By Staff
Invading Iraq led to the leak of Valerie Plame's CIA identity and Scooter Libby's indictment.
It redirected the war on terror. It fueled anti-American sentiment around the globe. It sent the federal budget deficit soaring.
After nine studies in four years, a $4 billion Great Lakes clean-up bill is mired in Congress, yet the administration spent $4.5 billion on water projects in Iraq, The Washington Post reported.
Invading Iraq made us less safe here at home and set the stage for the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina.
Fallibility spread faster than democracy in the Middle East.
Turning point or point of no return?
Who recognizes anymore the supposed grown-ups who came in to clean up after the boomer excesses of the Clinton administration?
Dick Cheney? In 1992 when asked why the United States left Saddam Hussein in power after driving Iraq from Kuwait, he said, “Once we had rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place. You know, you then have accepted the responsibility for governing Iraq. How many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damn many.”
Is there a Cheney 2.0, like there was a new Richard Nixon?
Since Libby worked for the vice president, does that mean Cheney is cool with the idea of unmasking a CIA operative for political gain, trumping any national security considerations?
Cheney is not the only administration official who seems recently inhabited by space aliens through a combination of hubris, recklessness and incompetence.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld scoffed at suggestions a larger force might be needed to occupy Iraq.
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said anyone concerned about preserving civil liberties “only aids terrorists.”
Karen Hughes, who went back to Texas once, was put in charge of improving America's battered image in the Arab world. Since she doesn't speak Arabic or have any background on that part of the planet, that must make her the Harriet Miers of the Middle East.
But save the best for last.
Michael Brown, whose lack of credentials didn't keep him from heading the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Those of us scoring at home thought when he resigned Sept. 12 it was safe to at least chalk him up as the first person ever cut loose by the overly loyal Bush administration.
But “Brownie” never left.
He still makes his annual $148,000 salary.
A President of the United States may be down from Republican rebellion and in-house scandal, but never out given his ability to somewhat control his own destiny from the Oval Office bully pulpit.
Having Samuel Alito Jr. instead of Miers to offer for the Supreme Court should help, but history is not on Bush's side.
Since 1966, if a president's approval rating slipped under 50 percent at a midterm election, his party lost an average of 42 House seats - enough to return Democrats to power next year.
On the other hand, Bill Clinton rebounded from disastrous 1994 elections.
Hey, it's not me in the New Yorker questioning the wisdom of invading Iraq and the wider Bush Doctrine of imposing democracy on the Middle East, it's Brent Scowcroft, Bush's father's national security adviser during the first Gulf War.
The White House reportedly sent out talking points about how to attack Scowcroft, who says, “Dick Cheney I don't know anymore.”
Wasn't the $4 billion in tax breaks stuffed into the energy bill passed in August enough?
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: “(The Bush administration) represents the final, squalid perfection of the Permanent Campaign; a White House where almost every move is tactical, a matter of momentary politics, even decisions that involve life and death and war. That is what the Scooter Libby indictment is really all about. It is about trying to spin a war.”
Probst leaving “Survivor”: TVGuide.com reports producer Mark Burnett confirmed rumors that the host departs after next spring's 12th cast. His spot will be taken by a former female survivor yet to be named.
Did you know?: Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan, the man he's chosen to succeed as chairman of the Federal Reserve, both play saxophone.
Rising: Anderson Cooper, 38 is the hot new darling at CNN. He's getting two hours in prime time with an expanded “The Situation Room” with Wolf Blitzer filling his old 7 p.m. time slot. Cooper's popularity peaked covering Hurricane Katrina.
Falling: Aaron Brown, 56, who went to CNN from ABC in 2001 and made an immediate impact anchoring the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, is departing his 10 p.m. newscast, which is invariably described as quirky and cerebral.