An imaginary place in a reactionary time

From Capitol Hill Blue

Bush Leagues
Sullen, Depressed President Retreats Into Private, Paranoid World
By TERESA HAMPTON & WILLIAM D. McTAVISH
Capitol Hill Blue Staff
Jul 29, 2004, 09:08

A sullen President George W. Bush is withdrawing more and more from aides and senior staff, retreating into a private, paranoid world where only the ardent loyalists are welcome.

Cabinet officials, senior White House aides and leaders on Capitol Hill complain privately about the increasing lack of ?face time? with the President and campaign advisors are worried the depressed President may not be up to the rigors of a tough re-election campaign.

?Yes, there are concerns,? a top Republican political advisor admitted privately Wednesday. ?The George W. Bush we see today is not the same, gregarious, back-slapping President of old. He?s moody, distrustful and withdrawn.?

Bush Walks Alone
Bush?s erratic behavior and sharp mood swings led White House physician Col. Richard J. Tubb to put the President on powerful anti-depressant drugs after he stormed off stage rather than answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay, but White House insiders say the strong, prescription medications seem to increase Bush?s sullen behavior towards those around him.

?This is a President known for his ability to charm people one-on-one,? says a staff member to House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert. ?Not any more.?

White House aides say Bush has retreated into a tightly-controlled environment where only top political advisors like Karl Rove and Karen Hughes are allowed. Even White House chief of staff Andrew Card complains he has less and less access to the President.

Among cabinet members, only Attorney General John Ashcroft, a fundamentalist who shares many of Bush?s strict religious convictions, remains part of the inner circle. White House aides call Bush and Ashcroft the ?Blue Brothers? because, like the mythical movie characters, ?both believe they are on a mission from God.?

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, the man most responsible for waging America?s war on terrorism, complains to staff that he gets very little time with the President and gets most of his marching orders lately from Ashcroft. Some on Ridge?s staff gripe privately that Ashcroft is ?Bush?s Himmler,? a reference to Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the SS (the German Police) under Adolph Hitler.

?Too many make the mistake of thinking Dick Cheney is the real power in the Bush administration,? says one senior Homeland Security aide. ?They?re wrong. It?s Ashcroft and that is reason enough for all of us to be very, very afraid.?

While Vice President Cheney remains part of Bush?s tight, inner circle, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has fallen out of favor and tells his staff that ?no matter what happens in November, I?m outta here.?

White House aides say the West Wing has been overtaken by a ?siege mentality,? where phone calls and emails are monitored and everyone is under suspicion for ?disloyalty to the crown.?

?I was questioned about an email I sent out on my personal email account from home,? says one staffer. ?When I asked how they got access to my personal email account, I was told that when I came to work at the White House I gave up any rights to privacy.?

Another staffer was questioned on why she once dated a registered Democrat.

?He voted for Bush in 2000,? she said, ?but that didn?t seem to matter. Mary Matalin is married to James Carville and that?s all right but suddenly my loyalty is questioned because a former boyfriend was a Democrat?? Matalin, a Republican political operative and advisor to the Bush campaign, is the wife of former Bill Clinton political strategist James Carville.

Psychiatrists say the increasing paranoia at the White House is symptomatic of Bush?s ?paranoid, delusional personality.?

Dr. Justin Frank, a prominent Washington psychiatrist and author of the book, Bush on the Couch, Inside the Mind of the President, says the President suffers from ?character pathology,? including ?grandiosity? and ?megalomania? ? viewing himself, America and God as interchangeable.

Dr. Frank also concludes that Bush?s years of heavy drinking ?may have affected his brain function ? and his decision to quit drinking without the help of a 12-step programs puts him at a far higher risk of relapse.?

Whatever the cause for the President?s increasing paranoia and delusions, veteran White House watchers see a strong parallel with another Republican president from 30 years ago.

?From what people who work there now tell me, this White House looks more and more like the White House of Richard M. Nixon,? says retired political science professor George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon White House. ?It may be 2004 but it is starting to seem more like 1974 (the year Nixon resigned in disgrace).?

© Copyright 2004 Capitol Hill Blue

ABA Condemns Torture, Urges U.S. to Comply with Law

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5915866

If those evil lawayers are condemning it, our Commander in Chief must be doing something right.

Lets hope Capitol hill blue is true.

Although Dr. Fank is full of it. 12 step groups are less effective than most other treatment modalities including a return to moderate drinking. And the rest of what he said sounded hysterical.

Capitol hill Blue is a weird little web site run by a former low level republican hack. It makes grandiose claims of being the oldest news and or political news website, despite having been beaten to the punch by both Yahoo and NANDO (news and observer). They seem to get a lot of things wrong--referring to the SS as the german police, for instance, and presenting opinions as facts.

for instance if a cabinet level official starts getting his orders from another cabinet level official, he usually resigns and has a media tell all festival. You don't fuck your way to the top to bossed around by someone other then your boss--this has happened twice before in the Bush admin. So i doubt the comments about the head of homeland security are true.

likewise, while it's demonstrable that ashcroft is a true believer, it isn't that bush is. he doesn't go to church, only knows one bible quote, nor was he in horror of his kids under age drinking or attempt to reign them in like a good bible thumper.

sounds like misdirection or wishful thinking.

any web site that started in 1994 (clinton bashing takes off for fun and profit) and can't remember why it's called what it's called (Capitol Hill Blue not blues, as in blue movie, i am curious (blue) and blue nose) and is run by a republican flack unser the auspices of his self financed save america foundation is suspect to say the least. and it's run on MS software.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/faq.asp

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/dtbio.asp

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Years after the administration lawyers decided it was ok, months after the story breaks, weeks after the army investigation whitewashes it under the rug, and days into lyndie's court martial (which is more about her sex life) the ABA gets off it's ass and says torture is bad, and you outta comply with the law.

I'm gonna get down on my hands and knees and thank those fucking lawyers for protecting those poor guys at abu ghraib, they did such a great job.

I'll bet they'll do as good a job protecting our civil liberties.

Boy that organization that represents computer workers sure is a hotbed of justice. Is there even one are they all thinking of better ways of spying on you.

If it's run by a Republican hack, that's all the more reson to credit it.

It was lawyers who ended the "enemy combatant" designate. The Executive and Legislative Branches were happy to kick along, and allow it.

Aside from a few idiot Professors (i.e., the only type of lawyer Ffej pays any attention to,) no lawyer of repute, and no professional organization, spoke in favor of torture. The ABA, the organization for country-club lawyer, has condemned the Bush Administration's torture policy, officially.

So it's all our fault because we didn't condemn it before we knew it was happenning.

Not the fault of the Executive Branc, which did it. Not the fault of the Legislative Branch, which looked the other way. Not the fault of the Geeks, or their country-club trade association, which has yet to condemn it.

Like I said before, its all the fault of the lawyers.

Yes it is.

I already posted the letters from the lawyers telling them they could torture.

I'm sorry you forgot about that.

I'm sorry you haven't come to terms with the fact that there are bad lawyers, inept lawyers and evil lawyers.

Get over it.

You don't get to exercise your persecution complex until you wake up a black single mother. or latino. or jewish. or physically/mentally handicapped. or in guantanamo or abu ghraib.

I didn't forget anything. They weren't letters, they were memoranda (much worse) and, although they were written quite some time ago, they were publicly released only recently (the most damning, to Gonzalez, was leaked, not released.)

And the ABA condemned it at the very next meeting of their House of Delegates, yesterday.

No, I know full well that there are plenty of lawyers who are evil, stupid, and inept (Gonzales and the other people around Bush being the worst examples.)

But, as the facts above demonstrate, you just love to scapegoat lawyers for every problem in the world. In so doing, you are following George Bush's agenda.

BTW, have you contacted your Congressman, or Senators, on the INDUCE Bill? Or will you limit your activities to blogging, and blaming the lawyers after it becomes law?

Congress passes bad laws because voters don't hold them accountable. Don't expect the Courts to clean up the mess which results from voter apathy.Courts, as a matter of policy, usually defer to the elected branches of government.