Bush to nation: STFU

You know things are bad for the White House when Karl Rove thinks it's a good idea to trot Bubble Boy out for a press conference - not that any of us were actually expecting any real, what are they called... oh yes, answers to the questions that were posed. But the whole affair touched on the surreal (C&L has links to video excerpts), beginning with the WaPo's description of the whole sordid ordeal:

The news conference was vintage Bush, a mix of playful banter, stern glares and defiant assertions.

Ah yes, nothing says presidential like making lame jokes when discussing a war which has killed over 2300 American servicemen and women and orders of magnitude more Iraqis. And why does the White House press corps feel obliged to laugh at Bush's attempts at "humor?"

Other telling quotes:

But Bush rejected the notion that his Iraq policy is based on wishful thinking. "I say that I am talking realistically to people," he said.

That's priceless. My policy is reality-based because I say so. Of course, he may mean that he is talking realistically to people like Dick, Rummy, and Condi, who are so far out in sycophantic la-la land as to render the meaning of "realistically" entirely irrelevant.

Asked if a day will come when there are no U.S. troops there, Bush said "that will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

Translation: To whoever gets this job after me - it's hard work! Sorry 'bout the mess! Oh, and fuck you.

[H]e said the reason U.S. forces went to Iraq was to "make sure we didn't allow people to provide safe haven to an enemy."

That's a reason (#83, but who's counting?) I hadn't heard before! Wasn't Iraq already a safe haven to an enemy? And hasn't it become a safe haven for terrorists? Now I'm confused!

Bush said he disagrees with former Iraqi prime minister Ayad Allawi, a man who had been handpicked by his administration, and others who say that the country is already engaged in a civil war in which dozens of people are killed each day. "The way I look at the situation," Bush said, "the Iraqis took a look and decided not to go to civil war."

Huh? What does that mean? "Look at that, Abdul. Civil war? Let's not even go there, sister!" What the fuck is this man talking about?

I have no idea what the White House was trying to accomplish with this stunt. Maybe the watched Sunday's West Wing and decided that the strategy used by the GOP presidential candidate, played by Alan Alda, of holding a marathon press conference and actually answering all the questions would put the whole sordid ordeal of Bushco's bungling behind them. Unfortunately, people actually like Alan Alda, and the West Wing is, of course, fiction, but hey, I'll give 'em props for creative, if plagiarized, thinking.