Sins of the Son
Remember the presidential election of 1992 when George H.W. Bush lost to that young governor from Arkansas despite complaints by the incumbent that the media were unfair?
The Republicans even promoted the slogan “Annoy the Media, Vote for Bush.” That didn’t work and it’s been conventional wisdom ever since that campaigning against the media is a bad idea.
Without getting too much into psycho-history, it’s pretty obvious that his father’s loss had a major impact on our current president.
George W. Bush is a movement-style Republican who fancies himself modeled more on Ronald Reagan than Bush 41.
Much has been written about how George W. Bush repudiated the advice of James Baker, Brent Scowcroft and other graybeards from his father’s inner circle when he decided to go after Saddam.
A PBS documentary on Bush Senior’s term in office shows Baker and Colin Powell practically gloating at how smart 41’s decision not to send troops into Bagdad now appears.
Now we have the near collapse of the financial markets on the watch of Dubya.
The march to deregulation does predate his administration but the last eight years have seen it go into hyperdrive.
Bush-Cheney turned over the keys to the kingdom to Big Business. Energy executives were allowed to draft the regulations that would govern them and market forces were given free rein to, according to the political philosophy of Gordon Gekko, unleash a greed that would lift all boats.
So how’s that working for everyone?
Bush Senior engineered a true international coalition to kick Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. When that mission was accomplished he ended the war and brought our troops home (most of them anyway).
When the nation’s budget deficit began spiraling out of control he negotiated a bipartisan compromise that included a tax increase. Since that conflicted with his campaign pledge of “No New Taxes” he was pilloried by his own party including one of the leading GOP members of the house who had participated in the negotiations.
That GOP leader, of course, was Newt Gingrich.
Okay, enough with the old news.
Just imagine. $700,000,000,000!
I’m not an economist but my concerns begin with the unprecedented and unchecked powers that the bill would bestow on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Like most school kids studying history, I remember wondering how guys like Hitler managed to take over their formerly democratic countries. Well this is how.
Remember when Hugo Chavez compared George W. Bush to the devil? The Bush administration vilified Chavez for nationalizing Venezuela’s oil industry.
Now look who’s pushing a government bailout far larger than the entire economy of Venezuela?
It’s simply incredible. The People’s Republic of Wall Street?
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By the way, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times is at the top of her game. Check out her column today on Sarah Palin meeting with Henry Kissinger. It was closed to the press but hopefully they didn’t get on their knees to pray.
