The Final Days – 40 Reason Left

#40. No Hero…but a Pet Goat: Who can forget those seven minutes after WH Chief of Staff Andy Card told President Bush that a second plane had been flown into the World Trade Center and that the United States was under attack? Not the children of Emma Booker Elementary in Sarasota. They know those moments as the time the President of the United States hung out with them to hear the end of The Pet Goat, the literary bedrock of Bush’s 9/11 response. Seven minutes he sat there, claiming later to not want to scare the kids. Hey, how about the Secret Service getting the man out of the building and not keeping the children at risk? How about the President excusing himself to get more details from his staff, or get on the phone with CentCom, or to get to the teacher’s lounge to or call Laura to see if she is watching it on the t.v., or calling his daughters to be sure they are not too drunk to get up and go to the store and get him this great book he just read.

#39. Harriet Miers: Oh, Harriet. Picked by W. to be a Supreme Court Justice when your only qualifications were your claim that Bush was “the most brilliant man” you had ever met. Ever? No, Harriet, you were not qualified, and the idea of you as Attorney General to follow Alberto Gonzalez actually made Bush’s buddies mad. So, you left and then we found out your fingerprints are all over the U.S. Attorney dismissal scandal. You refused to testify or provide documentation because your boss said you didn’t have to. Both houses of Congress voted to hold you in contempt for not showing up to testify. Nice.

#38. Kenny-Boy: When I first heard about the collapse of Enron and the scandalous allegations of this corporate giant pilfering millions from its own investors, I admit I didn’t understand it all. I admit today that I still don’t understand anything about securities fraud. What I do know is stupidity. Bush had Cheney to strong-arm energy companies across the country to employ Enron. Lay made millions. So did his investors. So he took their money. Bush just shrugged his shoulders, never having to answer for their relationship because Enron failed (laying off 20,000) in the months following 9/11 – Bush’s Teflon.

#37. Stupid Comments on the 7’s: The quote which made Farenheit 911 seem almost fictional.


#36. The President’s Other War Pt.1 Pt. 2: I previously pointed out that, simply put, this President was not a fan of science. No amount of empirical evidence could phase him on such not-so-confusing issues like embryonic cell research (not abortion by the way). But, for a second look at this reason, I’ll let a good doctor (not Bill Frist) do the explaining.

#35. Terri Schiavo: I can’t really blame Bush for the Schiavo debacle, but it certainly did not help that the doctor he thought so highly of as the Speaker of the House could not tell after looking at a “videotape,” whether this woman, clearly in a vegetative state was actually in a vegetative state. "I question it based on a review of the video footage which I spent an hour or so looking at last night in my office." Serious doctors seemed to grumble. The Congress (in the middle of two wars, mind you) leaped into action to stop the woman from being pulled off life support (despite her wishes and the fact she was brain dead). Now, here is where it gets Bush-wacky: After Congress “acted,” the President CUT SHORT HIS VACATION to come back to Washington to sign the bill. Um, he didn’t cut his vacation short to deal with Katrina (that's him playing around after New Orleans flooded). Oh, and by the way, autopsy reports confirmed that Bill Frist was an idiot.

#34. Politically Incorrectly Abusive: On September 17, 2001 Bill Maher on his Politically Incorrect political talk show, talked, and said this about Bush’s comment that the terrorists were cowards: "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly." Right or wrong, it was a debatable string of words that could not damage 230 years of prosperity. Yet, it was the first indication that Bush’s America would not allow free speech or debate. Suddenly you either “with us” or supporting the terrorists. Listen, I like Maher, I don’t love every thought of his, but America lost a little part of its soul when this happened.

#33. Tom Delay: Seriously evil. One of Bush’s personal demons. Like the coke and the booze.

#32. Mom Issues: Did you watch HBO’s John Adams? And how about that Abigail? Remarkable. Do you think the first First Lady Who Also Became Mother of the President would have said this about the Katrina refugees forced to relocate hundreds of miles from home into the crowded, chaotic Houston Astrodome:
“What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
Me either.

#31. The U.S. Attorney Scandal: This Bushism seems to be mostly forgotten, but not by those Americans affected by, or concerned with, politically-motivated crime. Not since Watergate has an Administration been so clearly linked to operating under the umbrella of party and politics. In this case, at least seven U.S. Attorneys, all with exemplary records and work reviews, were let go. Their deficiency? They were not “loyal Bushies” as the Attorney General’s officials told Congress. Not loyal to Bush or the Republican Party. In other words, they were independently judicious. Or fair. And the fish just kept rotting. Hidden emails, Rove, Miers, lies, testimony, contempt of court, and no punishment for Alberto or George.