A former colleague once told me of a theory he heard about President George W. Bush. That theory was that perhaps Bush’s religious beliefs had led him to start the war in Iraq in order to hasten the apocalypse and, thus, the return of Christ. While it would not surprise me that some hold the view that should happen, I just couldn’t see GW harboring such a belief. But that was then and this is now.
It seems like every day another piece of the White House comes flying off in what seems like a never-ending s**tstorm surrounding George W. Bush. He reminds me of the “Peanuts” character Pigpen, except turmoil and potential disaster hovers around Bush instead of grime.
The latest revelations include Bush’s declassifying of intelligence documents which may have set the stage for outing undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Scooter Libby, formerly the vice president’s chief of staff, stands indicted in connection with this outing. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has filed documents that indicate what has been repeatedly conjectured in the media, which is that the purposeful leaks from those intelligence documents were used for political purposes to get back at war critic Amb. Joe Wilson, Plame’s husband.
Then there is Seymour Hersh’s story in “The New Yorker” that says the Bush administration, over the objections of Pentagon leaders, has a war plan for Iran that includes deploying nuclear bunker-busting bombs.
Combine all of that with invading Iraq on shaky premises as well as allowing the government to spy on its own citizens without a warrant and you have one scary-ass goober in the White House.
Many pundits say the mid-term congressional elections will be a referendum on the Iraq war. Perhaps it should be a referendum on whether the congressional member seeking office has the spine to vote on articles of impeachment should they be drawn up. I still say impeachment of Bush sounds far-fetched. It’s just not as far as it once seemed. It’s like Nixon was reincarnated into a much more pleasant shell but one that is twice as sinister. Like John Fogerty said: “I see a bad moon a-rising.”