[Texgreen] Bush mentally unstable?

[Roger Baker]

[Maybe travel will help.-- Roger]

<http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7617.shtml>

GOP Leaders to Bush: 'Your Presidency is Effectively Over'
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 4, 2005, 08:13

A growing number of Republican leaders, party strategists and  
political professional now privately tell President George W. Bush  
that his presidency "is effectively over" unless he fires embattled  
White House advisor Karl Rove, apologizes to the American people for  
misleading the country into war and revamps his administration from  
top to bottom.

"The only show of unity we have now in the Republican Party is the  
belief that the President has failed the party, the American people  
and the presidency," says a longtime, and angry, GOP strategist.

With the public face of support for Bush eroding daily from even  
diehard Republicans, the President faces mounting anger from within  
his party over the path that may well lead to loss of control of  
Congress in the 2006 midterm elections and the White House in 2008.

"This presidency is in trouble," says a senior White House aide.  
"Even worse, I don't know if there is a way out of the trouble."

Congressional leaders journeyed to the White House before Bush left  
on his South American tour this week to tell the President that his  
legislative agenda on the Hill is dead, his latest Supreme Court  
nominee faces a tough confirmation fight in the Senate and he is  
facing open revolt within party ranks.

"The Speaker is having an increasingly difficult time holding his  
troops in line," says a source within the office of House Speaker  
Dennis J. Hastert. "Anger at the President grows exponentially with  
each passing day."

At a recent White House strategy session, internal party pollsters  
told the President that his approval rating with Americans continues  
to slide and may be irreversible, citing his failed Iraq war, the  
failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers and his failure to  
deal decisively on a number of fronts, including Hurricane Katrina,  
the economy and the Valerie Plame scandal.

In meetings, leaders and strategists have suggested a number of  
things that Bush must do to try and save his presidency and GOP  
prospects in upcoming elections, including:

Apologize to the American people, Congress and our allies for  
misleading them on the reasons for invading Iraq;
Revamp the White House staff from top to bottom;
Fire Rove.
"We keep coming back to Rove," says a GOP pollster. "He has escaped  
indictment, so far, but the feeling within the party is that another  
shoe is ready to drop and the longer he waits to jettison Rove the  
greater the damage. As long as Karl Rove remains at the President's  
side, the Bush presidency is effectively over and he is just riding  
out the days until the nation elects a Democrat to replace him. Even  
with Rove gone the damage may be irreparable."

Bush, however, has dug his heels in on Rove. When a GOP strategist  
suggested last weekend that the President fire Rove, Bush exploded.

"You go to hell," he screamed at the strategist. "You can leave and  
you can take the rest of these lily-livered motherfuckers with you!"  
The President then stormed out of the room and refused to meet  
further with any other party leaders or strategists.

Bush's escalating temper tantrums and his intransigence on political  
issues increase Republican worries about the long term effects on  
both his presidency and the party's prospects in upcoming elections.

"Right now, George W. Bush is the Republican Party's chief  
liability," says a GOP strategist who has advised Presidential  
campaigns for 30 years. "The entire political future of the party and  
perhaps the nation now rests on the shoulders of a President that no  
one - Democrat or Republican - believes in or trusts."