SEEMS LIKE NO ONE LIKES BUSH ANYMORE-- I WONDER WHY

This morning's Washington Post has a front page story that covers politics from a more realistic point of view than the hacks claiming that the Democrats' (and Nancy Pelosi's) goose is cooked because of her support for Jack Murtha. That's false. This one is real. Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush. And have they ever! They blame him for the catastrophe in Iraq (which even Tony Blair now admits is a "disaster" and, still worse for many GOP solons, not to mention soon-to-be ex-salons, they blame him for Republican losses in  Congress.

"Heading into the final chapter of his presidency, fresh from the sting of a midterm election defeat, Bush finds himself with fewer and fewer friends. Some of the strongest supporters of the war have grown disenchanted, former insiders are registering public dissent and Republicans on Capitol Hill blame him for losing Congress."

Many feel the hallmark of Bush's regime has been mismanagement, if not outright incompetence-- and those are Republicans... right-wing ones! "'People expect a level of performance they are not getting,' former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said in a speech. Many were livid that Bush waited until after the elections to oust Rumsfeld. 'If Rumsfeld had been out, you bet it would have made a difference,' Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said on television. 'I'd still be Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.'"

The Post suggests that Senate Republicans sought some revenge on Bush by electing his most bitter intra-party enemy, Trent Lott, their Whip. Other charges have started flying as well: Bush was aloof, authoritarian. even too holier-than-thou (if not downright blasphemous in claims to some kind of Divine approval) for Republicans. Republicans, even those not agog over the mismanagement in Iraq, started breaking with Bush over uncontrolled federal spending, an innately dishonest, nearly indefensible corporate immigration policy, the Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers, the lack of adequate response to Hurricane Katrina, and the public outrage over Bush's Dubai Ports World deal.

The biggest problem Republican Insiders have with Bush, of course, is the same problem causing his approval rating among non-Insiders to keep falling and falling like there is no bottom: Iraq. This suggests serious political problems ahead, problems that neither Rove nor Cheney will be able to rescue him from. When Mitch McConnell threatened that Democrats better not impede Bush's campaign to pack the federal courts with unqualified far right ideologues, Chuck Schumer laughed in his face and said, basically, bring 'em on.