Posted on 10/30/2005 4:30:41 PM PST by RWR8189
The Bush administration's second-term bear market has bottomed out
LAST WEEK THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S second-term bear market bottomed out. On Monday, Bush nominated as the next Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who of all the leading candidates will be the central banker least hostile to tax cuts and least likely to direct monetary policy to any end other than combating inflation. At the end of the week, the Commerce Department announced that economic growth in the third quarter had been 3.8 percent, suggesting that, thanks in large part to Bush's supply-side tax cuts, our economy may remain strong enough to overcome the twin hurdles of high energy prices and rising interest rates.
Meanwhile, the political process in Iraq continued in a relatively promising direction, as some Sunni groups seemed increasingly reconciled to pursuing their goals through politics rather than betting on the success of the insurgency. On the military front, the joint U.S.-Iraqi effort to fight an effective counterinsurgency seemed to be making some progress. And the prospects for less troublemaking by Syria seemed to improve as well, with the Assad regime thrown back on its heels by a U.N. report implicating it in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister.
On Thursday, Harriet Miers withdrew her candidacy for the Supreme Court, producing a massive sigh of relief from Bush supporters and conservatives throughout the nation. Now the president has the chance to pick a strong nominee and to rally his supporters for a winning fight on his or her behalf.
And then, of course, on Friday, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's two-year investigation came to an underwhelming conclusion with the indictment of Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby--not for any underlying crime but for impeding the investigation through perjury and false statements. This is a distressing development for those of us who have known and admired Libby for many years. If Libby is guilty of purposely lying to a grand jury, that cannot be excused or minimized. But let's not forget that he has not yet had his day in court.
The larger story on Friday was that Fitzgerald indicted no one else. The wrongdoing leads in no way beyond this one individual and what he allegedly said to FBI investigators and the grand jury. There was no conspiracy, high level or otherwise, at the White House, or involving the Defense Department or the State Department--all scenarios that enemies of the administration had been fantasizing about for months.
It may sound odd to call this good news for the president. But go back and read the fevered anticipations and lethal expectations of Bush's critics over the last month. This was going to be the moment when the case for war was discredited. This was going to be the moment when the supposed venality and corruption of the Bush administration was going to be exposed. This was going to be the moment when the whole criminal conspiracy would unravel. This was going to be the moment of paralysis and disgrace for Bush and Cheney and the assorted warmongers in their employ.
This does not mean, of course, that the Bush White House and its supporters should heave a sigh of relief and relax. It does mean that the administration and its allies have a chance now to go on the offensive: to make the tax cuts permanent, to look for occasions to insist on spending restraint, to make progress in restoring constitutional jurisprudence, and above all to make strides toward winning the war in Iraq, and the broader war on terror.
With the dénouement of the Miers fiasco and the Fitzgerald investigation, President Bush's beaten-down political fortunes should be ripe for a rebound. As we've said before, the recipe for starting a rally is straightforward: Get back to basics on the economy, the courts, and foreign policy. Go on the offensive in all of these areas. To regain the ground that was lost and to forge further ahead will require energy, discipline, and boldness from the Bush administration, and from the president himself.
- William Kristol
Is it true Scooter Libby and his wife are both life long democrats?
Note to Bill Kristol: the Democrats and the MSM (same thing) will keep pushing this until they run George Bush out of DC.
Who cares what they do/think? R's have the President, Congress, (soon to be) the courts, and control over one of the most important political/technological systems ever devised: the Net.
Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. I love it!
lemura wrote:
"...and control over one of the most important political/technological systems ever devised: the Net."
I thought you were going to say "Diebold". ;-)
There's this Marxist fanstasy world that the MSM tries to foist on all sentient beings. Unfortunately for them, modern communications can completely bypass them now and people can get facts without being filtered or censored by their gatekeeping.
We are about to get an originalist on the Supreme Court (Miers withdrawal was no defeat for Bush and no victory for the communists/Democrats), the war in Iraq is going exceedingly well, the economy continues to be the star performer in the entire developed world (most of Western Europe and Japan is stagnant).
So, the make believe world of the communist media has fewer and fewer takers, and the biggest consumers of it seems to be only the MSM themselves.
History will honor Bush and revile his opponents.
And Kristol can kiss my grits too.
BUMP
Kristol, the two faced weasel, was predicting last week that Rove and Libby would be indicted. He even got a spot on the Today Show to spread his "Bush made a mistake" story.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/9/213202.shtml
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/18/103745.shtml
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/16/kristol-rove-libby/
With Kristol's vitriol over Miers, I'm sure Bush is comforted by Kristol's two-bit analysis.
<< Is it true Scooter Libby and his wife are both life long democrats? >>
Close, I believe.
Saw a post the other day that listed their political donations.
All to "Democrats." Not a cent to Republicans.
Scooter was vice-president of Yale's student Democrats...an active anti-war student activist...out of college he worked for Dechert Price, a law firm that **only** donates money to Democrats...from 1985 to 2000 Scooter was infamous Democrat Marc Rich's attorney (of President Clinton's Pardon-gate infamy)...Scooter won two awards in 1993 from the Clinton Administration...also did NSC work for the Clinton Administration...and never made a donation to a Republican.His wife was more recently a staff attorney for Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, a position to which Democrats apply a litmus test (either you are one of them or else you don't get on it). >P? This is a comment from Southack on another thread...
Thanks. I thought yesterday that after being served with what must certainly qualify as the least-ever justified and charges pronounced by the dumbest prolix prosecutor I have ever listened to/watched, Libby and his wife looked awfully like cats who'd scored the cream.
Reckon by any "Democrat's" measure of such things, he just might have.
I feel there's more to this story than we'll ever know... but it is odd. Also, have you noticed that none of the MSM people are making a big deal about Scooter?
Just the sight of him makes me want to puke. I have never ever been a fan.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Geez, maybe that's why he (allegedly) lied when it wasn't necessary to do so.
I haven't been able to understand that one. Why lie? If he did indeed lie, it was an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.