how about his quote from VP Dick Cheney: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."

One thing is for sure: O'Neill is a rich-ass imbecile, just like Bush. He was a huge embarrassment to the Bush administration and nobody was sorry to see him leave. But that doesn't mean that what he said in the book is not true, even if he is now furiously back-pedalling under who-knows-what kind of pressure.

O'Neill now says, like his former boss and other administration apologists, that Bush was only following Clinton's example in preparing plans to remove Saddam. But that's another Bush lie. Another administration insider told ABCNews that Bush started planning for a military invasion, where as Clinton had only ever sought to assist an overthrow of the regime.

For anyone who thinks Bush is really a fine leader who knows what's going on, just read this account of his current visit to Mexico for the "Summit of the Americas":

'The early-rising president can get crabby and punchy if he doesn't hit the pillow by 10 or so at night... (Bush) sounded tired and bored at the few public appearances during his 28-hour visit. His remarks had unusually long pauses. Cutaway television shots captured Bush glowering into space as other heads of state talked about "economic growth with equity to reduce poverty," "investing in people" and "democratic governance." '

Yeah, that's a leader in control of policy, alright. Consider O'Neill's account of Bush's bewilderment when his advisors targetted the wealthiest Americans for a second round of tax cuts:

"Didn't we already give them a break at the top?" asked Dubya.

More bad news for Bush: a US Army College report slamming the illegal US invasion of Iraq as an unfocussed "strategic error" which has over-stretched the US army and actually increased the risk of terrorist attacks on US soil.

Meanwhile, back in Baghdad, Bremer now admits that his plans for (ahem!) "elections" are in chaos.
"We are looking for a method that will be both legitimate and transparent but also meet the timeline, and I'm sure we will find one," Mr Bremer told Fox News.

Shia cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani represents 60% of the Iraqi population. If he is not happy with Bremer's plans to fashion a malleable US puppet government, it's not going to happen. Where does that leave Bush, with an election looming? Either facing more violence and troop casualties as the Iraqi vote gets delayed further and further, even beyond the US November elections, or setting up an un-workable puppet government which will almost certainly lead to ethnic division and civil war.

Al-Sistani wants REAL elections because he knows the Shia's, who were persecuted by Saddam's Sunni minority, will have 60% of the vote. Other ethnic and religious groups are not keen on that idea. The Kurds in the north are already virtually guaranteed an autonomous state, if not a fully independent one. And violence is on the rise in the south, which was once considered a model area for media photo opportunities.

What's the plan now, George? Do you really think we can distract the nation by talking about trips to Mars and the sanctity of marriage?