President Do-No-Wrong

Here's the burning question Bush? Is your Miers the last straw? Have you finally, fatally exposed the weakness of your character and your personal insecurities, even to those who have so ardently supported you? The Miers brouhaha would certainly seem to suggest this dire possibility. When the Wills and the Krauthammers of this world begin to denounce you, in public, as they have done, I sense that you might be in deeper trouble than I had imagined. There's an impatience and a dismissiveness to their tone that should really worry those who handle you. The only surprise is that it took so long.

Even so, there's every sign that you'll continue on your merry way. Or, in that favorite family phrase of yours,"stay the course"--with Miers as well as in Iraq. Which reminds me of the truly pathetic, cliche-ridden performance this past week, when you defended your Iraq adventure for the hundredth time n front of the world's television cameras as the front line in the war on terror--blithely passing over the fact that this particular front was of your own creation, that Iraq would never have become the ideal recruitment and training ground for terrorists had it not been for your own foolhardy actions. Actions, it need scarcely be mentioned, initiated against the advice of almost every sober head, both here in the United States and throughout the world.

Now, yesterday, in the Los Angeles Times, we read a parallel pair of solid front page articles that further expose the bankruptcy of your policy in that unhappy country. The first, excellently researched, reveals how U. S. companies have been complicit, for their profit, in the importation and exploitation of foreign workers, some bound into nothing short of servitude, some even killed for no greater sin than desperation in their search for jobs. The second article questions whether your goal of democracy is achievable--and, even if so, whether its achievement will bring stability and peace, as your people argue, or further violence. With the October 15 referendum on the shotgun-wedding constitution just around the corner, prospects for a peaceable resolution to all sectarian disputes seem bleak at best.

I have a question for you, Bush: in the racncourse metaphor of which you are so fond, does the jockey "stay the course" when his mount is hobbled, at the risk of life and limb? Or, out of respect for the poor, suffering animal, does he not rather rein in, dismount, and call in the vetinerarian team? On the other hand, should your metaphor be intended to evoke the ethos of the sporting yachtsman, does the smart captain at the helm simply "stay the course" when he spots the reef ahead, or tunes in radio reports of approaching hurricane winds? Does he blindly risk the lives of his crew and the ship they sail for the sake of his own ego? Or does he not rather evaluate his position, change course, and even, if conditions require, return to port?

Just a Monday morning question, Bush, for you to ponder.