Re: W. Defending himself against the lies;
I tend to think GWB just simply ‘ran out of gas’ in the second term, and got overwhelmed with the constant sh*t-shower of criticism and coordinated Shark Attacks from the media. This went on day after day after day.
This exhaustion under the crushing weight of bogus attack thing also happened to our friend Sarah Palin. It was simply too much, this bloodsport of media hatred. Thus, she had to retreat for a while.
For GWB, I recall those New York plays openly advertised and performed, depicting his assassination. NO ONE WAS PROSECUTED!! (as far as I know) for what I thought was a Federal Offense! I think since W. began his presidency by having it settled in the court system, he always (wrongfully) felt somewhat unvalidated and unaccepted by the majority of the voters.
This may account to why he and Rove never did aggressively confront these people on their crimes and on their bad manners.
Bush said he respected the Office of the Presidency too much, but I say he was a pussy.
Bah. The relentless attacks were going on before the 2nd election but he withstood them because his supporters stood firm with him. But the first act of his 2nd term was to dedicate himself to getting amnesty for illegals through. Over and over and over he tried. His supporters abandoned him and he signaled that he didn't care, he wanted amnesty more than them. That was when the relentless media attacks bore fruit. He earned it.