A Cancer on the Presidency?

(Not sure that I'll get to writing a real entry for the day, Bush. I have my annual physical scheduled for the morning hours. Wish me luck! And later in the day, weather permitting, we're headed out of town for a longer-than-usual weekend at our beach retreat. If anything brilliant occurs, plus the time to devote to it, I'll be in touch. But I'm sure you're busy anyway, so you won't miss much if I skip one day. Take care.)

But then... Well, after all... Later:

I want to ask you a favor this morning, Bush. I want to ask you to join, and put your weight behind Democratic Senator Dick Durbin's effort to have the whole Gannon/Guckert episode fully investigated.

Too much to ask? After all--unless you knew all along that the man was an extremist right-wing shill--I imagine you have to be as appalled as I am that he managed to get credentialed to join the White House press corps, or at least to attend your press conferences. I mean, the man could equally well have been an assassin, no? Let's face it, if your people let him through the door in full knowledge of who he was--an unqualified hack whose sexual preferences seem to have been considerably more dubious even than your predecessor's--they are surely serving you ill and should therefore be identified with all due haste and summarily fired.

On the other hand, if they credentialed this man in ignorance, then they failed miserably in their duty to properly vet people granted access to the White House--and your august proximity--and should still, for this reason, be identified with all due haste and summarily fired. No? Are these the same folks, I wonder, who led you wrong in your nomination of Bernie Kerick as chief of Homeland Security (the title of that department still gives me the willies, Bush)? Do they not know their responsibility, or care? Or are they cynical enough to think that we, out here in America-land, don't care? Perhaps the most dreadful thing of all is that they may be right.

Anyway, Bush, I think you'd not only be doing me the favor that I ask, but also doing one for yourself. Think how refreshing it would be for the American public to hear their President say, in anger: this was an unforgivable mistake. This is unacceptable. This is not how I want my White House to be represented to the country and the world. I want to find out who's responsible for this disaster, and heads will roll. How much respect you'd gather for that kind of openness and righteous anger, Bush!

Not likely, though, given your history. There are many of us out here who continue to be angered by the sheer incompetence of many in your administration, high and low (hint: think Defense Department), and are still waiting for those deserving heads to roll. For you to hold someone actually accountable for something. Taken together with other recent instances of the disappearing distinction between honest press and propaganda, this could develop into a cancer on your presidency. Remember John Dean's warning to President Richard Nixon on an apparent triviality, and take heed.

Oh, and one more thing, on a related topic: I haven't noticed any color changes in the Homeland Security alert system of late. Forgive my own cynicism, but is this because the election is now safely over? For you, at least. Or have the terrorists ceased chattering?