Begala: Bush Is A "Dead Duck"

Congress approval rating just 10% as Bush goes from 'lame to dead duck'

The controversy over the failure of the Bush administration's unpopular financial bail-out is infecting every aspect of government and the presidential election campaign.

Eminent reputations lie in ruins; the august institutions of Congress, the treasury, the Federal Reserve tremble; the presidency itself is shaken. In America's year of living dangerously, few will emerge unscathed.

The consensus view, if there is one in so divided a nation, is that the US has suffered a calamitous, across-the-board failure of leadership. The bankruptcy is political as well as economic. This conclusion is widely held among both supporters and opponents of the bail-out.

"Monday's crash and burn of the Paulson plan on Capitol Hill reveals a Washington elite that has earned every bit of the disdain that Americans have for it. This crowd can't even make sausage," snarled a Wall Street Journal editorial yesterday. Black Monday's shambles marked a "historic abdication".

Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives were excoriated for political cowardice, childish disputatiousness, and a selfish desire to get re-elected next month at any cost. It's clear, whatever they do next, the public simply does not trust them to do it right.

"A political establishment held in higher regard may have been able to hold together some kind of coalition of the willing," wrote Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post. "But distrust of the nation's leaders, from the leaders of Congress to the president, foreclosed that possibility."

This was not mere rhetoric. Congress's public approval rating was down to 18% before the crisis hit. By some estimates, it is now 10% and falling. Washington has seen a "throw the bums out" mood before, notably Newt Gingrich's 1994 anti-government "Republican revolution". But this is something else. Like some others, Gingrich is calling for the resignation of Hank Paulson, the treasury secretary, for presiding over a train wreck and then failing to persuade people why $700bn was needed to get back on the rails.

Other heads enthusiastically recommended for the chopping block include Democratic house speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for being "too partisan" and the Republican house minority leader, John Boehner, for not being partisan enough.

An unhappy Boehner said before the vote that the bail-out was a "crap sandwich" that he and colleagues were obliged to eat. As it turned out, 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats found it too much to swallow.

Many members of Congress found themselves caught between party leadership and angry constituents and sought to explain themselves.

"We are now in the golden age of thieves. And where I come from we put thieves in jail, we don't bail them out," said Pete Visclosky, an Indiana Democrat who voted 'no'.

The signal failure, as critics see it, of President George Bush to show a lead out of the morass has provoked a new crop of political obituaries.

"No longer a lame duck, he's a dead duck," said Democratic strategist Paul Begala.

I share with Begala the same sage advice Dick Cheney gave to national security risk Loony Leahy: Go fuck yourself.

Via The Guardian