The former President thinks his presidency will eventually fade in America’s collective memory. In an interview with the Hoover Institution, Bush said his eight years as President were “awesome”. But then he said, “In 20 years, I’ll be just a name and a number 43…I dealt with 9/11 and the financial meltdown, but people will forget what ol’ 43 was like.” Really?
Polls show Bush ranks among the worst Presidents in the history of our nation. Historians rank Bush with presidents like Richard Nixon, James Buchanan (who refused to challenge the spread of slavery or intervene in the first signs of the Confederacy) and Warren G. Harding (who actually admitted publically he was not fit for office).
Here are some events that will keep George W. Bush’s legacy alive and well for generations to come (in no particular order):
- Critical failure of leadership before, during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf, killing at least 1,833 people
- Misleading Congress and the American people about a fictional link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 and claiming Iraq had Weapons Of Mass Destruction. 4,422 U.S. Casualties
- Declaring “Mission Accomplished” on May 1, 2003
- Cutting taxes for the richest Americans while growth tanked, the debt grew and the Clinton-Era surplus bottomed out.
- Stacking the Supreme Court with some of the most ideological Justices in history. (John Roberts, Samuel Alito and failed-nominee Harriet Miers)
- Promising firefighters at Ground Zero he would pursue Osama Bin Laden, then giving up less than three months after 9/11/01
Maybe Good Old 43 will be best remembered for his “Bushisms”:
"But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." -George W. Bush, summing up his first year in office, Washington, D.C., Dec. 20, 2001
"We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates." -George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, 2001
"We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." -George W. Bush, Trenton, N.J., Sept. 23, 2002
"My answer is bring them on."-On Iraqi insurgents attacking U.S. forces, George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003
"I hear there's rumors on the Internets that we're going to have a draft." --George W. Bush, second presidential debate, St. Louis, Mo., Oct. 8, 2004
"We stand for things." --George W. Bush, Davenport, Iowa, Aug. 5, 2004
"Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country." --George W. Bush, interview with Al Arabiya Television, May 5, 2004
"I mean, there was a serious international effort to say to Saddam Hussein, you're a threat. And the 9/11 attacks extenuated that threat, as far as I-concerned." --George W. Bush, Philadelphia, Dec. 12, 2005
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." --George W. Bush, to FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his job performance, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005
"You know, one of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror." --George W. Bush, interview with CBS News' Katie Couric, Sept. 6, 2006
"It's a heck of a place to bring your family." --George W. Bush, on New Orleans, New Orleans, La., Jan. 12, 2006
"We're kicking ass." --George W. Bush, on the security situation in Iraq, to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile, Sydney, Australia, Sept. 5, 2007
"My job is a job to make decisions. I'm a decision -- if the job description were, what do you do -- it's decision maker." --George W. Bush, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007
"I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 12, 2008
So how will you remember George W. Bush? We’d like to see your answer.
Leave a Comment:
I wish I didn't have to. But
Cut off . I want a 30 second warning!!!
But I think he is/was an inept boob and a total embarrassment to the whole USA. We were one magic pretzel away from having one of the most evil men from being president. And if not for a heart that rejected being in his body we may have had him for a second term! Cheney the brains behind the bloody setup war in Iraq. War criminals is what also come to mind, Destroyer of the economy of two unfunded wars. I was counting the days for their term to come to an end, because after they got a second chance to finish off the USA it happened in short order. And we still have the sting of his administration in the form of the Bush Tax Cuts! Mission Accomplished! He was a joke but what he did wasn't. He said that I'll be long gone before some smart person figures out what happened inside this Oval Office. Its because he really doesn't know. And has the audacity to say "Miss me yet" HELL NO!
If he hadn't trashed this country, I find him not worth remembering at all. So I guess I'll remember him as .....THE WORST PRESIDENT THE USA HAS EVER HAD!
Only in title he was...
He said he didn't want anymore fame! LOL!
No, he cheated to become president.....both time. That must be a great honor for him to know that. Looks in this picture as if he is hitting the bottle again. Is that good for his Lyme's diseases?
Jeb Bush...'Don't worry lil brother, I'll give you Florida'...Now what do you think he meant by that?
you cant be that stupid....or maybe you are.
Don't misunderestimate him.
John. He always proves he is. Why should he change now?
w. bush stole 2 elections, and was "president for 8 years. during that time, he did more damage to our country than any other president in history.
w. bush would love to be relevant to this election. he RELISHED his position of power, and loves to talk about it. he resents the fact that mitt romney won't mention his name, and wants to distance himself from the w. bush/cheeeeney administration.
he doesn't mean it when he says he "crawled out of a swamp", and he wants to stay out of it. i think he is smart enough to know that the american people hated him long before he left office/by the time he left office. if he thought people wouldn't express hatred toward him, he'd be out there soaking up all the attention he wanted. the only thing he didn't like about that swamp was that the american people weren't buying what george bush was selling about iraq and 9/11 being related. he said that was his most difficult task as president, "trying to convince the american people that the iraqi war was justified because of 9/11". they JUST DIDN'T BUY IT (well, sarah palin did).
another horrible thing about the w.bush administration is that the conservatives there in washington LOVED HIM, AND DID HIS BIDDING.
they loved and agreed with every dime he put on the credit card, including the iraqi and afghanistan wars, and medicare part D, THAT HE KEPT OFF THE BOOKS (ask mitch daniels) HE LIED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT THE COST OF THE WARS AND THE DEFICIT.
President Obama refused to lie about the cost of the wars, and now he is blamed for the huge deficit.
w. bush and the repubs in washington are responsible for the mess we are in today, and now mitt romney wants to do the exact same thing.
i hope all you bagger/conservative/repubs know what you are voting for. you say you hated what bush did, now you want to vote for his bigger, meaner cohort.
god bless america.
Shrub was a worthless incredibly STUPID lying bastard who wasted several TRILLION $$$(6??) on military IDIOCY of NO VALUE.
I only want him to die before I do so I can emulate what Henry Morgan said to John Wayne in The Shootist". "What I'll do on your grave won't pass for rose petal!"
bush was annointed president by his daddy's friends, the supreme court, because THEY WERE LOSING THE RECOUNT.
secretary of state, republican katherine harris stopped the recount OF COURSE.
w.'s brother, jeb, happened to be the governor of florida, OF COURSE.
this all worked out perfectly for w. (weasel) bush, because this is how repubs win elections, THEY STEAL THEM.
I will remember my fellow Texan as the first complete idiot to be handed the reins of this nation by supreme court; and the first complete idiot to then be voted back into the office by a large portion of the country that, being kind, were suffering a temporary bout of idiocy.
there was also a little computer hacking done in Ohio (at least) and some voter suppression going on.
We haven't forgotten what ol 43 was like. We still live with it everyday...
You will be missed!!!
Vote NObama 2012!!
Miss by whom, the for being the worst HYPOCRITE THAT EVER WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT.....THE MAN WHO TOOK US IN TO A PRETEND WAR SO HE COULD GLEAN HIS FORTUNE, WHILE BANK RUPTURING AMERICA. nope, won't be missed to any good reasons.
VOTE OBAMA BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE AGAIN IN 2012 and save is from wrong way and the gop/tee-pees.
Yup, we need 4 more years to keep the teabaggers from turning this country into a fascist regime
That kind of makes me think about this article from the UK.
And this article from National Institutes of Mental Health.
Remember Georgie? I've been trying to forget him for 3 and a half years! It's too painful to remember all the crap that incompetent, drunken boob put us through.
I get reminded many times of Shrub. Think of all the names of military members who died in his illegal wars. See the combat veterans who have chosen to be helped-- and read about the combat veterans who did not seek help.
great post, Crackhead, as always.
The NObama blame GAME….
George W. Bush
Tax breaks
Arab Spring
jJapanese earthquake
Globalization
George W. Bush
Automation technologies
Eurozone crisis
Republican House
ATM usage
George W. Bush
The Weather
Bad luck
Super PAC ad spending
Lack of stimulus money
George W. Bush
The Tea Party
Unmanned airport ticket kiosks
Oil speculators
Underestimation of economic crisis
George W. Bush
Businesses not expanding
Americans being soft and lazy
Fox News
Energy companies not getting behind…algae
NObama, the truth of the matter is, whether you want to
admit it or not, more regulation and government bureaucracy does not produce
confidence or certainty with the American public or job creators. Government
cannot run an economy with public taxpayer dollars. Government should not be
running every aspect of our system from health care to finance to education
to energy.
Employers don’t know what health care costs and liability for
future hires will end up being under ObamaCare. Those that have jobs don’t know
if they will be the next lay off tomorrow. Nobody knows what their tax rates will be come next year. Investors,
business owners, have been shackled with
excessive regulations and constant threats of higher taxes.
Blaming anything and everything else that happens won’t inspire
confidence to re-elect you.
Vote NObama 2012!!
Yes, Thanks for posting that All of that blame goes to that idiot gw.
What a waste of what could have been EIGHT GOOD YEARS, INSTEAD OF EIGHT BAD ONES, of a stupid war and never gettin OBL. Please save yourself, b.
Yes my fellow DEMWITS click a link above and see who is right or who is wrong...
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE!!!!
Vote NObama 2012!!
There is a reason
gw doesn't want
to get involved in
politics and is hiding out
HE IS A DETRIMENT TO HIS PARTY. ROTFFL!
T-Mom, with a 19% approval rating when he left office, the lowest in history, I wonder why.
Beat the hell out of gop, tee pity thinking. Wow. get a clue! My hubby always says some people have to be hit in the head with a 2 by 4 before they start paying attention. Better be on the look out, awaken from your silly dream and see what a nightmare gw/cheney created in this country.
a 2x4 wouldn't work on you anyway Imp, you have to have something upstairs to fix.....lol
When I think conservative, I think stupid.
Emperor:: I was always told that you hit a ackjass between the eyes with a 2x4 to make it understand what you want of the critter. Now we know your father did it to you.
Crackhead Awards
Thanks for the post.
What I find amazing is your first two posts about Koch..... If they rounded up all Japanese because they were afraid.... Lord only knows what... Why was the koch industry not shut down, confiscated and the owners rotting in jail for treason??
I want to borrow that list...
Sorry young Crack, but almost all your sources are crackpot, left wing web sites.
The real issue is that you and your friends desire the reelection of a socialist president. That is more serious then then any dreamed up claim of Republican trangressions.
Sitting next to some school kids while his adviser informs him about the 911 attack... Instead of getting up and tending the nation's safety, he just sat there, staring at the floor!
Oh i guess you would have got up and ran around like your hair was on fire with a class room FULL of kids.....LOL
Vote NObama 2012!!
Dogs won't even vote for the gop, idiots.....What fool would not want on our watch. Not some idiot, who can't ever stand for a damn thing.
The Gop stops at animal rights, womens rights, freedom of speaech, rights of people that may be different etc. The onlly thing they don't stop at is stealing election, obstruction of government, and trying to suppress the vote against those they think may not vote for their party. I'm all for human and animal rights as a Democrat, and I can be proud of it and not being a jerk.
I think most are familiar with the conspiracy theories surrounding 911. I can at least entertain these theories in my mind. There are plenty of documentaries out there that ask some very hard to answer questions. One of the most profound ones had a BBC news anchor report live that WTC building #7 had collapsed. Then a live shot from NYC was put on, with a reporter, on camera, talking about it. Yet, in the background, over the shoulder of the reporter, building #7 was still standing and didn't collapse for another 5 minutes! Was the tragedy of 911 an inside job?
EO, How funny and interesting! I am so impressed by your great sense of humour. How much longer will you be gracing our blog with your amusing comments?
OBAMA 2012! But I mean it.
Yes it was ALL Bush's Fauilt!!!!!!
Vote NObama 2012!!
some people are like jerks like you make fox news great. just don't get sick so we don't want to pay your bills!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Time to administer straight a jacket and medication.
US entities cannot advertise in Mexico.
And my perennial favorite voting fraud story that the Republicans don't seem to want to do anything about:
Did Mitt Romney Commit Voter Fraud In Massachusetts in 2010?
Michael Kelley|April 20, 2012|
(AP)
This question has been asked before, but it takes on new significance now that Romney has all but clinched the Republican presidential nomination and Stratfor emails accuse Barack Obama's 2008 campaign of stuffing ballot boxes.
The issue arises from the ballot Romney cast for Republican Scott Brown in January 2010 in the special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The former Massachusetts governor did not own property in the state in 2010 and registered to vote from an address in the unfinished basement of an 8,000 square-foot Belmont mansion owned by his son Tagg.
Last June GOP political consultant Fred Karger filed a complaint with Massachusetts state election officials alleging that Romney voted in several elections without residing in the state.
Karger spoke with members of the Mormon Temple and Meetinghouse in Belmont — where the Romney's attended weekly church services when they lived there — and one told Karger that she "hadn't seen the Romneys since 2008."
The Romneys' former realtor told Krugar that they moved to California and allegedly Ann Romney told him the same when he saw her at a conference in Las Vegas where Romney was speaking.
The Romneys bought a $12.5 million home in La Jolla, Calif., in May 2008 and sold their home in Belmont in April 2009 (for $3.5 million). In May 2009 the Romneys began describing their $10 million estate in New Hampshire as their primary residence (presumably to prepare for the 2012 election).
President Obama has disclosed his 2012 state tax return (from Illinois) whereas Romney has not (from ?).
From Mother Jones:
Residency issues have plagued Mitt Romney in the past. When he campaigned for governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he ran into trouble because he had switched his residency to Utah three years earlier when he moved to Park City to take over the struggling Salt Lake Olympic operation. The move technically made him ineligible to run for office in Massachusetts, which requires seven years of continuous state residency before a candidate is eligible to run. After a lot of legal wrangling and paying back taxes, he was finally allowed on the ballot.
According to Massachusetts law, a residence for voter registration purposes as "where a person dwells and which is the center of his domestic, social, and civil life" and anyone found guilty of committing voter fraud faces up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-04-20/politics/31371937_1_ann-romney-massachusetts-governor-residency
Lying MUST be a prerequisite to be a Republican. I think they have to pass a course. It starts out with a small lie and goes right on up to industrial strength BS. EO and b113 passed with flying colors.
Probably the only test they ever passed.
WTG
Crackhead on being consistent
That is consistently WRONG!!!
The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.
USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.
“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on their “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” web page. “Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”
The partnership — which was signed by former USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista in 2004 — sees to it that the Mexican Embassy and Mexican consulates in America provide USDA nutrition assistance program information to Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals working in America and migrant communities in America. The information is specifically focused on eligibility criteria and access.
I though this was his 12th year in office. Everytime something bad is going all I hear is its Bushes fault.
@EO
In general, I think President Obama has done a pretty decent job. I know you disagree. We also disagree on the facts - so the differences of opinion are natural.
I think that President Obama's policy of using drones is a grave mistake.
Hey - look - you asked what he did wrong, I thought about it and came up with something. AND MY HEAD DID NOT EXPLODE!!!
WOW - imagine that!!
drones no...waterboarding yes.......lol....you nitwits are too funny
not directed at you maphi..just our resident petulant child.
and it will be MUCH happier when Obama is re-elected to a second term. RETHUGs ARE RUNNING SCARED.
I remember listening to the speech to nation in October 2002:
Copied from transcript posted on CNN Politics October 7 2002
"There is a reason. We have experienced the horror of September 11. We have seen that those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings full of innocent people. Our enemies would be no less willing -- in fact they would be eager -- to use a biological, or chemical, or a nuclear weapon.
Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
He scared me. I believed him.
There was no "clear evidence of peril" - he was at best distorting or flat-out lying.
I will never forget or forgive him.
@EO
The justification for our invasion of Iraq in 2003 was based on a lie. No nuclear weapons or other WMD were ever found.
Is Iran working on a nuclear device? - look like it.
Did I say I thought we should "Ignore Iran's efforts...". NO!!!!!
I didn't believe him when he made the claim he was going to get OBL no matter what it took as the smoke was still rising from the twin towers on 9/11. Everyone was saying GWB was going to get him I said no he wasn't he was going to run off at the mouth and then invade Iraq, I was called an unAmerican commie. Yep I will never forget GWB and will always remember him as the incompetent village idiot who should have never been president. The guy I want to have a beer with, yeah freaking idiots you don't elect your drunk buddy to be president ffs.
You must be the only one ignoring it? Every time you think Obama might be pressed into action about it, it is the gop and your fellow friends that screech as loud as you can that he is wrong. Damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't in the gop play book. They always go the opposite way of Obama and then when Obama is proved right on the subject, You WHINE, WHINE, WHINE WHINE AND WHINE!
@EO
Where your analogy falls apart is that the police didn't just go to his house to find the machine gun.
The police went into his house - the people there fought back, thousands of police officers were killed, many more were severely injured, many thousands of the people in the house including innocent women and children were killed, the house was destroyed, billions of dollars were spent, - and they couldn't find the gun.
EO, How amusing! How insightful! How much longer?
@EO
You have hit on exactly what the key thing is.
The evidence used to determine that it did exist and that is was going to be used was faulty.
And a very strong case can be made that Bush and Cheney and others KNEW it was faulty and went ahead anyway.
Libya was an entirely different situation. The severe limits put on US involvement in Libya by President Obama were in part an application of lessons learned from the past, including Vietnam and Iraq.
George Bush hid under a rock when he saw Bushvilles spring up all over the US.
I don't think he had enough brains to actually read the crap given to him by white supremacists and wall street speculators.
Bush collapsed the economy using Section 501-506 of the Patriot Act to collapse the housing industry by restoring Mexican Repatriation, while simultaneously using the Predatory Lending Act of 2003 to simultaneously collapse the banking industry by decriminalizing sub-prime mortgages.
The rest of the Patriot Act (the parts that apply to US citizens) suspends habeas corpus (i.e.: no more constitutional protections).
Welcome to martial law everyone.
Imp, here's a clue...'Find me a way to get into Iraq'. GW Bush's quote after one of his aides informed him that no wmd's were found.
Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq?........sorry for the bad editing..still only have one arm to type with
Watch the Segment »
Web Extras
»
A year ago, Paul O'Neill was fired
from his job as George Bush's Treasury Secretary for disagreeing too many times
with the president's policy on tax cuts.
Now, O'Neill - who is known for
speaking his mind - talks for the first time about his two years inside the Bush
administration. His story is the centerpiece of a new book being published this
week about the way the Bush White House is run.
Entitled "The Price of
Loyalty," the book by a former Wall Street Journal reporter draws on interviews
with high-level officials who gave the author their personal accounts of
meetings with the president, their notes and documents. [Simon and Schuster, the
book's publisher, and CBSNews.com, are both units of Viacom.]
But the
main source of the book was Paul O'Neill. Correspondent Lesley Stahl
reports.
Paul O'Neill says he is going public because he thinks the Bush Administration
has been too secretive about how decisions have been made.
Will this be
seen as a "kiss-and-tell" book?
"I've come to believe that people will
say damn near anything, so I'm sure somebody will say all of that and more,"
says O'Neill, who was George Bush's top economic policy official.
In the
book, O'Neill says that the president did not make decisions in a methodical
way: there was no free-flow of ideas or open debate.
At cabinet meetings,
he says the president was "like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There
is no discernible connection," forcing top officials to act "on little more than
hunches about what the president might think."
This is what O'Neill says
happened at his first hour-long, one-on-one meeting with Mr. Bush: "I went in
with a long list of things to talk about, and I thought to engage on and as the
book says, I was surprised that it turned out me talking, and the president just
listening … As I recall, it was mostly a monologue."
He also says that
President Bush was disengaged, at least on domestic issues, and that disturbed
him. And he says that wasn't his experience when he worked as a top official
under Presidents Nixon and Ford, or the way he ran things when he was chairman
of Alcoa.
O'Neill readily agreed to tell his story to the book's author
Ron Suskind – and he adds that he's taking no money for his part in the
book.
Suskind says he interviewed hundreds of people for the book –
including several cabinet members.
O'Neill is the only one who spoke on
the record, but Suskind says that someone high up in the administration – Donald
Rumsfeld - warned O'Neill not to do this book.
Was it a warning, or a
threat?
"I don't think so. I think it was the White House concerned,"
says Suskind. "Understandably, because O'Neill has spent extraordinary amounts
of time with the president. They said, 'This could really be the one moment
where things are revealed.'"
Not only did O'Neill give Suskind his time, he gave him 19,000 internal
documents.
"Everything's there: Memoranda to the President, handwritten
"thank you" notes, 100-page documents. Stuff that's sensitive," says Suskind,
adding that in some cases, it included transcripts of private, high-level
National Security Council meetings. "You don't get higher than that."
And what happened at President Bush's very first National Security
Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.
"From the
very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and
that he needed to go," says O'Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic
"A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.
"From
the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to
change this regime," says Suskind. "Day one, these things were laid and sealed."
As treasury secretary, O'Neill was a permanent member of the National
Security Council. He says in the book he was surprised at the meeting that
questions such as "Why Saddam?" and "Why now?" were never asked.
"It was
all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying
'Go find me a way to do this,'" says O'Neill. "For me, the notion of
pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to
do, is a really huge leap."
And that came up at this first meeting, says
O'Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National
Security Council meeting two days later.
He got briefing materials under
this cover sheet. "There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, 'Plan for
post-Saddam Iraq,'" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of
Iraq in January and February of 2001.
Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the
meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war
crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.
He obtained one
Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi
Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for
exploration.
"It talks about contractors around the world from, you know,
30-40 countries. And which ones have what intentions," says Suskind. "On oil in
Iraq."
During the campaign, candidate Bush had criticized the
Clinton-Gore Administration for being too interventionist: "If we don't stop
extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then
we're going to have a serious problem coming down the road. And I'm going to
prevent that."
"The thing that's most surprising, I think, is how
emphatically, from the very first, the administration had said 'X' during the
campaign, but from the first day was often doing 'Y,'" says Suskind. "Not just
saying 'Y,' but actively moving toward the opposite of what they had said during
the election."
The president had promised to cut taxes, and he did.
Within six months of taking office, he pushed a trillion dollars worth of tax
cuts through Congress.
But O'Neill thought it should have been the end. After
9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, the budget deficit was growing. So at a meeting
with the vice president after the mid-term elections in 2002, Suskind writes
that O'Neill argued against a second round of tax cuts.
"Cheney, at this
moment, shows his hand," says Suskind. "He says, 'You know, Paul, Reagan proved
that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.' …
O'Neill is speechless."
"It was not just about not wanting the tax cut.
It was about how to use the nation's resources to improve the condition of our
society," says O'Neill. "And I thought the weight of working on Social Security
and fundamental tax reform was a lot more important than a tax
reduction."
Did he think it was irresponsible? "Well, it's for sure not
what I would have done," says O'Neill.
The former treasury secretary
accuses Vice President Dick Cheney of not being an honest broker, but, with a
handful of others, part of "a praetorian guard that encircled the president" to
block out contrary views. "This is the way Dick likes it," says O'Neill.
Meanwhile, the White House was losing patience with O'Neill. He was becoming
known for a series of off-the-cuff remarks his critics called gaffes. One of
them sent the dollar into a nosedive and required major damage control.
Twice during stock market meltdowns, O'Neill was not available to the
president: He was out of the country - one time on a trip to Africa with the
Irish rock star Bono.
"Africa made an enormous splash. It was like a road
show," says Suskind. "He comes back and the president says to him at a meeting,
'You know, you're getting quite a cult following.' And it clearly was not a
joke. And it was not said in jest."
Suskind writes that the relationship
grew tenser and that the president even took a jab at O'Neill in public, at an
economic forum in Texas.
The two men were never close. And O'Neill was
not amused when Mr. Bush began calling him "The Big O." He thought the
president's habit of giving people nicknames was a form of bullying. Everything
came to a head for O'Neill at a November 2002 meeting at the White House of the
economic team.
"It's a huge meeting. You got Dick Cheney from the, you
know, secure location on the video. The President is there," says Suskind, who
was given a nearly verbatim transcript by someone who attended the meeting.
He says everyone expected Mr. Bush to rubber stamp the plan under
discussion: a big new tax cut. But, according to Suskind, the president was
perhaps having second thoughts about cutting taxes again, and was
uncharacteristically engaged.
"He asks, 'Haven't we already given money
to rich people? This second tax cut's gonna do it again,'" says Suskind.
"He says, 'Didn't we already, why are we doing it again?' Now, his
advisers, they say, 'Well Mr. President, the upper class, they're the
entrepreneurs. That's the standard response.' And the president kind of goes,
'OK.' That's their response. And then, he comes back to it again. 'Well,
shouldn't we be giving money to the middle, won't people be able to say, 'You
did it once, and then you did it twice, and what was it good for?'"
But
according to the transcript, White House political advisor Karl Rove jumped
in.
"Karl Rove is saying to the president, a kind of mantra. 'Stick to
principle. Stick to principle.' He says it over and over again," says Suskind.
"Don't waver."
In the end, the president didn't. And nine days after
that meeting in which O'Neill made it clear he could not publicly support
another tax cut, the vice president called and asked him to resign.
With
the deficit now climbing towards $400 billion, O'Neill maintains he was in the
right.
But look at the economy today.
"Yes, well, in the last
quarter the growth rate was 8.2 percent. It was terrific," says O'Neill. "I
think the tax cut made a difference. But without the tax cut, we would have had
6 percent real growth, and the prospect of dealing with transformation of Social
Security and fundamentally fixing the tax system. And to me, those were
compelling competitors for, against more tax cuts."
While in the book O'Neill comes off as constantly appalled at Mr. Bush, he was
surprised when Stahl told him she found his portrait of the president
unflattering.
"Hmmm, you really think so," asks O'Neill, who says he
isn't joking. "Well, I'll be darned."
"You're giving me the impression
that you're just going to be stunned if they attack you for this book," says
Stahl to O'Neill. "And they're going to say, I predict, you know, it's sour
grapes. He's getting back because he was fired."
"I will be really
disappointed if they react that way because I think they'll be hard put to,"
says O'Neill.
Is he prepared for it?
"Well, I don't think I need
to be because I can't imagine that I'm going to be attacked for telling the
truth," says O'Neill. "Why would I be attacked for telling the
truth?"
White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked about the book on
Friday and said "The president is someone that leads and acts decisively on our
biggest priorities and that is exactly what he'll continue to do."
Copyright 2009 CBS. All
rights reserved.
0
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gw/cheney a pair that the gop will defend to death. Keep backing the gop and you won't beable to save yourselves because once you get fired from your job because it is going to a foreign county where there is cheaper labor and no one here can afford your goods and services, you will be going down hill fast. Count on it with the Kochroaches and greedy gop.
@Thankful Mom
I agree - and this is one thing that really concerns me.
Any sensible person - when faced with a problem - knows that in order to fix the problem you have to know several things:
The current economic situation was caused by things done in the past - including but not limited to the decisions made during the GWBush administration.
What Romney and the Republicans have stated we should look very much like what caused the problem.
OK but more regulation and government bureaucracy didn't FIX anything ...
8.2% unemployment
18.9% unemployment for Blacks
9.1% for woman,
685,000 woman lost their job and health insurance(who cares about FREE birth
control when you do not have health insurance)
The poverty rate for woman has gone up to 14.2% from 7.6%
We have 5.1 million fewer jobs than 3.5 years ago
3.6 million Residential foreclosures
2.6 million Commercial foreclosures
Over 3.8 million business have gone out of business
38,000 US products moved offshore for manufacturing
The lowest number of patents in 35 years
The highest number of people receiving food stamps in 30 years
A 26% decrease in the value of the dollar
The fewest new prescription drugs in 25 years, 308 prescription drugs in short
supply (as of 6/1/11)
Housing values drop 33%
Vote Nobama 2012!!
Maphi never worked with republicans have you?
1) Break something while trying to solve a nonexistent problem
2) go to the book to see if what you broke is actually broken
3) continue to break more things while trying to fix the non problem
4) spend lots of money on unnecessary things not needed to fix the problem
5) claim the money spent doesn't matter because you were fixing a problem
6) when things get so screwed up it would take a miracle to fix claim that it is beyond their abilities to fix
7) pass the problem off onto someone else and tell them they have to fix the problems they created in 1 day when they spent 8 days creating the mess
8) whine when after 3 days that the person stuck fixing their mess that he isn't doing it fast enough
9) keep denying the person the parts needed to fix the problems they created and tell them they don't need more tools to fix the problem
10) on the 4th day demand the job back because the new guy didn't do what he said he could do so they got a new ideal just ignore that it is the same ideal that created the problem
11) tell themselves that the problem was not their fault it is that the job just won't get done because no one can be trusted to do the right thing but give them the job and they will prove the job can't be done
YUP name calling always works when you don't have nothing Else...
Vote NObama 2012!!
You should know about that b, you are and expert.
Emp, and you should know about desperation.....isn't that why you are here?
Maybe there are some here who think of this as a job, are you against working for a living? Or is it that we work for the Democratic party?
I always knew that those old troll call panhead and stupidida had a sence of humor ...I remember once when he/she was calling themselves in one of their re-reg moments, operating under the nick of "Tea for Everyone" she had a mouse in a trap while she was over at her parents house faking it out on their computer.....that made us all laugh.....that troll keeps changing dust bunny costumes, but can't help but get caught. Now that is one troll that never goes missing, because he keeps re-appearing under one...disguise or another. Once he was the Taliban commander, another Barny Fife.....Real original name, wouldn't you say? I'm Laughing, how about you?
TM, I'm ROTFL OE is such a wit!
Ooops forgot the first t. Such a clumsy liberal!
Twit and wit are two very similar words.....India! You forgot the second F.
LOL, TM.
He is getting on my last nerve, I must go fix dinner.
And some of us are fortunate enough to stay home, like Ann Romney. I happen to like to cook. I am good at it, too.
I am noting the time, and your "real job" does not seem to be taking up much of it. Otherwise, you'd hardly be trolling this blog at all hours.
maphi-
I never believed there were WMDs in Iraq or that Hussein wanted to attack us. The UN observers said there weren't any, and nobody found any. On top of that, there was no reason for a 3rd-rate dictator in the middle east to attack the world's only nuclear-armed superpower. For what reason? We could wipe him off the map. He wanted to take over the middle east, not the world. He also had been friends with us until Bush 43 turned on him. He still wanted to be friends.
I tried explaining this to people I knew, but they weren't listening. They were too scared by the Bush con-job of "mushroom clouds on the horizon! Toxic chemical warfare!" They just didn't use realistic thinking of why would Hussein do this. You have to understand the forces involved.
India, What do you mean fix dinner? It's only 3:05pm. Mine isn't for another 3 hours. lol
LOL, You must be west of me!
Is that what the problem is?
Good decision.
Romney admitted he wants to restore the bu!!$hit that caused the problem.
YES more drugs for us all....... we'll keep them in a drug induced coma ....they wont know who I blame next.....NObama NObama!!!!!!
Vote NObama 2012!!
Yep, that is the gop mistake. They and the Kochroaches plan to introduce us to slavery and "Keep Us Down" so they can take advantage of all ( that includes you) . Romney isn't smart enough that he is being "USED" either. LOL
Dude.
Democrats and republicans were the same political party until 1854.
Which elementary school did you go to?
revisionist history? No room - that post is filled by fuc king O'Really.
Canary, Your not impressing anybody with your foul language. Pretty much shows your mentality. Clean it up!!!!
How will I remember "W?" This is easy......AN IDIOT!
I will remember him...seldom.
let's see....called him Mr. when he was pres and now I call him good riddance. no matter how he or anyone else try to spin him....the second depression of our times will be on his watch and again a democrat has to clean up the mess.
adios and very very very goodby....take Cheney with you where ever the sun don't shine..............
Yes so true Emperor Obama:
Here's the passage from his book, Dreams from My Father, where he discusses his drug use:
"I had learned not to care. I blew a fewsmoke rings, remembering those years. Pothad helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though—Mickey, my potentioal intiator had been just a little too eager for me to go through with that."
Why????? is it that Nobama calls Rommey a Felon,when NObama in his Autobiography admitted to doing drugs, weed and Cocaine... Last I remember drugs are ILLEGAL in this country... NOW thats a felony......
Vote NObama 2012!!
Romney's plan is Patriot Act III with an added bonus of decriminalizing financial fraud.
More prisoners in those corporate prisons so Halliburton can make more money so Cheney gets richer! Need I go on?
Petition/Tell Congress to pass farm bill
http://action.heidifornorthdakota.com/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=577
As the country will suffer its worst drought and crops a going to fail! Family farmers the life blood of their income is under attack! The teapublicans see this as a chance to force family farmers to fold and sell their farmland so the corporate rich can do what the vultures do best. We as a country are under attack from the people that have sworn to work in the peoples best interest. Not so much!
PS if corporations have control of the food and feed they will have another monopoly just like they do on oil/gas. Greedy rotten bastards!
XXX- so exactly how will the drought force farmers to sell to corporations- a lot of states including ND have laws that prohibit ownership of ag land by corporations-
second most producers have revenue insurance and will get big checks as a result of the drough- crop producers will be more than ok- it is the livestock producer and processors (for which no farm bill provides generally any thing will suffer) that are going to suffer
Petition/Libor Scandal tell White House to investigation by US Justice Dept.
http://www.change.org/petitions/white-house-demand-an-investigation-by-the-us-justice-department-on-the-libor-scandal?utm_campaign=autopublish&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
With job growth tailing off since spring and the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, wondering aloud whether the labor market is “stuck in the mud,” the poll showed a significant shift in opinion about Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy, with 39 percent now saying they approved and 55 percent saying they disapproved.
I will remember him as an arrogant p@^%k, who pulled off the biggest Fraud (IRAQ) , Which, In my opinion was nothing more than a Sabre Rattling Country due to it's FOE IRAN, And in regards to IRAN, IF there was any Concern about NUKES, mark my word's, ISRAEL WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT ISSUE.
Another grim milestone: Over twice as many US soldier have been killed in Afghanistan under Barack Obama than under George W. Bush.
1954 U.S. soldiers have been lost so far in the Afghanistan war according to icasualties
my only answer is If Combat Operation's are Increased, Then that is the sad, unfortunate reality of WAR.
and AFGHANISTAN is a waste of TIME and MONEY - we need to pull out totally and unconditionally - leave NOTHING of value. STOP WASTING MONEY
canaryinthecoalmine,#21.3 Yes, we do. Let's build some roads and schools and bridges in THIS country for a damn change! Over there we waste money building and they blow it up. Wonderful!
We need to declare victory and come home where we're needed.
NObama can't run on his record because his policies, his economy
policies have failed and have made things worse. And as a result, he's turned
to the politics of envy and division. That's what this is about, nothing but
pure politics."
Vote NObama 2012!!
b113: Do you research anything or just repeat?
My faith in American is continually challenged - not our system of government, mind you. I believe in the checks and balances that exist will ensure that we don’t go too far left or right. (The mid-term Election comes to mind)
Rather, it is in the people who are provided the privilege of calling themselves Americans that I am most frightened by.
I was watching the Ed show and he was discussing the fact that the statement “You didn’t build that” was taken out of context – and then proceed to back up his position by showing edited excerpts of Mitt Romney, taken out of context to prove his point. Hypocritical, definitely – Irresponsible – absolutely.
So rare do I waste my time reading the dribble perpetuated here, but I am glad I did today as it is preparing me for what will surely be another 4 years of President Obama.
With the right to vote comes the responsibility to educate yourself so that you can make an informed decision. Anyone that excepts that responsibility cannot in good conscientious vote in favor of Barak Obama.
Do yourselves a favor and verify information before you except it as fact and most definitely STOP watching the Ed Show.
Goodbye.
Ya, Chris but, he dribbled in *our* house going out the door. POS
UNREAL First I THANK your son's service, But Go and find Some Marines who served in BEIRUT and ask them about R O E, Go and ask Servicemen that were in Vietnam the same question, Just dont think for 1 minute that Pres. Obama is the only one who has put crazy R O E on Troop's. Quite a few others have done the same.
NBC should know all about taking Mitt out of context since they have already been caught doing that...but then again, this blog never bothered to call them on it, just the other network.
What hypocrisy...AGAIN
just saying...
Then there is this breaking story in local news ...
that isn't possible...you guys said there isn't any voter fraud...
just saying...
Then there's Florida!
Storm, pay attention.
There is no voter fraud but, obviously there is voting fraud (aka fraud on the other side of the counter). And now this. Doubling down there, huh? Who would have thunk it considering the stellar ethics of the new GOP?
We all know about voting machine tampering and throwing out ballots only because the "wrong" people presented just for a couple. Did you ever see that damn butterfly ballot that caused all the problems in 2000? I'm a technical minded person and gosh darn, it was easy to see how there could be so many SNAFU's.
This behavior is unbelievable. How do you monitor situation like this? Oh, wait, we'll take ridicules measures to suppress the vote but, darn it this is no big deal with how we handle the applications for registration? Bullsh!t. All the ACORN spam we've had to put up with fake outrage but, this? Crickets. What hypocrits. I so glad I quit that that team because I wasn't willing to go over the cliff with the rest of the crazies. I really haven't change that much in my views.....it was the party that left me and a lot of others.
Hi, Crack! Thank you for that article....I think. It *really* shook me up. Only got through half of it and had to stop. Came back here to finish it and now I don't think I can. I'll know at least to go to your column which I really want to and need to visit a lot more than I do. Have you posted it to the main comment poll? It really needs to be posted on those and *often*.
It's like we're dealing with an organisation that should be prosecuted under the RICCO statutes. The slander that comes out and gets more vulgar with each day should be tried in a court of law because it gone way past opinion to slander that is making the quality of life in America almost non-existent and at the rate it's going, soon there will be none. Some people need to get a spanking in their wallets and maybe they'll start behaving and we can more forward together to keep the American dream alive.
Maybe George Carlin is right and it never existed because we were deluded and did nothing to stop the deterioration. I had to think for a moment when one of the trolls said republics only last about 200 years and then they naturally collapse. He was probably just trying to yank some chains for attention. I have to reject that because I have more Faith in the Founders when they put that special little declaration and attached another document that they really thought hard and long about what the effect would be. Maybe it hasn't been nurtured enough over the past 30 years and it is dying. Maybe we put just to Faith in the abilities of just another group of pretty smart men and things of men can never be counted on to carry you through.
Thanks again, Crack. <s>
No hypocrisy here...I am for guidelines and protections on both sides of the fence to insure a fair election. BOTH sides are guilty.
just saying...
Americans want GW back . Clean up Obamas mess. I would rather have a president who has CEO'd a thriving business, than a 6 trillion dollar man who hasnt even ran a hot dog stand.
GWB bankrupted 4 businesses. And the US is not a business.
The Rap on Bush and Cheney
By BILL SAPORITO Sunday, July 14, 2002
At issue is whether the two men benefited during their business careers from the same kind of cronyism and slippery accounting that the Administration is now publicly condemning. The day before Bush was scheduled to deliver a speech meant to spank Wall Street, he held a press conference to advertise his standing as a Main Street kind of guy. He wanted to show small investors, says an aide, that he "shared their outrage."
But once the questions began, Bush looked like a 5-year-old losing a battle with an ice-cream cone on a summer day. His sale of stock as a director of Harken Energy in 1990, a once scrutinized deal that had faded into obscurity, was now alive in a much less forgiving environment. Bush dumped $848,000 worth of Harken stock two months before the company announced a $23.2 million loss; he was 34 weeks late in filing a form the Securities and Exchange Commission required to record the sale. Old news, the President said, noting that the SEC investigated the sale and took no action.
Bush's business dealings were legal but on the wrong side of the new corporate morality he is now preaching. How could the President chastise executives for doing the same kinds of things he did as a director, without apology? Bush received subsidized loans from Harken to buy company stock—a practice he now wants to ban. In 1989 Harken concealed losses by selling most of a subsidiary to an off-the-books entity controlled by company insiders. Bush was on the audit committee, which, at least in theory, approved the deal. It's the same tactic used by Enron—on a massive, more pernicious scale—before it imploded.
As Bush struggled to explain away the past, Cheney was being investigated by the SEC and sued by Halliburton shareholders and the conservative activist group Judicial Watch. The allegation: that Halliburton, while Cheney was CEO, greased the books to boost the firm's flagging fortunes. Its decline was due in part to Cheney's signature strategic move—Halliburton's merger with Dresser Industries in 1998, when Dresser was about to be buried under asbestos-contamination lawsuits. Halliburton remains burdened with the liability of more than 200,000 suits and as of last year was on the hook for $125 million in settlements. Its stock has fallen from nearly $60 to about $13.50, imperiling the retirement savings of blue-collar workers. (Cheney cashed in his Halliburton stock options before taking office, clearing more than $20 million before the shares tanked.)
Markets need trust as much as they do liquidity. If Bush and Cheney aren't perceived as being clean, how much confidence can investors have in their reforms? "I'm one of these rare creatures who think there must be some responsibility," says Oklahoma City attorney Bill Federman, who is suing Halliburton. "The entire securities market is melting down, and you have the President and Vice President who were apparently involved in the same type of situation that's leading to the meltdown." Federman has company. In a new TIME/CNN poll, 43% said they believe the President's stock sale was improper but not illegal.
When Bush went into the oil business in Midland, Texas, he didn't discover enough of the stuff to strike it rich. He merged his first company, Arbusto (Spanish for "bush"), into one called Spectrum 7 in 1984 and then led the struggling firm into Harken's embrace in 1986. In exchange for his 15% stake in Spectrum, Bush got Harken stock worth some $320,000; he was also hired as an $80,000-a-year consultant. Harken founder Phil Kendrick explained it this way: "His name was George Bush," he told Time. "That was worth the money they paid him."
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,320735,00.html
I just check my calender and it is year 2012 not 2002.
Thanks for the up date.
Hey Stupidita, my old nemesis....still here, huh?
I guess not all prayers are answered. Or some take more time?
How's it goin?
ho-lee-cow-
Kinda funny you had to check, though. Explains the usual fog you're in.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/152042/federal-government-jobs-disappearing-rapid-pace.aspx
NObama the socialist: or Anti-American???
Nobama made the comment Friday during a speech to supporters in Roanoke, Va.
Arguing that business owners got help from others along the road to success and
suggesting they should pay more in taxes in return, he said: "If you've
got a business you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
Vote Nobama 2012!!
How will we remember Bush - ah, in a word....
Strategery
Not nucular?
I wonder how many of those "57" states obama will win come Nov.
Here are some of the terrible things that have been said of our president: From The Richmond Dispatch: just after the election, "Yesterday....the freest people on Earth...made a formal surrender of their liberties to a vulgar tyrant..whose personal qualities are those of a low buffoon."
He has been called, An ignoramus, a despot, a liar, a thief, a fiend, a butcher, a pirate, a braggart, a swindler, a perjurer and the concentrated quintessence of Evil.
Bush? No, not Bush. Obama? No, not Obama.
Abraham Lincoln.
(Excerpts from The Obama Hate Machine, by Bill Press.)
Cagey, ILC.