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The Gergen TemptationWill Bush fall for the advice of the Establishment?
Weekly Standard ^ | 11/14/2005 | Fred Barnes

Posted on 11/05/2005 5:36:08 AM PST by AliVeritas

PRESIDENT BUSH DIDN'T TAKE THE HINT. Clean house, find fresh blood, replace senior White House staff--and this will assure success in the final three years of your presidency, Bush was told. When he didn't respond, those offering the president advice in public got specific. Get rid of Karl Rove, the key presidential adviser, and things will get better. Bush ignored that recommendation, too. Then Rove himself was addressed. Your peers in the White House are turning against you and debating whether you should be fired, the Washington Post informed him on the front page. Besides, you're not only hurting the president by staying, you're making it harder for the press secretary, Scott McClellan, to do his job. Rove, the symbol of Bush intransigence, stayed put.

There's a classic pattern here. It's Washington's way of taming a president, getting him to knuckle under. And it's always offered as if the Washington political establishment--a center-left conglomerate of officials of previous administrations, the permanent bureaucracy, lobbyists, consultants, old party hacks, and the media--had the president's best interests at heart.

The establishment is most influential when a president or other political leader is at a low point (as Bush surely is). In op-eds, news stories, speeches, and TV appearances, establishment figures outline a recovery plan. In Bush's case, it's this: Apologize publicly for your White House sins, especially the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame; soften your policies, particularly in Iraq; start cooperating with Democrats; and fire Rove. Do this and good times will roll again.

(Excerpt) Read more at weeklystandard.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; bush43; demoperatives; elitists; fredbarnes; potomacfever; term2; whitehouse
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To: Past Your Eyes
Now, who has the president's ear and can convince him to make this most important change

...Rovebud....Rovebud...

41 posted on 11/05/2005 6:32:56 AM PST by small voice in the wilderness (Make high definition tv fun. Aggravate 'em until their heads explode.)
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To: David Isaac

Stay the course Mr. President, and begin cleaning house at the CIA ! Make a few heads roll!

Cheny and Libby had their own counter-espionage op going against the CIA's espionage with their denaible espionage agent," Joe the Mole Wilson" and his treacherous wife "Plame the Flame." Cheny and Libby were doing their job.

Another item: No one voted for anyone in the CIA, since when do they vicariously make the nations foreign policy
by trying to hobble the president of the United States?

Christians In Action have to change or be disbanded!

David Gergen is just roasting under the diatribe of his
wing-nut MSM colleagues. Stand up to them you spineless
ninny!


42 posted on 11/05/2005 6:33:40 AM PST by Candor7 (Into Liberal Flatulence Goes the Hope of the West)
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To: AliVeritas

Bush needs Rove to keep reminding him that neither the press nor the Washington establishment are his friends.


43 posted on 11/05/2005 6:34:16 AM PST by JoeGar
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To: Condor51
"(I thought her toughness was rather sexy)"

Definitely! Put her in a pair of bib overalls and she would be unbeatable.

44 posted on 11/05/2005 6:35:02 AM PST by Past Your Eyes (Some people are too stupid to be ashamed.)
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To: G.Mason

Never surrender, indeed. It is the only way of honor.


45 posted on 11/05/2005 6:35:25 AM PST by bboop (Stealth Tutor)
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To: AliVeritas
Fred Barnes has become one of the top Conservative writers in the Country. He understands Bush better than any other writer, period. Excellent advice.

Pray for W and Our Troops

46 posted on 11/05/2005 6:36:38 AM PST by bray (Iraq, freed from Saddamn now Pray for Freedom from Mohammad)
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To: MNJohnnie
Maybe "Conservatives" should break themselves of this childish habit of spending all their time firing on their own side and learn to actually stand up for things.

Maybe, the Whine all the Time Choir might, just once, learn to stand of for things instead of their usual bitching about everything. "Conservatives" have this really bad habit of falling into the psuedo-intellectual's trap of thinking being 100% rabidly critical makes them look "intelligent". It doesn't.

Being a knee jerk critic is NOT a sign of a thinker, quite the opposed in fact.


And that pertains to Scott "Mumbles" McClellan exactly how?!?

BTW, you misspelled "psuedo"

47 posted on 11/05/2005 6:45:09 AM PST by Condor51 (Leftists are moral and intellectual parasites - Standing Wolf)
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To: AliVeritas
This is an excellent column. Fred Barnes is continuously on the mark. The inside Washington establishment cannot get over the fact that Bush ignores their narrow minded, and out of touch "advice".
I'm not sure what has prompted the anti-McClellan focus on this thread. Fred barely mentions him. For some reason Freepers think people actually watch Whitehouse press conferences. Are you kidding me? And what in the world makes anyone think you could put someone as wise and eloquent as Bill Buckley up on that podium and prompt anything more than the usual BS from the press corps. If McClellan truly is as boring and unhelpful as everyone says, I say Great! I hope the WH press corps hates every second of the time it spends with him. Their stories are already written anyway.
48 posted on 11/05/2005 6:50:30 AM PST by Rokke
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To: AliVeritas

W needs to hire Dan Senor (of Iraq fame) to be his press person. He is AWESOME--brilliant, articulate, quick on his feet and fearless. He could take down the WH press corps in short order.


49 posted on 11/05/2005 6:57:15 AM PST by DCMB (Bless GWB and all our troops)
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To: Past Your Eyes

I never liked or trusted Gergen. You should have seen him on Fox and Friends a few days ago and when the fill in made a point in support of Scooter Libby (forgot exactly the subject matter), Gergen went off on him saying something like you and your friends may believe that....He was torked because someone challenged him. Like I said, can't stand him.


50 posted on 11/05/2005 7:06:08 AM PST by ONETWOONE (onetwoone)
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To: Past Your Eyes

How about General Honore (STUCK ON STUPID) statement of claim to fame. Would love to watch this when addressing Helen Thomas.


51 posted on 11/05/2005 7:08:28 AM PST by ONETWOONE (onetwoone)
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To: DLfromthedesert

Yes, Carole Strayhorn is running against Perry.
She has ads where she talks conservative but she acts RINO.


52 posted on 11/05/2005 7:08:36 AM PST by WOSG (http://freedomstruth.blogspot.com/)
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To: ONETWOONE

"Gergen went off on him saying something like you and your friends may believe that...."

I believe Libby is innocent until proven guilty. What Gergen believes is irrelevant.


53 posted on 11/05/2005 7:13:44 AM PST by popdonnelly
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To: WOSG
Tell me more about Ms. Strayhorn, please. It was noted when Scott took this thankless job that he was a friend of the family.

My greater thought is that Andy Card had some extra influence of late (in Rove's distraction w/Plame). He reportedly pushed Miers, (and probably got Laura to second the motion.) My guess is that Chief of Staff Card idea's have been shown to fail. (there was talk that Card once pushed SC Justice Breyer years ago)

Whatever, or whomever, there has clearly been some screwy thinking going on lately. With Plame basically behind us, here's hoping we get back on the right track.

54 posted on 11/05/2005 7:24:23 AM PST by chiller (Libs prove once again they can not be trusted with power..)
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To: Rokke

Point taken about the importance of the press secretary, but with W's apparent disdain of defending himself, SOMEBODY'S got to do it besides Rush, Sean, Laura, Hugh, and the internet.


55 posted on 11/05/2005 7:27:52 AM PST by chiller (Libs prove once again they can not be trusted with power..)
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To: MizSterious

Dan Bartlett would be good in the job. We saw him during the elections. I don't know what he's doing now.


56 posted on 11/05/2005 7:33:10 AM PST by chiller (Libs prove once again they can not be trusted with power..)
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To: chiller

Some have gone as far as saying Card could be the WH mole...I'm not sure about that, but I've seen some good arguments for the theory.


57 posted on 11/05/2005 7:35:11 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: AliVeritas

The MSM trot out Gergen all the time as a "Republican" balance on panel shows. What a load! He's now a Democrat.

You don't see them trotting out Democrats who've changed to Republicans and calling them Democrats.

Wouldn't you like to see Zell Miller on a panel as a Democrat representative?


58 posted on 11/05/2005 7:56:04 AM PST by wildbill
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To: Congressman Billybob
When you said, "fat, pus-filled boil", I thought you meant Ted Kennedy. But the Clintons are excellent examples, too.

The problem for the Democratic Party is that if they drained all of their boils, there wouldn't be much left of it. 98% of the Dem party is fat or pus.
59 posted on 11/05/2005 7:58:05 AM PST by chesley
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To: AliVeritas

I find David Gergen to be unsufferable to watch. I turn the channel everytime he shows up.


60 posted on 11/05/2005 7:59:28 AM PST by TruthFactor
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