Stephen Hayes: Bush Administration Working on a Legacy Project
By Heather Tuesday Dec 02, 2008 6:00pm
On The Situation Room, while discussing some "implied criticism" (in Wolf's words) of the Bush administration from Barack Obama about his choice for AG Eric Holder -- who Obama says might actually adhere to the Constitution and that Hillary Clinton will restore America's diplomacy around the world -- panel members Dana Milbank and Gloria Borger let Wolf know the criticism wasn't so much "implied" but pretty straightforward.
The conversation then moved to discussing the series of exit interviews that George Bush is giving, and Bush's admission that he was not "ready for war". Stephen Hayes then fills us in with this little tidbit:
Yeah it's pretty, it's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, I think that in his discussion about immigration and regretting the tone of the debate, I mean clearly I think that was a criticism of his own party. We're going to be seeing a lot more of this and there's an ongoing Bush legacy project that's been meeting in the White House, really, with senior advisers, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes has been involved, current senior Bush administration advisers and they are looking at how to sort of roll out the President's legacy.
Milbank counters with a bit of reality:
The whole country has been on a Bush legacy project and it's not looking very good for him. I think the extraordinary thing is how does he fix from among the various things to choose from? Now he looks at immigration. Something that certainly helped to torpedo John McCain and of all things now he tells us categories to say that to say that uh....
Blitzer interrupts him before he gets to finish his point and Borger finishes by saying that how Iraq goes will determine how Bush goes down in history. Ya think?
Gloria, don't you suppose there's already enough evidence now of how that debacle, and its accompanying theft of our tax dollars, has gone to make that assessment? Just how much more proof of the Iraq war being one of the worst foreign policy decisions in the history of our country do you need, exactly, to make a call on that one?
And Bush is working on a "legacy project", with the help of Karl Rove?? Excuse me while I lay on the floor laughing about this one for awhile. Who do they think they're fooling? I guess the twenty-some percent who still to this day think Bush was a good President, but I truly hope the history books are not so kind no matter what sort of "project" they have in mind, and no matter how many soft-shoe interviews Bush decides to give before he finally does us the favor of leaving.
Legacy project? Spare me. I wonder how much they'll be paying Hayes and his buddies to help work on it along with those Bush advisers?
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legacy project? Hahahahahahahhahahahahhahahha
hahahahahhahahah (wiping tears of laughter and sadness from my eyes)
bwahahahahaha ........ stop it, I can't take anymore! You're killing me!
already been determined.
the vote lost...down the shitter (as it were). Too bad they didn't deem the poo purification plant as low enough to carry the Bush name. Perhaps they can rename the portapotty to House of Bush.
4,000+ dead American soldiers. 100,000+ dead Iraqis. Untold numbers of dead Afghans. A weakened nation, at home and abroad. Our standing in the world in tatters. Our Constitution used as toilet paper. Thousands at home ignored after natural disasters and the neglect that followed. Infrastructure in total disrepair, again from neglect. A financial system in ruins while a select few profit from war and greed.
For starters.
Yeah, some legacy. Good luck with THAT "project."
Don't forget the false flag demolition of the WTC, the "rationale" for all the other crimes.
damn, that's funny.
Not Prepared for War? Really, You don't say.
PDB Aug 6th 01.
All I can think of is that quote from 2001 about the "reality-based community". Bush and Rove still think they can just dictate their vision of how the world is, was, and will be, and the rest of us will sit back and take notes. Lucky for us as a country that this time, they're wrong - I hope the memory of this utterly corrupt, incompetent, wasteful administration sticks around for a looooong time.
The Situation Room is in a state of confusion. They've been listening to Republican nonsense far too long. Some of the players are coming out of it one by one, and then they lapse. Wolf, with his effort to be fair and neutral, has been most subject to the Republican branwashing, and may never fully recover.
Oh, and even if Iraq does eventually recover from the horrors of the chimps' murderous meddling over the last five years, will that affect his legacy? I hope not.
how'd you enjoy the theater??
Him and Rove and the RNC are planning a false flag attack on the United States in order to terrorize the population back to the GOP.
You wait.
Unfortunately, such an occurrence is entirely within the realm of probability, not possibility, considering that Dubya has only a short time left remaining in his reign of terror.
It's crunch time for little Georgie and his boys now. I shudder to think what their next little surprise will be.
I thought, yeah, why not us too? We in the "reality based community" should make a commitment to immortalize the Bush legacy. The world needs to remember. Our grandchildren need to be reminded that part of their paycheck is going to pay off the Iraq War. Our politicians need to be reminded of the most shameful part of our modern history, lest they be tempted to tread that path again. And the world needs to remind us of the time we crossed a dangerous line and became the people we despise. National shame is a legacy too.
And since Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld may never make it to the International Criminal Court, we need history to judge them and the people who enabled them to escape. Yes, I'm talking to you, Democratic Congress and Barack Obama, because what you do about the Bush legacy will become part of your own.
amen to that !partners in murder for hire!
History will judge us for letting the robbing, murdering, lying gang of cowards to get away with their deeds. Yes, that includes Obama. I'm sure there have already been 'back-channel' assurances to Bush and cohorts they don't have anything to worry about.
I wish to hell there was something that could be done, but evidently voting for Obama isn't enough. Queen Nancy has to be neck deep in this crap. I wonder if a few million letters before inauguration day to the pres-elect and the queen and certain newspapers would have any effect. Not, emails, letters that are individually written. Even if all they say is "Impeach the
son of a Bitch".
Good point. The story of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Traitor Rove legacy disaster should be stories that get handed down to our children and grandchildren, generation after generation. The moral of the story should be "never again allow Republicans to govern".
No, not the majors. They don't let convicted felons hold that position. He can be commissioner of the Leavenworth Intramural League.
Never too late for Armageddon
Untreated drunks rewrite history and this bozo and his enablers are no different.
I am hoping justice will prevail after all these years of injustice so that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Rice/etc., will be made to account for the Iraq war, torture, spying on Americans w/o benefit of judicial review. I would like to see a Nuremburg trial for Bush and his toadies. And if America does not have the guts to pursue I want Europe to step forward and prosecute them. Maybe a rendition could be involved. LOL
Bush is working on a "legacy project",
Oh shit! Now we are truly fucked.
First the Bush team should be getting ready for his defense in the up coming War Crime charges that the United Nations will bring against him. Daddy Bush will be shelling out alot of money in hopes of getting his son out of the charge of kidnapping innocent people and torturing/rape/murdering them. Yes and the thousands of innocent Iraq people killed by the US. Then it's the transporting of innocent people to be tortured. Funding militants to get control of areas in Africa with oil and diamonds. Giving India Nukes and giving Pakistan fuel for Nukes without approvel from the UN. There are more horrors to come out in the future before the trial.
Or do they do it naturally all by themselves?
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
11 Sept 01
/now, watch this drive.
The only thing that made Bush popular to "help" his legacy was 9/11, but even then he is still accountable for it.
gang can pool their mighty brainpower and come up with a book report for My Pet Goat. And then Hayes can write a book calling it a great success for America.
that could have a "positive" effect on the LEGACY of George W. Bush would be to criminalize the teaching of HISTORY and CURRENT EVENTS in our schools, burn all the libraries, SHUT DOWN THE INTERNETS, lock up all the Democrats,
Well, one thing I would like to think would come out of this is:
Next time, American voting public - when you are presented with a choice between an experienced candidate with 8 years as Vice-President - a Senator before that and a lifetime working in government vs someone who's been just governor of a state where the governor has very little actual power for a mere 6 years - go for the experienced guy, especially since their government did OK.
Now in comparing Barack Obama to George Bush, yes it's true that he also didn't have a huge amount of time in State and Federal Government. However, he hasn't a) had a track record of screwing up prior to his election and b) showed before being elected that he seemed to know what he was talking about.
Unfortunately in 2000, GW had a) and didn't have b), which should have been enough of a warning sign, surely ...
Of course, more than 50% did vote for Al Gore but the thing is, it shouldn't have been remotely close ...
1. The legacy will be as much on the american people and their lack of judgment for voting for bush not once but twice. It is the legacy of the intrusion of religion into politics, of corporate greed, of the corruption of government, and imperialist global military ambition. It was the American people that put these crooks and liars into office and kept them there. bush and cheney, after all, just did what they said they were going to do.
2. Rove is still in the picture because all bush has left is the propaganda machine. Rove is a marketing (propaganda) specialist. They will attempt to re-write history.
Time for the bumper sticker.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for idiot Bush.
This really takes the prize. The lamest of lame duck presidents trying to make a silk purse out of a pile of crap. I guess booosh doesn't understand that his legacy is cast in stone by his actions, not his rhetoric. Dunce in chief.
There's way too much YouTube video showing how poorly Bush governed. He can say whatever he wants but the skeletons will still fall out of the closet and prove him wrong. Bush destroys everything and then looks dumbfounded afterwards. Bush be gone, not soon enough.
Here's Bush's true legacy: He is the Arch-Criminal of American History. That legacy is his, not just for his accomplishments as an over-achieving political criminal, but also for his criminal accomplishments as the most heinous criminal for any category of crime that this nation has ever seen. He is a serial mass-murderer, a traitor and doer of treason, a war criminal. He is guilty of crimes against humanity and crimes against the peace of the World. He is one of the most prolific theives in the history of the nation and the world, an implacably predatory social parasite. Bush is a malignant personality who is unburdened by any trace of conscience. His White House has served as the world's principal epicenter of injustice, from out of which have spread endless waves of misery and suffering. He has surrounded himself with the maladjusted, the mean-spirited, the greedy, the amoral, the gleeful murderer, the unjust, the Liar. He has both used and been controlled by them to commit every conceivable crime that could be committed against honor, principle, integrity, trust, hope and common human decency. He is one of the worst people to have arisen to power in the last 500 years. To whatever he has laid his hand or given his attention, he has harmed.
Benedict Arnold can now rest in peace, knowing that he is no longer burdened with the title of being the Arch-Villain of American history.
Bush, with his team of co-criminals, is going to be remembered as an equivalent personality to the world's other historical arch-criminals. The only difference in limit or magnitude of atrocities committed by any of these figures being due soley to the limits imposed upon them by opportunity and means. Each will be remembered as single birds of a feather, every one - in their innermost essence - indistinguishable from the other. The name of Bush (along with other names like Cheney) is always going to be associated with evil.
The only, the sole, positive result of Bush's malign tenure in government is the breaking of the Bush Crime Family's political dynasty. Just as there will be no more members of the Hitler, Pol Pot or Stalin lineages coming to power, so is it going to be for the Bush line. The shame and dishonor of the evils that Bush has wrought will stain his family's name for generations. It is time for them to slink into the shadows, and time for the rest of us to be free of them.
That, is Bush's legacy. He and his cohorts are never going to be able spin it otherwise or revise history to the oherwise.
I thought Iraq was going to be his legacy. Well, actually, it will be. Just not in the dewy-eyed, romantic way he thought it would be.
Don't worry about a "legacy" for the Bush presidency. I suspect we'll all remember these years in a very personal way for the rest of our lives.
Because Bush lowered taxes for the wealthy and deregulated businesses that had no business being deregulated, the US economy has been destroyed, probably for much longer than any economist wants to admit. I'll probably lose my job within 3-12 months. Once that happens, I'll spend every cent of my savings in order to survive, and in short order lose my car, my house, and everything I own. Never mind pie-in-the-sky stuff like healthcare or retirement.
Yes, I'll remember the legacy of George W. Bush until the day I die, which will probably be sooner rather than later, because of him.
At this point how the world views the Bush legacy does not at all depend on how Iraq turns out.
Even if Iraq becomes a more stable country, the question for America is was it worth it? Was the cost to the U.S. and Iraq worth it?
There is the huge dollar costs, there is the huge cost in lives, both Iraqis and American and there is the much larger Arab and frankly world hatred toward America that is the result of the war.
Regardless of how Iraq turns out it should always be a big negative for Bush, as the costs were too high. He destroyed a country of 25 million people, probably directly or indirectly killing as many as 1 million Iraqis. Great he got rid of Saddam, but at what cost?
What if there is a WMD terrorist attack in the U.S. in the future that is the direct or indirect result or is blowback from the U.S. invading Iraq? How do you figure that into the cost?
Does Wolf Blitzer suffer from some undiagnosed mental illness that prevents him from making a simple declarative statement, or does it only manifest when there is some obvious failure of conservative or Republican policy under discussion? His veneer of non-partisan neutrality is wearing thin, and he should no longer be recognized as a journalist. He's pure propaganda, he should move to FOX.
Blitzer is, and always has been, an AIPAC mouthpiece.
I find Blitzer and Borger two of the dumbest, laziest commentators on TV. I'm convinced that all either of them does is read and watch other pundits and parrot the conventional "wisdom." I've never heard an intelligent, insightful thought escape either of their mouths. To see them both on the same stage is like attending an idiot convention. After all of the crimes and immorality of the Bush years, and knowing how we got hoodwinked into Iraq in the first place and all of the boondoggles and corruption that took place once we were in, the idea that some kind of eventual positive outcome there will save Bush's legacy is pure lunacy. But Borger has obviously still not pieced it together in her brilliant mind.
George Putz is a legacy - a never-was who got by on the family name, not his own ability.
If Putz wants a real legacy, he should turn himself in for war crimes trial and name all the other neo-convicts who took part in said crimes against humanity - Rice, Cheney, Gonzo, Perle, Kristol, etc.
The only worthwhile legacy that Putz can leave now is admitting that US leaders have made mistakes, have committed crimes, and will be held accountable for them. "American exceptionalism" is the biggest cause of anti-US sentiment.
If the US (and Israel too) is ever held to account just as it tries to hold others countries accountable, only then will the US have any business talking about its "moral leadership". Unfortunately, most in the US believe the lie that the media tells: "no US leader has been tried for war crimes, so the US hasn't committed any". Hey, just because OJ was never convicted of any murders doesn't mean he never committed any.
these clowns act condescending in response to Obama's selection of Holder for AG. Obama is attempting to restore justice to the justice department and to correct the wrongs of the bush abuses of that branch of government. and, these asshole pundits smirk at him as if he is doing something that is shameful and hideously wrong when they are the smug assholes who can't see right from wrong. in bush's first choice, ashcroft, we had an inappropriately wildly radical fundamentalist AG who had a very specific agenda. he truly embraced the idea of culture war and jihad against basic civil rights that Americans cherish and hold very dear. he emphasized divisiveness and repression of any and all groups outside of a minority american view, the right wing fundamentalist christian coalition, pro business status quo. then alberto gonzales served at the total and complete pleasure of his boss and absolutely did NOT serve the American people or their interests. gonzales presided over the perversion of law that made possible abu ghraib, guantanamo and the subsequent tailspin of opinion of american power internationally. he disgraced the american justice system immeasurably. mukasey has rubberstamped and cheerleaded for bush since day one. he has been in a position where he could have responded to the american people directly but chose not to do so and was instead subservient only to his boss. so, all of bush's appointees to AG have been despicable failures in that position. they, in their own distinct ways have degraded the justice department and made a sham of justice at the highest levels of government in the united states and these pundits have stood by their president (bush) and his decisions and his appointees to AG absolutely uncritically and have approved of the carnage brought on by this administration and it's henchmen.
they don't have any right to be condescending about Obama's choice for AG. Obama is a constitutional law professor and knows a thing or two about how the justice department needs to be restored. I trust him and his choice to help elevate justice back to a position that it enjoyed before bush took office and did everything that he could to drag it down and grind it into the gutter. I praise Obama for his plans to restore some integrity and justice back to the justice department and I am confident in his choice of Holder for AG. there is so much that needs to be fixed. the justice department is just one embattled department. but they all need reparation.
A quick repost of a list I made;
• He successfully impregnated Laura
• He has succeeded in turning America into a rogue nation; he also succeeded in making us the laughing stock of the world.
• He has successfully enriched the lives of many, many really rich people
• He has successfully disenfranchised even more people.
• He has successfully polarized an entire nation if not the world.
• He has lied most effectivelly if not successfully.
• He has succeeded in causing the deaths of more Iraqis’ in five years than Saddam Hussein was able to pull off in a couple of decades.
• He has successfully worn out his welcome.
• He has successfully proven that government is best left in the hands of competent individuals.
• He has successfully earned the hatred of not just elements of the military, but the entire world.
• He has successfully declared a war on a verb.
• He has consistently succeeded at being a failure at all he does.
• He has successfully become a more successful criminal than Al Capone.
• Where many others have failed, he has succeeded in defeating the entire U.S Military.
• He succeeded in taking a budget surplus, and turning it into one of the biggest deficits in history all within his first term.
• He has succeeded in making cronyism and corruption into desirable traits in government officials.
• Although not smart enough to have thought it up himself, he has succeeded in making election theft look easy.
• He has successfully fooled some of the people all of the time.
• To paraphrase Rep. Rangel; he successfully shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all.
• He has successfully embarrassed not only himself, but the entire United States of America in every country he’s set foot in.
• He has succeeded in becoming the worst president of all time.
• He has successfully destroyed not only his own credibility, but also that of the Republican Party and of America in general.
• He has succeeded in spreading more fear and terror than Freddy Krueger in his prime.
• As Governor of Texas, he succeeded in executing more people than any other U.S Governor in any other state in the entire history of the United States.
It would appear that he's not as unconcerned about historys judgement as he claimed. I have no doubt that wingnuts will commission as many dead trees as they can proclaiming Bubbles the Chimp as the greatest president ever, better than even St. Reagan.
The old saying about winners getting to write the history, even if these fools wer'nt big losers that's only true in the short term. Final history is written by historians, and they dont always take the winners word for it.
I like to imagine the ghost of Bubbles forever trapped in an eternal history class where he has to endure historys judgement for eternity.
I also like to imagine him in an afterlife where all our former presidents are gathered in a presidents club, he swaggers in as if he belongs ignoring his dad off to the side trying to warn him away, or the look of glee on Nixons face because as Nixon is forced to do all the menial labour, he has just seen his new helper. Jr is stopped by a solid wall of former presidents; Mount Rushmore personified, and they all beat the living hell out of the chimp. the term I like is Lincoln emancipating him from his teeth.
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