The Parlor Game

Well, Bush, the new numbers are out today and you have to admit they're pretty much a disaster on every front. As I see it, there's only one option left if you're to save what's left of your presidency: a huge shake-up at the top, a la Ronald Reagan after the Iran-Contra scandal only more so. I know others have told you this and you haven't listened. You pride yourself on being a "stay-the-course" man. An absolute loyalist to those from whom you expect absolute loyalty. Well at this point, Bush, you either put out the trash (a timely metaphor: the garbage collector happens to be passing by my office at this very moment!) or your presidency drowns in the growing stench of its own unbelievable incompetence.

Start with your Rumsfeld. A good first step. I can't believe he's still there, in that office. Even if you're among those few who still believe in your war, this man has made a total hash of it from the start. Remember his unseemly, gleeful boasts about "Shock and Awe"? How the war would be over in a matter of weeks, if not days? Remember "stuff happens"--his callous response to immediate post-invasion signs that Saddam's iron grip was being replaced by chaos and sectarian violence? He hasn't been right about a single thing since then. Every time the man opens his mouth, it seems that something happens to prove him wrong. Get rid of him, Bush. Do yourself and the nation a favor. Is it so hard to see that Uncle Rummy has been from the start the leading architect of a misguided, misplanned, mismanaged war that has brought you nothing but shame and disapproval?

After that, an open field. There's your Deadeye Dick Cheney, rumbling in the basement somewhere. He has offered you nothing but terrible advice. Go to war, my son. It's a breeze. The insurgency is in its last throes. And so on. And on. There's your legal eagle, Gonzales, who led you into at least tacit approval of torture (torture! Isn't this America?) and argued justification for imprisonment without recourse to justice. That's medieval, Bush! He also called the internationally honored Geneva Convention "quaint," as I recall. There's your Chertoff. What a dangerous shambles that man has created under the banner of "homeland security"! Do we feel safer now, since 9/11? Are we persuaded by the well thought-out plans and priorities of your administration, and the clear, decisive actions taken to protect our ports, our major cities, our chemical plants, our infrastructure of highways, airports, bridges? Our monuments? I think not. Ask the American people, as the polls have done.

Plenty of room at the top then, Bush, to make some significant and beneficial changes. Still, I suspect your Scott McClellan knows you better than I do. He made light of any such suggestion at one of his increasingly defensive fencing sessions with the press. That's just the Washington parlor game, he said. Perhaps he was referring to Musical Chairs.

A parlor game! This is the reputation of our country, Bush! It's the presidency you were entrusted with by those who voted for you. In a real, and imminent, and dangerous sense it's the fate of the world, the planet Earth. This goes beyond personal pride and loyalty. It goes beyond winks and nods and grins, and buddy-buddy pats on the back. You, Bush, have been sleepwalking through the worst period of willful ignorance, impulsive aggression, and malign neglect in American history. Wake up, for God's sake! Show us that as the leader you purport to be you're at least capable of changing, and of making change, when necessity dictates.