texas comfort

george w bush is okay with being disliked. if there is one thing we can say with certainty about this president, it is that he does not lose sleep over people disagreeing with him or thinking ill of him.

a few years ago i saw gary trudeau interviewed on tv. trudeau went to yale with george w bush. he described the would be president as frat guy-ish, and it was clear trudeau at least did not think much of bush and possibly disliked him.

since he has taken office he has thumbed his nose at public opinion to such a degree he has reaped the worst approval ratings of any president ever, including previous criminal presidents. he hires his friends, bypassing a healthy level of nepotism choosing instead the paranoid practice of surrounding himself with yes-men, sycophants and like-minded idealogues. this practice indicates a blatant disregard for the good of our nation.

george w bush represents a blend of mediocre intelligence and egomania. it all makes sense, too. he grew up in an environment where he wanted for nothing, (though he obviously wanted for everything simultaneously.) at school, he probably got away with being a little rude, being a respecter of persons, not apologizing for his class and prestige consciousness. his father was a war hero and a major political player. he went to the best schools. his family had money and associated in elite circles. we know he had those years of drinking a lot of beer and doin' some coke. i guess it was easy to get or be lazy about study habits in his formative years, relying instead on bullying people and maintaining his lifestyle.

it has not mattered to bush when his behavior has been challenged or exposed. he just stands there and takes, or deflects, the heat. it is likely the majority of decisions in bush's administration have been made by dick cheney and karl rove. even when bush made the decision, it likely stemmed from the idealogy he learned from these two pariahs. while rove's role was to gain power, and cheney's role was to set the agenda for how to use the power, bush's role was first to use his pedigree to be electable and second, to stand there and take the heat.

when his cohorts decided it would be worth it to out the cia agent wife of the guy who dared challenge their propaganda campaign in order to send a message about how they viewed authority and how absolute they expected their power to be, bush's role was to answer questions, even if his answers were of the, "i will not comment on an ongoing investigation," ilk.

"we don't torture," bush said knowing the answer was not an answer at all and would infuriate those who knew better or expected a real answer. bush just said it though. he's the decider and this is his big skill. he is the ultimate nose-thumbing president.

who would have the nerve to tell the american people, the most educated nation on the planet, that iraq had weapons of mass destruction? someone who figured as president he had the ultimate comeback to anyone who would challenge him. bush's neocon henchmen did play their role, they did all they could to spread the propaganda and frame iraq as the threat it just could not be. they muddied all the waters, creating links between saddam hussein and osama bin laden, iraq and al qaida, that did not exist, but it was bush who had to say it to the american people to truly begin the campaign that became our phony war on terror in iraq.

jack abramoff received $82 million from indian gaming interests as he peddled influence around the capitol. he also visited the white house a number of times. bush said he did not necessarily remember abramoff. while people do not like liars or being duped in the face of a mountain of evidence, to bush it does not matter. he does not mind if people do not like him.

bush had the nerve to nominate harriet miers for the supreme court, despite her lack of credentials for the position. he appointed a horse guy in michael brown to head fema. he stood up to tremendous pressure to keep donald rumsfeld and alberto gonzalez around as long as possible. he has been the commander in chief during an era of unprecedented torture on the part of americans. from abu ghraib to gitmo to sites of extraoridinary rendition, (the horrifying details of which have yet to come to light,) around the world, bush stands above it all seemingly comfortable with being the object of derision.

many debate how intelligent this president is or how devious and evil he really is. one thing we can know for sure is that he is not bothered by being disliked or questioned or derided. he deflects this stuff if only in his own mind by making up nicknames for the white house press corps and trying to bully the occasional reporter who tries to stand up to his bully pulpit tactics.

he has no shame, whatsoever.