Great Power, No Responsibility

Robert Rouse at the American Chronicle says the Bush machine is crumbling:

Sen. John McCain is blasting away at Bush's spending compotation . . . Sen. Chuck Hagel is telling everyone who will listen that the President has a distorted view of reality, especially when it comes to the war in Iraq . . . Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo doesn't think Bush is doing enough to stem the tide of illegal immigration . . . Sen. Sam Brownback is shepherding the Republican opposition to Harriet Miers nomination for SCOTUS . . . Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is angry about Bush's proposal for the Defense Department to handle natural disasters. The way these GOP mainstays are acting, an outsider might believe Bush was in a different political party . . . and perhaps he is. Although Bush didn't really have anything to do with Tom DeLay's problems, many insiders are linking the two because of DeLay's unabashed loyalty to the President.

You can count the number of candidates for the 2006 election who are asking for Bush's help on . . . well, it doesn't take that many fingers. For the first time since he took office in 2001, Bush is seen as a liability. Many are worried that it may be too late to turn the tide . . . even for candidates who are already distancing themselves from Bush...

Bush, like Reagan before him, came into the Presidency as a Beltway outsider. But unlike Reagan, Bush used the power of his office to push his own agenda . . . one which to many Republicans, now looks like the work of someone who knows how to work the system for his own ends . . . and not for the betterment of his party or the country. Bush's use of cronyism and powerful corporations seems more inline with someone whose sole goal was money. Money for the FOB . . . Friends of Bush. Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton is making billions from the Iraqi war and stands to make billions more in the rebuilding of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.