WP Analysis: A New Moment of Truth For a White House in Crisis

[Pirate Smile]

A New Moment of Truth For a White House in Crisis

By Dan Balz and Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 29, 2005; Page A01

With yesterday's indictment of Vice President Cheney's top aide, President Bush's administration has become a textbook example of what can go wrong in a second term. Along with ineffectiveness, overreaching, intraparty rebellion, plunging public confidence and plain bad luck, scandal has now touched the highest levels of the White House staff.

Not surprisingly, Democrats were quick to condemn the president and his administration over the perjury and obstruction indictments of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. But even some Republicans suggested that the president and his team will have taken away the wrong lesson if they conclude that, other than the personal tragedy of Libby's indictment, the long investigation changes nothing of significance.

-snip-
Citing both the indictment and the withdrawal of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday, former GOP congressman Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma said: "The president got a pretty good wakeup call. He needs to stop thinking about his grand legacy and being the all-time hero of the Republicans and concentrate on doing the job he was elected to do. He really has to get a grip on his administration."

-snip-
John D. Podesta, who was chief of staff to Clinton, said Bush may be more constrained by his troubles than Clinton was by his. Noting that Clinton's approval ratings remained above 60 percent throughout the impeachment battle, while Bush's are in the low 40s, Podesta said, "When Clinton said, 'I'm going back to do my work,' people cheered," Podesta said. "When Bush says, 'I'm going to do the job I've been doing,' people say, 'Oh, no.' "

-snip-
Given that reality, it may be difficult for Bush to regain the credibility he enjoyed earlier in his presidency with regard to the war on terrorism. "I very much doubt they will be able to repair the damage," said Tom De Luca, a professor of political science at Fordham University. "Once you lose credibility, it's almost impossible to get it back."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/28/AR2005102802150.html

[opihimoimoi]

1. Humpty Dumpty Time...All the Kings men and All the Kings Ponies

could not put Bush back together again... Period.

he has self destructed and along with him are the PUB Party who put the POS there in the first place.

Ya cannot trust those Pubs...Lie cheat steal is their Philosophy...anything to get power and status...including stepping on dicks/stabbing backs...

[Erika]

2. Once you lose credibility, it's impossible to get it back

Agreed. With things so crumbling around W, my democratic friend said it must be time to call another terror alert. I said "too late", not even the GOP paid attention to W's last terror alert. Even Michael Savage thought it was a political ploy.