DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO

George Bush is mortally wounded. As much as prominent conservatives and right wing bloggers would like to slide right over this into a new fight over a SCOTUS nominee, this presidency is in free-fall. Plenty of these wingnuts will tell you that this is an inside-the-beltway phenomenon, and that Bush still has the confidence of "true" Americans out there in the "heartland." Don't you believe it. New polls are coming out, and assuredly many of them were conducted even before the twin timebombs of Bush's collapse over Harriet Miers and the ignominy of the Libby indictment were even fully exploded.

The American people have told pollsters that the majority of them believe that Bush has reduced the ethics of the White House. Only 34% of respondents this Bush is trustworthy, and only 25% think he is cooperating with the CIA leak probe. This is devastating news for Bush, as his only real advantage, besides his handling of the war on terror (also in trouble), has been the perception that he is an honorable man. That percerption is very nearly gone. People are waking up to the fact that Bush and his team are conniving animals, willing to put this country in serious danger to viciously attack an enemy. And in this case, it is doubly damaging, because we know (despite the mealy-mouthed warblings of the wingnuts) that the critic, Joe Wilson, was correct.

So now a new front in the battle has been opened. Wingnuts were saying during the Miers debacle that what they had wanted was a real knockdown fight with the Democrats. They wanted to take an odious, repugnant conservative judicial activist and shove him down the Democrats' throats, just to prove they could still do it. This Samuel Alito character, often called "Scalito" because of how similar he is to Antonin Scalia, is a reprehensible jurist, a man who opposes abortion rights, supports racial discrimination, and shows a vile indifference to the rights of innocent Americans fighting authoritarian law enforcement practices. A worse choice, and one further out of step with ordinary Americans, can hardly be imagined.

No doubt the wingnuts on PalTalk will applaud Alito, but most Americans will not. If the Republicans really want a fight on this, I'm hopeful that the Democrats will give them one. Bush might have been able to push through a ridiculous choice like Alito when his approval was high, and before he had tragically screwed up Hurricane Katrina, the war in Iraq, and the CIA leak. Now, Bush is staggering, clutching his stomach as his political lifeblood splatters the floor from a half dozen self-inflicted wounds. This failed president should be put down, for the good of us all, and now is the time to do it.

For more information on Samuel Alito, take a look at this preliminary report by PFAW.

JC