useful idiot

* this via kath: " Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres met with Ned Lamont, Connecticut's Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, at a dinner in New York on Friday night to discuss the ongoing conflict in the Middle East"
thats great fucking news.

* don:

Been reading through some of the 9/11 threads, particularly relating to Bush's lack of reaction and protection on 9/11/01. I've been wondering to what degree he's 'in' on all the big, behind-the-scenes plans. While he's certainly been useful as a talker, as a rallying point, and as a lightning rod for criticism, with his frat boy attitude and antics, what's he really been doing in terms of policy and its execution?

For all the talk of 'disconnect' and the collective neocon delusion, these aren't stupid people. At some level, for all the rhetoric and bloviation, at least some of them have to have an idea of what the reality is while they're crafting their narratives.

The big exception seems to be GWB. Unscripted, except for some of his cheerleading, he's senseless on anything of consequence. We've noted previously the contrast between TX-Gov Bush and POTUS Bush, especially in recent years. If he's always been as he appears now, and if all the previous polish was pure coaching, what if somewhere along they just stopped coaching him?

Notably, while many of the other power players, including Jeb, were PNAC signatories, GWB was not. Within his bubble on 9/11, the Aug PDB aside, while he was told of the attacks as they occurred, what if at the time he didn't know the big plan, or that it was being executed at that moment? If it all breaks, is he a useful-idiot-cum-patsy?

I'm looking at all of the recent fire he's taken and I'm wondering if it hasn't been in the script all along. Taking KR's innoculation a step further, as the Bush43 isolationism progresses, by the time '08 comes along, just about anyone the GOP puts forward is going to appear rational and intellectual in comparison. With each "Bush=loser/idiot/incompetant" report, that contrast is getting easier to paint.

Are they building up to throwing him under a bus themselves, and who do they have in mind to 'clean up the mess'?

Either way, the harder the GOP tries to distance themselves from Bush now, with all congressional Repubs have done to enable Bushite policies, the harder the Dems need to be making Bush the iron ball they're chained to."

couldnt agree more. he's just a useful idiot - although i'm amazed that he (inadvertently) plays the part so well. any normal human would have broken down by now.