The article in question:
Animal House Summit
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: July 19, 2006
Reporters who covered W.'s 2000 campaign often wondered whether the Bush scion would give up acting the fool if he got to be the king. Would he stop playing peekaboo with his pre-meal moist towels during airplane interviews? Would he quit scrunching up his face and wiggling his eyebrows at memorial services? Would he replace levity and inanity with gravity?
"In many regards, the Bush I knew did not seem to be built for what lay ahead," wrote Frank Bruni, the Times writer who covered W.'s ascent, in his book "Ambling Into History." "The Bush I knew was part scamp and part bumbler, a timeless fraternity boy and heedless cutup, a weekday gym rat and weekend napster, an adult with an inner child that often brimmed to the surface or burst through.
The open-microphone incident at the G-8 lunch in St. Petersburg on Monday illustrated once more that W. never made any effort to adapt. The president has enshrined his immaturity and insularity, turning every environment he inhabits - no matter how decorous or serious - into a comfortable frat house.
No matter what the trappings or the ceremonies require of the leader of the free world, he brings the same DKE diction, bearing and cadences, the same insouciance and smart-alecky attitude, the same simplistic approach - swearing, swaggering, talking to Tony Blair with his mouth full of buttered roll, and giving a startled Angela Merkel an impromptu shoulder rub. He can make even a global summit meeting seem like a kegger.
Catching W. off-guard, the really weird thing is his sense of victimization. He's strangely resentful about the actual core of his job. Even after the debacles of Iraq and Katrina, he continues to treat the presidency as a colossal interference with his desire to mountain bike and clear brush.
In snippets of overheard conversation, Mr. Bush says he has not bothered to prepare any closing remarks and grouses about having to listen to other world leaders talk too long. What did he think being president was about?
The world may be blowing up, and the president may have a rare opportunity to jaw-jaw about bang-bang with his peers, but that pales in comparison with his burning desire to return to his feather pillow and gym back at the White House.
"Gotta go home,"’ he tells the guy next to him. "Got something to do tonight. Go to the airport, get on the airplane and go home." A White House spokesman said Mr. Bush had nothing on his schedule after he returned to Washington on Monday about 4 p.m.
When he began meandering about how big Russia was, you expected him to yell, "Yo, Condi!" and ask his secretary of state: "Hey, what’s the name of that other big country that has more people than any other country in the world? It begins with a 'C.' Dad spent some time there."
Perhaps it's that anti-patrician chip on his shoulder, his rebellion against a family that prized manners and diplomacy above all. But when bored or frustrated, W. reserves the right to be boorish - no matter if the setting is a gilded palace or a Texas gorge.
He treated Tony "As It Were" Blair like the servant in "The Remains of the Day," blowing off his offer to help with the Israel-Lebanon crisis, and changing the subject from substance to fluff at one point, noting about his 60th-birthday Burberry gift: "Thanks for the sweater. Awfully thoughtful of you." Then he razzed the British prime minister, who was hovering and wheedling like an abused wife: "I know you picked it out yourself."
After doing his best to undermine the U.N. and Kofi Annan, W. talked about the secretary general like a fraternity pledge he wanted to send out for more beer or a keg of Diet Coke: "I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen."
His loosey-goosey confidence that everything could be fixed with a phone call - and not even a phone call made by him, and not even a phone call made to the Iranians, who have more control over Hezbollah - was striking. He seems to have no clue that his own headlong, heedless actions in the Middle East have contributed to the deepening chaos there, and to Iran's growing influence and America's diminished leverage.
Mr. Bush may resent the sophistication required of a president. But when the world is going to hell, he should stop chewing and start thinking.
Republican Comments to the article:
:: Courtesy ::
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1669406/posts
From: Arec Barrwin
MD....When you spread you legs do maggots crawl out? Have you stopped smiling because your teeth are all gray and green? When your braless breasts sag, does your back ache?
From: SeanOGuano
"an adult with an inner child that often brimmed to the surface or burst through"Not at all like our Bubba, the most perfect Prez in American history.
From: crazyhorse691
Pathetic attempts at Journalism will be Dodos legacy to the world. Pity the fool; she is not worthy of anything more or less.
From: FormerACLUmember
Humorless washed up hag/drunk Dowd needs to get a clue. Who on earth reads her sewer bilge anyway?
From: RushCrush
She has HUGE FEET!!! yikes!
From: pissant
What a squalid, ignorant See You Next Tuesday
From: conservative in nyc (posted a picture of Michael Dougless (ex-husband to Maureen Dowd & Katherine Zeta Jones whispering to each other)
Here's another. You know, for Maureen Dowd's sake. This one definitely shows why Dowd is a man-hating shrew. One look at CZJ, and Michael Douglas dumped Dowd for a much better woman. And she had his baby.
From: geezerwheezer
Speaking of "Animal House", is Maureen Doud still the lead bitc*, or is she just still a dog? I saw the picture of her at the bar and wondered if she has varicose veins or are those just cheap hose she's wearing? Whatever, her legs look like they could hold up 960 lbs. of crap, which I hope is enough to support her. ( her feet look like she could water ski without skis)
And the most intelligent comment of the day has the most ignorant statement of them all!
From: Niuhuru
Y'know, with all that Bush keeps getting shoved onto his plate, they just never let up. It's sickening. They never give him a single break or show any sympathy. It's not his fault the Middle East has erupted in a war, it's not his fault 9/11 happened, and the immigration issue was ignored by Clintoon and in my opinion it's why it's built up to this. Bush is also battling embryonic stem stell research (which is disgusting and demonic, using children as spare parts) and he's also trying to get things passed that he wanted to do as President. Furthermore, the reason the idiot left is bashing him about Iraq, it's because Iraq isn't one of their trendy causes.
Progressive Comments to the article:
:: Courtesy ::
http://www.pekingduck.org/archives/003918.php
From: other lisa
He's a psychopath/sociopath check out The Sociopath Next Door for a description of a person who will portray himself as a victim while showing no empathy for others.
Recall Bush's behavior in re those on death row when he was governor.
Posted by: zeldon
Ole Bush showed he could chew buttered rolls and settle world affairs at the same time
Posted by: darby1936
He'd better not try doing that with a pretzel.
Posted by: 937-325-9136
Taylor Marsh and Crooks and Liars both have still shots from a video of Bush groping Angele Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, much to her surprise and chagrin.
The look on Bush's face when Chancellor Merkel reacts to his importuning oafishness is priceless. It shows what a clod this guy really is, much to our embarassment.
From: davesgonechina
Merkel's face when he started givin' the shoulder rub just screams "get your hands off me, you dirty sob". He reminded me of some old expat guys in China I know who are always using backrubs to try and get in the panties of women a third their age.
From: pastor
Bush showed his true colours. Bored and uninterested.
ANY QUESTIONS?
Compliance is Not Consent
5 years ago
10 comments:
another great post, red.
Ever notice where the "blue" areas are in each state? (Especially mine: NC) They are in the most educated, most advanced and most tolerant areas. In response to my own post...greater wisdom = greater tolerance. The ad hominem attacks by the republicans proves that they can't construct an argument for Dowd's article so they attack the author instead.
We need the "blue" areas to grow.
Oh my God. WTF??
I've started popping in here for the sheer entertainment value... I am absolutely staggered and fascinated by the manner in which Bush supporters speak about him -- and by the rabid ferocity with which they defend him, and the blind fervor with which they praise and worship him. It's like watching Charlie Manson's mother weep at his trial and beg the Court's leniency, pointing out that after all, nobody's perfect.
(I don't know where Charlie's old lady was during his trial, or whether he even had one - I'm thinkin' maybe he was just hatched from some chemical detritus in the alley behind a medical lab somewhere; I'm just SAYing, if he HAD a mother, and if she'd been in court...).
It's weird and disturbing(the support posts), and it's more than a little creepy. Combine the sheer notion of Bush support with the freedom of speech, mob rules, and the right to bear arms, and I'm thinking it won't be long before half of America's gonna be left with no choice but to leave behind its beloved land and join the world just to safeguard the lives and psyches of its children and future generations.
I'm all for "everyone's got a right to their opinion" and everything, but holy YIKES with the Bush support, already.
Amen gillis. :)
I_CANNOT_believe that I share the same_country with the people who voted this bumbling_fool as our president!!!
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