Teacher
It occurs to me that Georgie is not a lawyer - not that there's anything wrong with that. He's a spoiled rich kid who partied through his undergrad at Yale and his MBA at Harvard, riding his family name like a bullet train to the easy life.
And even though Poppy was a government man - and president - he was, by all accounts, a Mamma's boy. You can be sure that he never sat up late at night talking policy with old Poppy.
His name allowed him to fail upward in business, one sweetheart deal after the next propelling him to the least powerful governorship in the US - Texas. In the Texas state house, his pals were people like A. Gonzo and H. Miers, people who thought he was just grand. And people who worked a political machine the way Georgie used to work beer shooters.
And the Judges were elected - so "Judge" Gonzo remained a yes-man and political fixer, despite his title. It was not in his experience to put anything above Party and Power - which made him the perfect clay dummy for Karl Rove.
Here's what I'm getting at: Georgie never met the Constitution. He never studied it, he never served it until he stole it in 2000. And clearly, he expected the grand old document to do more serving than being served.
From the time he first he ran in 2000 to today, who taught him constitutional law? We've heard about his intimate coaching sessions by out-of-touch cold warrior Condo Rice, but never about any study on the mechanisms of the actual document he's twice sworn to protect, uphold, and defend.
You get the feeling that he was told by the likes of Cheney and Rove and Rummy to do whatever self-serving bloody greed-head know-nothing thing he wanted - and they wanted.
Basically, the guy doesn't get it because he's never gotten it. He doesn't have a percent of the intellectual curiosity to ask the right questions and discover the truth on his own. He doesn't consult with Poppy - who has a clue about these things.
He gets his knowledge of the constitutional role of the president from a guy like Cheney, who thinks the Vice President has a unique and powerful role in government. It's true - because the executive branch Veep breaks ties in the legislative branch Senate, Cheney has claimed extra-constitutional powers. Like the power to get away with shooting old men in the face and then having them apologize to you.
That's power.
One thing the Founding Fathers did not expect was that such a complete ignoramus would - or could - become president. And further, that powerful monied interests would have such a direct hand in telling him his job. Georgie does what he's told because that's all he knows to do. He doesn't have a single original notion about his role because he's doing everything as it's been explained to him.
Even freshman in Congress get tutored on their role and Constitutional responsibilities. For the president, unless there is an understanding to begin with, it's all up to the advisers.
If the new president is a man like Bill Clinton, his own intellectual power and curiosity and need to do the right things will lead to a proper understanding of the job.
Reagan was different from Bush only in that the Neocon reptiles in his administration hadn't yet completely formed their bloody ideology. Men like Jim Baker - who did enough damage with their narrow-minded conservatism - mitigated, as did a Democratic Congress that understood its role.
Bush was completely in the hands of his handlers - a cold blooded bunch of ideological war profiteers who wanted nothing but to win at all costs.
You can't govern like that; you only bring ruin and chaos. So here we are.
And even though Poppy was a government man - and president - he was, by all accounts, a Mamma's boy. You can be sure that he never sat up late at night talking policy with old Poppy.
His name allowed him to fail upward in business, one sweetheart deal after the next propelling him to the least powerful governorship in the US - Texas. In the Texas state house, his pals were people like A. Gonzo and H. Miers, people who thought he was just grand. And people who worked a political machine the way Georgie used to work beer shooters.
And the Judges were elected - so "Judge" Gonzo remained a yes-man and political fixer, despite his title. It was not in his experience to put anything above Party and Power - which made him the perfect clay dummy for Karl Rove.
Here's what I'm getting at: Georgie never met the Constitution. He never studied it, he never served it until he stole it in 2000. And clearly, he expected the grand old document to do more serving than being served.
From the time he first he ran in 2000 to today, who taught him constitutional law? We've heard about his intimate coaching sessions by out-of-touch cold warrior Condo Rice, but never about any study on the mechanisms of the actual document he's twice sworn to protect, uphold, and defend.
You get the feeling that he was told by the likes of Cheney and Rove and Rummy to do whatever self-serving bloody greed-head know-nothing thing he wanted - and they wanted.
Basically, the guy doesn't get it because he's never gotten it. He doesn't have a percent of the intellectual curiosity to ask the right questions and discover the truth on his own. He doesn't consult with Poppy - who has a clue about these things.
He gets his knowledge of the constitutional role of the president from a guy like Cheney, who thinks the Vice President has a unique and powerful role in government. It's true - because the executive branch Veep breaks ties in the legislative branch Senate, Cheney has claimed extra-constitutional powers. Like the power to get away with shooting old men in the face and then having them apologize to you.
That's power.
One thing the Founding Fathers did not expect was that such a complete ignoramus would - or could - become president. And further, that powerful monied interests would have such a direct hand in telling him his job. Georgie does what he's told because that's all he knows to do. He doesn't have a single original notion about his role because he's doing everything as it's been explained to him.
Even freshman in Congress get tutored on their role and Constitutional responsibilities. For the president, unless there is an understanding to begin with, it's all up to the advisers.
If the new president is a man like Bill Clinton, his own intellectual power and curiosity and need to do the right things will lead to a proper understanding of the job.
Reagan was different from Bush only in that the Neocon reptiles in his administration hadn't yet completely formed their bloody ideology. Men like Jim Baker - who did enough damage with their narrow-minded conservatism - mitigated, as did a Democratic Congress that understood its role.
Bush was completely in the hands of his handlers - a cold blooded bunch of ideological war profiteers who wanted nothing but to win at all costs.
You can't govern like that; you only bring ruin and chaos. So here we are.
posted by fiduciary at 8:19 AM
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