Think Progress

White House Claims Dowd Is Too Emotional, Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’

The New York Times reports today that President Bush’s former chief campaign strategist Matthew Dowd has “lost faith” in the president, due primarily to differences over the Iraq war. “If the American public says they’re done with something, our leaders have to understand what they want…They’re saying, ‘Get out of Iraq.’

Dowd “said he hoped in part that by coming forward he would be able to get a message through to a presidential inner sanctum that he views as increasingly isolated.” This morning on CBS, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett crushed any such hopes that Bush’s inner circle would heed the advice of a once-trusted aide. Instead, as it has done frequently in the past, the White House engaged in a counteroffensive, assailing the character of the person sounding the alarms.

The New York Times noted Dowd’s distancing from Bush came at the same time one of his “premature twin daughters died, he was divorced, and he watched his oldest son prepare for deployment to Iraq.” Bartlett latched onto these difficulties in Dowd’s personal life in an effort to undermine his substantive concerns about Bush’s Iraq policy.

Bartlett said Dowd has been on a “long personal journey…in his private life” and that he had become too emotional over the war. CBS host Bob Schieffer interrupted to ask: “Are you suggesting he’s having some kind of personal problems and this is just what has resulted?” Bartlett denied that’s what he was doing, but then returned to his talking point, suggesting Dowd’s views should be evaluated in light of the fact the he was going through “personal turmoil.”

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/04/bartlettdowd.320.240.flv]

What is even more disturbing than the treatment of those who criticize the Bush White House is the fact that those who have been criticized most harshly — people like Gen. Eric Shinseki, Richard Clarke, and Paul O’Neill — have in fact been proven to be more right than wrong. Dowd’s case is no different.

Digg It!

Transcript:

SCHIEFFER: OK. Let’s talk about this story that hit The New York Times this morning. Here is one of the president’s chief strategists, somebody that’s been with him for a long, long time –suddenly he comes out on the front page of The New York Times and says in the last campaign John Kerry was right when he talked about what we ought to do in Iraq? He said the president has become isolated from reality. What’s this all about, Mr. Bartlett?

BARTLETT: Well, Matthew is a close friend of mine. I think he’s been on a long personal journey over the last couple of years, both in his private life, as well as his — the politics that he participate in. This war is a complicated and difficult one, and it brings out emotions in people from both sides of the aisle, even those who work closely for the president, and the president respects his position. Obviously, we disagree with him as far as him being too insular or him bringing the troops home.

SCHIEFFER: Are you suggesting he’s having some kind of personal problems and this is just what has resulted?

BARTLETT: No, as he expressed in the paper that he himself has acknowledged that he’s going through a lot of personal turmoil but also he has a son who is soon to be deployed to Iraq. That could only impact a parents’ mind as they think through these issues. I say that only in the sense that I know it’s something that weighs heavily on him.



99 Responses to “White House Claims Dowd Is Too Emotional, Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’”

  1. Yachts and Lattes says:

    Must be one of those “morally or intellectually confused” that Rumsfeld was talking about.


  2. tarazan says:

    May be when D. Bartlett leaves the White House himself, others can use the same ‘personal turmoil’ reasoning next time around.


  3. n69n says:

    wow, they didnt even wait 24 hrs to begin swiftboating him!


  4. Zooey says:

    The “Hysterical Ninny” smear.

    I’m sure someone predicted this on the earlier thread….


  5. eternal springs says:

    Ah, the sundy bullshit parade…


  6. Republicans Are The Fear And Smear Party says:

    And republicans think that the public is going to buy this latest smear. Game’s over, Bush.


  7. Charles says:

    How cruel. Bartlett should be ashamed. To dismiss Dowd for being “emotional.” And then to suggest that having a child in the military may make one compromise good judgment. Shows complete disrespect for military families and a disregard for the people who have views based on personal experience.


  8. chartreuse dog says:

    He says, “Matthew’s a friend of mine.” Sure glad Dan doesn’t count me among his friends!


  9. shane says:

    Wow Dowd has become too emotional over the war. Shouldn’t war be the thing people get most emotional about.

    Nice going Bartlett – do you sharpen that knife before you stick it in all those backs?


  10. katy says:

    Bartlett denied that’s what he was doing,…

    ahh… but he got that little seed planted, didn’t he…

    and that’s the point…


  11. Dan Bartlett says:

    I cannot refute the facts raised by Dowd but I can try to make him the subject. By the way bob, I love the tie.


  12. n69n says:

    this Administration is pure class.


  13. CakeWalk My Ass says:

    screw bartlett. screw dowd. screw the whole white house. mckinnon, rove, hughes, etc. all of them should be thrown in jail.


  14. s says:

    Too “emo” for the white house thugs eh?

    Well well well. If they had any “emo” at all, they might actually be human. But they are sociopaths……aborations.

    Good things folks are seeing through these losers…finally.


  15. Enuff Already!! says:

    Apparently blind fealty to Bush and the GOP is the way you show your love for Jesus.”

    RIP
    SGT Stephen R. Sherman
    C CO 1-5 In (STRYKER)
    KIA 3 Feb 2005
    Mosul, Iraq

    Or as the POTUS with the help of the 4th estate calls him, comma # 1462


  16. Your Conscience says:

    Emotional or Factual? Yeah, thats what we thought.


  17. gogreen says:

    Appears to me that the MSM is as sociopathic as Bush and Co. They apparently can’t work up any emotion over the war either.


  18. s says:

    These neocon bullshit artists have caused quite enough turmoil in all decent thinking people’s minds. Ya think? In fact, if you’re not in “turmoil” you’re obtuse. One of the few things in Dowd’s favor, even if he is back peddling like mad, is that he is in turmoil. Repubs latch onto details constantly to obscure the larger picture don’t they. They don’t address the real issues…rarely. They address and blow up some small side issue that is generally related to a personal attack and they think has enough punch to change the subject……….we are through falling for it. Right?


  19. Gerald Gibson Jr says:

    You know what they say about people who think everyone in the world except them are wrong about everything.


  20. GSD says:

    Another Republican that will get eaten alive, smeared and have his character impugned for qeustioning King George W., The Turd.

    Vulgarians one and all.

    -GSD


  21. Tom says:

    Does this mean that it is fair game for future disillusioned Republicans to suggest that, just perhaps, GDumbya and Darth Cheney’s incompetent emotionalism may be attributed to them both being active alcoholics, having “kid” problems (respectively, a pair of drunken slut twins and a pregnant lesbian), shooting friends in the face, choking on pretzels and various other “near-death” experiences?


  22. designer says:

    Dan Bartlett = Pond Scum

    It’s his faux ‘nice guy’ schitck that makes me want to put my foot through the teevee…


  23. david says:

    A long emotional journey should be the norm during a war where thousands of innocents have died and the “good guys” behave like the gestapo in old movies. The Nuremberg Trials asked how could good, decent people allow murder, torture, and crimes against humanity to go on around them without lifting a finger to stop it. We learned that it was easy. Standing up to Evil and speaking Truth to Power is hard. I say, Three cheers for Mr Dowd.


  24. Zooey says:

    Yep, this was predicted on the Dowd thread below.
    The winner is tarazan!

    #21 – He will be swift boated very soon. Fox pundits & Limbaugh co. will try to shred the guy to pieces…Soon he will be called all names. Will it work?!….time will tell.
    Comment by tarazan — March 31, 2007 @ 5:55 pm


  25. s says:

    #23 David….speaking of old movies. Check out the link to a Diary on DailyKos today that Kos says is one of the best he’s read on the Republican mindset and it’s relationship to fantazy and movies in the 50’s. Very insightful. I’ll send the link in the next.


  26. jeff says:

    wow…

    yeah you might say these constitution rapists are making us emotional…



  27. BucketsofBloodforBucketsofOil says:

    Reality broke through to Dowd and he found his emotions. The BUsh sociopaths have no emotions. They just don’t get is when someone cares about the deaths of others.


  28. tarazan says:

    Dowd is no longer useful…he was a campaign and election strategist who helped Bush getting re elected….

    Neither Bush nor Cheney are in any coming elections or any elections,so Dowd usefulness came to an end.

    Time for ‘book writing’,'kiss and tell’ from one side, ’swift boating’ on the other.


  29. freder421 says:

    Site owner please forgive me for what I am about to say. This barlett guy is nothing but a piece of cowardly shit. Time to put his ass under oath before Congress.


  30. Roger says:

    God, have you no shame at all Mr. Bartlett ??? You really are one unspeakable slimeball.

    Oh, and welcome to the sane side of things Mr. Dowd. Hopefully you’ll have much, much more to tell.


  31. pgw says:

    it’s too bad lee atwater isn’t still alive, because i would’ve loved to see bartlett smear a guy with an inoperable brain tumor.


  32. JD21 says:

    Those Republicans who impeached Clinton should be out in front calling for Bush’s impeachment and removal. Just look at what Bush and Cheney have done: the massive illegal warrantless spying on Americans program, the torture, the outing a CIA agent as political payback, and the firing Attorneys General for Karl Rove’s plan to take back Congress by pointing the scandal finger (rightly or wrongly aside) at the Democrats no matter what the evidence was. The Republican illegality makes what Clinton did look like a parking violation in comparison.

    The fact that Republicans who were most vicious in calling for Clinton’s impeachment are the biggest apologists for this Administration only proves that they place partisanship and the interests of the Republicans above the truth and the interests of America. Republicans today place politics above all. They have no credibility. Zero. And the fact that these jokers will whine if Bush and Cheney are actually held accountable under the standards they themselves so loudly endorsed (not lying, following the law etc.), in my mind is no impediment to doing the right thing. In fact, it is more reason to do so. They seem to be stuck in denial. Maybe it will wake them up to the fact that what Bush and Cheney have done is illegal and wrong.

    Interesting op ed today in the New York Times, one of those papers who bought Bush’s trumped up claims of WMD in Iraq hook line and sinker. They too have woken up:

    “Turn over a scandal in Washington these days and the chances are you’ll find Karl Rove. His tracks are everywhere: whether it’s helping to purge United States attorneys, coaching bureaucrats on how to spend taxpayers’ money to promote Republican candidates, hijacking the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for partisan politics, or helping to organize a hit on the character of one of the first people to publicly reveal the twisting of intelligence reports on Iraq.

    Whatever the immediate objective, Mr. Rove seems focused on one overarching goal: creating a permanent Republican majority, even if that means politicizing every aspect of the White House and subverting the governmental functions of the executive branch. This is not the Clinton administration’s permanent campaign. The Clinton people had difficulty distinguishing between the spin cycle of a campaign and the tone of governing. That seems quaint compared with the Bush administration’s far more menacing failure to distinguish the Republican Party from the government, or the state itself.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/opinion/01sun1.html?hp (I urge everyone to buy a subscription to Times Select if they don’t have one already so they can read the rest of this excellent editorial)


  33. barfly says:

    Sorry to dump this here, but TP hasn’t yet put up a thread dealing with this news item (from Raw Story):

    The Energy Department inspector general said Friday that the “office in charge of protecting American technical secrets about nuclear weapons from foreign spies is missing 20 desktop computers, at least 14 of which have been used for classified information,” reports the New York Times.

    “This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found that the department, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs,” writes Matthew Wald.

    This is not the first time that computers involved in tracking nuclear information have gone missing. The current incident involves computers used in “tracking and countering efforts to steal bomb information.”

    “Problems with the control and accountability of desktop and laptop computers have plagued the department for a number of years,” the Times quotes the Department of Energy report.

    National Nuclear Security Agency director Linton F. Brooks was fired in January because of Security concerns.

    Another instance of Bush looking out for America’s well being. He’s like Barney Fife with launch codes. ‘09 can’t come soon enough.


  34. JoeP says:

    The dailykos article linked in #27 is excellent. It articulates what I have been trying to explain to myself for a long time regarding the reasons behind the Republican hatred of Hollywood.


  35. kasinca says:

    Bartlett was co-conspirator with Karen Hughes in scrubbing and shredding Dubya’s National Guard record and driving record in Texas. He knows where the bodies are buried along with El Fredo the AG and Karl Rove. These guys are just like the mob.

    Impeachment is the only answer to this fascist regime.


  36. USA says:

    Emotions. Psychopaths are afraid of them because they don’t have them and they don’t understand them. Don’t listen to Psychopaths. The individuals who do have emotions are the most human.


  37. worst fears says:

    Funny how emotions can get in the way. Dowd should not be emotional when his kid is shipped off to Iraq and is getting divorced. Does sociopath Bartlett believe that Bush policy has nothing to do with ruining Dowd’s and countless other American lives. It is high time the military industrial complex stop running this country – they are all sociopaths and have no remorse – yet they wrap themselves up in the flag and hide behind Christianity. How do we root them out and enter the 21st century of which we had dreamed?


  38. Raven says:

    George da Turd needs a different kind of counselor these days…..


  39. Roket says:

    There is a huge difference between these idiots and Barney Fife. When Barney’s gun went off, he never actually shot himself in the foot. The bullet went through the floor. These people shoot themselves in the foot, day in and day out. I suppose these ignoramuses think that Dowd will sit back quietly after they have trashed his character.


  40. Briseadh_na_faire says:

    he has a son who is soon to be deployed to Iraq

    What else does this say? When one of Bush’s closest advisors has “skin in the game” suddenly the war doesn’t look like such a good idea.

    Senator Rangel had a good idea with reinstating the draft, but I’d like to take it one step further. Let the draft draw first from the richest 1%, then work it’s way down the socio-economic ladder. I can’t help but think if the sons and daughters of the ruling elite were to be sent to be bullet sponges, the war would end immediately upon passage of such a draft.


  41. Publicus says:

    Yeah…The problem is those people who are too emotional, who oppose sending teenagers off to be blown to bits for a military mistake…


  42. krog says:

    Bartlett showed that his lying knows no boundaries.

    His personal attack on Dowd is beyond contempt.

    His characterizations of the House and Senate’s political meddling in US Attorney hirings and firings is just a lie. It was his party, the Republicans, that raised these questions by the involvement of White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Counselor Karl Rove and by their use of secret emails on the Republican National Party website. The subsequent investigations into what might be illegal conduct by Presidential advisers is not political. It is legal. It is Dept. of Justice official Monica Goodling who is refusing to testify, asserting that her testimony might incriminate her.

    When Repugs break the law, anyone who questions their law-breaking is being political, according to Dan Bartlett, a long-time colleague and friend of Pres. Bush. Bartlett’s lies are coming more outrageous and irresponsible, and he shows disrespect and contempt for the legal proceedings of the US Congress. Some might say he is a traitor to America and its democracy and its rule of law. I am one who does.


  43. krog says:

    A slight correction to the above:

    Bartlett showed that his lying knows no boundaries.

    His personal attack on Dowd is beyond contempt.

    His characterizations of the House and Senate’s investigations of US Attorney hirings and firings as “political” is just a lie. It was his party, the Republicans, that raised these questions by the involvement of White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Counselor Karl Rove and by their Rove’s (and Mier’s?) use of secret emails on the Republican National Party website. The subsequent investigations into what might be illegal conduct by Presidential advisers is not political. It is legal. It is Dept. of Justice official Monica Goodling who is refusing to testify, asserting that her testimony might incriminate her. Her action lends credence to the suspicion that the Bush administration has been breaking the law.

    When Repugs break the law or raise suspicions about their possible criminal actions, anyone who questions their possible law-breaking is being political, according to Dan Bartlett, a long-time colleague and friend of Pres. Bush. Bartlett’s lies are coming more outrageous and irresponsible, and he shows disrespect and contempt for the legal proceedings of the US Congress. Some might say he is a traitor to America and its democracy and its rule of law. I am one who does.


  44. hterrya says:

    Here is what “loyalty” means to this craven, corrupt, contemptible president and his unctuous cronies:

    Disagree with us, we slime you!


  45. big papa says:

    Another Bushite defector…

    …who realizes that by the time his TREASONOUS false gods Bushiva and L’il Dick leave office…

    …their followers and worshippers…

    …won’t be able to work shoveling horse sh*t…

    …Bushites will be hunted down…

    …if not by man…

    …then surely by fate…

    …just ask Tony Snowjob…


  46. Matthew Dowd Round-Up « Semidi says:

    [...] Progress: White House Claims Dowd Is Too Emotional, Turned On Bush Because Of “Personal Turmoil” …Dowd “said he hoped in part that by coming forward he would be able to get a message [...]


  47. Raymond Funamoto says:

    WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, Dan Bartlett, TO EXPLAIN Dowd’s MOTIVES TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE? ARE YOU HIS BRAIN, LIKE FAT-F*CK Rove IS TO CHIMPya? ARE YOU HIS SPOKESMAN, ARE YOU HIS MOUTH, ARE YOU HIS CONSCIENCE? ARE YOU HIS SOUL? IF NOT, Bartlett, SHUT THE F*CK UP AND KEEP YOUR TWO CENTS WORTH OF USELESS COMMENTS TO YOURSELF, TOADY PEABRAIN AND LYING LACKEY OF Bushland Uber Allies, YA NEST OF FASCIST-NAZI SCUMBAGS!!!!!


  48. krog says:

    Raymond,

    Nothing will be accomplished by foul-mouthed responses to Bartlett and his disgraceful behavior.

    Your response — while one that is more reasonable than it READS, in my opinion– indicates that you wish to join Bartlett in the gutter of American politics, where the Repub party resides by itself!

    Ask them to join us, instead of joining them in their gutter, as a proponent for reviving the spirit and letters of American democracy!

    Dowd has joined us and the official White House position involves more of their gutter politics as response and punishment. It is very obvious.

    It might be good for our side if Dowd continues to speak out and write about the mistakes made by the Bush gang.

    Perhaps suggestions or conclusions from lawyers that a RICO conspiracy is possibly afoot in OUR White House and OUR Department of Justice might be sobering to others who are having doubts about Bush and his pals.


  49. Com-n-sense says:

    If I had been supporting this criminal enterprise for the passed six years I’d be emotional too. Matter of act I’d be checking my dumbass into a fricking clinic.


  50. nellieh says:

    Another “disgruntled” employee. They used him and kicked him to the curb. Dowd shouldn’t be let off that easy with a mea culpa. He was a big part of creating this mess. Much like Kissinger created the Chile mess, the Vietnam mess and his part in the Iraq mess. Every governmental thing he has touched has turned to sh*t. Much like Dowd. Dowd will just fade away with his Bible and give himself absolution. They should get him in front of a Congressional committee and find out if he participated in voter fraud. The DOJ wants USAs to investigate where there is no there, the Democratic Congress should do the same.


  51. krog says:

    How many clinics would be filled? Will there be a surge in use of rehabilitation clinics by wealthy folks?


  52. Raymond Funamoto says:

    krog, thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately I feel that one has to stoop to the level of IDIOTS like Bartlett because the MSM is not doing their job and attacking these FASCIST-NAZI scum in a STRONG, MEANINGFUL and VENOMOUS manner. If I must STOOP to CONQUER CHIMPya and his POINTY-HEADED NABOBS of CRIMINAL ACTIVITY, SO BE IT—-To quote Mao Tse-Tung, “A Revolution Is Not A Tea Party”!!!! Or “You Can’t Make An Omelette Without Breaking Eggs”–Sometimes you have to GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY in order to make a statement, or in my case, MY FILTHY MOUTH!!!!! The problem with asking them to join us is that SOCIOPATHIC, CONSCIENCELESS, GREEDY, MURDEROUS SCUM LIKE THE MAJORITY 99% OF THE repugnant-repub rightwingnut fudge-pachyderms of the GOP WOULD RATHER DESTROY US THAN JOIN TOGETHER WITH US—SO I WILL DESTROY THEM FIRST BEFORE THEY CAN DO ANY MORE DAMAGE TO AMERICA!!!!! YEEEEHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHH! HELL TO W’S!!!!!


  53. Briseadh_na_faire says:

    “This is the 13th time in a little over four years that an audit has found that the department, whose national laboratories and factories do most of the work in designing and building nuclear warheads, has lost control over computers used in working on the bombs,”
    Comment by barfly — April 1, 2007 @ 1:39 pm

    And to top it off, it was about 4 years ago that CIA agent Valerie Plame and the CIA front operation Brewster Jennings was outed. She and the Brass-Plate Cover Corporation were our eyes and ears keeping track of… nuclear proliferation!


  54. veritas says:

    RIGHT! Believe that and I’ve got some prime Louisiana “swampfront” lots to see you! hahahahahahahahahaha on anything emanating from Bush’s lips.


  55. veritas says:

    Besides, we don’t need some old Bush butt-licker to finally “see the light” some 6 years too late, do we? We’ve all known what an abysmal failure Bush has been so who cares what some disillusioned Bushie sycophant now realizes???? Who cares one twit’s worth?


  56. veritas says:

    Tabloids are chock full of Georgie and Laura’s own “personal turmoil” so perhaps that’s the reason he lying so much??? Or so unqualified?? Or so inept??


  57. circusfifthfloor says:

    Volumes of articles and books are making their way to press, and will continue for years after this national nightmare is over. Just sorry for Smirkey’s dad to have all this dumped on him at this point in his life. As for MUM, hell, she’s just like him. Try not demonizing those who have seen the light. It will take more to bury little karl and his goon squad and we don’t wish to spook the others into thinking they will be punished.


  58. big papa says:

    Just sorry for Smirkey’s dad to have all this dumped on him at this point in his life.

    Comment by circusfifthfloor #57

    #41 is ex-CIA chief and has TONS of rotten Karma topay for…

    …feel sorry for yourself…

    …they’ve used dumb a*sed “regular” conned’selfsreving DUHmericans…

    …for years…

    …he doesn’t need your sympathy…

    …he deserves your condemnation…


  59. veritas says:

    Dan Bartlett is going down in flames as well. He knows his days are numbered for all of the filth and corruption he’s enabled and been personally involved in. The only type of individual who would ever remain in such an intimate position with this WH is one whose mind is equally craven.


  60. Arthur Anne Coltrane says:

    “Thank you for respecting my privacy”


  61. circusfifthfloor says:

    I don’t dwell in self pity. W#1 served this country. Smirkey has been nothing but a loser and a taker, and you can’t blame every parent for the sins of the children. Now, Barb is another story altogether. Peace Big Papa, CFF…


  62. bob nl says:

    The tragedy of this situation and the whole sorry reign, beginning in 2000, is how so many American people got so badly snookered to vote this idiot into office. We have been lied to constantly, time and time again, and imbued with “God blesses” to apparently legitimize these self-serving farces.
    Let’s not impeach Bush, but send him, Cheney and Rumsfeld to the Hague to have justice administered properly. Soon is not soon enough!


  63. kasinca says:

    Bartlett should be forced to testify to Congress as well: he knows where all the dead bodies are buried…he scrubbed Dubya’s records back in Texas.


  64. Jim says:

    “…the president respects his position”, but not enough to keep him from making the character smear.


  65. HSans says:

    What has taken so many people so long to cotton on to these ‘loyal Bushies’. They are obviously not the stupid ones. The people who have actually believed and supported and VOTED these hypocritical, dishonest, Constitution Haters are the stupid ones.

    The world watches in incredulous amazement!


  66. Rich Miles says:

    All due respect for some very smart people, and some very angry people who have posted on this thread, but you’re missing a key element in Bartlett’s remarks.

    What Bartlett said was “code” for the following:

    “Nice kid you got there, Matthew…it would really be too bad if something…happened to him, you know what I mean? If he got…hurt or something in Iraq.”

    They did it to McCain, which may explain why he’s so bugfuck insane these days. Bush tried to do it to James Webb, but Webb saw through it and called BS on Bush at that reception back a couple months ago.

    These people have no shame. I mean, in addition to the above, just consider the Pat Tillman episode. They will use even the dead to get what they want, and they will threaten a parent whose child is about to deploy to Bush’s War in this covert fashion to get him to shut up when he leaves the ranch.

    Best proof that I’m right about this? If Dowd recants in the next few days. If he doesn’t, perhaps I’m wrong. If he does, count on it – I’m right, they threatened his Iraq-posted child.

    Now tell me this can’t be so.


  67. Prissy says:

    Thank you Charles, as part of a military family I appreciate what you said. What is it with these Bushies? Total blind mind numbing incompetence and they expect military families and the public just to roll over? No! that won’t happen.
    It’s time to increase the pressure on these so called reps-send them a post card each week saying “END THE WAR NOW” and call them to come up with a real plan to stop this madness before it goes completely out of control.
    Bush is a national security risk!


  68. Ted says:

    I wonder if he’s getting divorced because his wife couldn’t take what he did for a living any more. Maybe that’s what finally brought him to the reality based community – when he wasn’t just destroying other people’s lives, but his wife’s, his own, and maybe his son’s.


  69. bumblebee says:

    I gotta laugh at this. Matthew Dowd who didn’t have a problem with smearing Kerry and any other Dems is now being smeared. My eyes are weeping for him. My heart reaches out to him. Not.


  70. circusfifthfloor says:

    We don’t have to love em, just give safe harbor while they share their stories of horror. It will help the cause. Their accounts are what we need. Damn the motives…


  71. nngifjijickh says:

    So what! The White House has a good point.


  72. Train says:

    Mr. Bartlett says Mr. Dowd is a close friend. I gotta tell you Mr. Bartlett… after you basically suggested that he’s too stupid to see the error if his thinking through the obvious signs that it was wrong and is only saying it cuz life’s been rough I doubt you’ll be friends for much longer.


  73. steve ex-expat says:

    “…he has a son who is soon to be deployed to Iraq. That could only impact a parents’ mind as they think through these issues.”

    Parents that are sending their children to Iraq are going to be against Bush? Is that the argument?


  74. Don says:

    Just another SOB trying to keep his job,but not for long. dan will soon be gone just like all of the Bushites.


  75. Shag says:

    These bastards are slime merchants. He said this with a straight face. He had the nerve to call him, a “close personal friend.” They are dangerous in that, they will savage anyone at any time.


  76. Adolf Hitler says:

    Yes Dan Bartlett, you sound familiar.

    Just like Adolf Hitler before he went down in flames…. “My friend had too many emotional problems.”

    Or how about Benito Mussulini before he got hanged on War Crimes?

    YOU SICKENING NEOCON FASCIST STOOGE!!

    That’s exactly where you are going, totally unwavering in your denial of reality. Smearing families who lost everything in this war, they have no interest in your pathetic bullshit!!!!!!

    Nuremburg isn’t good enough for these SLIME!!!!!!!!!

    Off to the Jury with all of them, THEN PRISON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Prepare the siege on that pathetic, MISGOTTEN PERCH OF FILTH, KARL ROVE’S BEDROOM!!!!!!!


  77. Eargy Earp says:

    Bartlett – a simpleton hatchetman.

    Oh Yes, all critics of the President have personal problems and need lobotomies……sure.


  78. Prissy says:

    Anyone know why BushFlash.com has been taken down due to a potential violation of the “Patriot Act”?


  79. Eargy Earp says:

    Station this guy permanently in Iraq and see how much “personal Turmoil” he experiences.


  80. Gerald Hanano says:

    He’s suffering from a malady called “THE TRUTH HURTS”.


  81. john says:

    How are so many Democrats fooled into believing that there is a place for them among republicans? Democrats understand what it means to lift all boats and we also understand that neither government nor business alone can solve the problems of this world. Democrats have got to wake up and realize that republican thought is not really about ideology but is a mental illness that is taking this great country down the drain.


  82. JPark says:

    #77 Buzzflash is up. Maybe they got hacked?



  83. Allen says:

    Method works better and in one way not mentioned: Note how we’re all off-topic?

    Rove knows that there is only so much time, so get people talking about something else, even if that something is how rude you are.


  84. White House Claims Former Aide Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil' « Tons of Fresh News says:

    [...] House Claims Former Aide Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’ White House Claims Former Aide Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’ CBS host Bob Schieffer interrupted to ask: “Are you suggesting he’s having some kind of [...]


  85. Charles says:

    You’re welcome, Prissy. To be fair, the official transcript at Face the Nation has a little more detail:

    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/01/ftn/main2635537.shtml

    More importantly, I think, Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said later on the U.S. attorney scandal, “I think that Chuck Schumer and I may have come to agreement here … on a very important issue — and that is the way to get the White House officials coming up — I believe that the transcript is indispensable, because if you don’t have a transcript, you will walk out of the meeting and senators will, in perfectly good faith, have disagreements, so it’s got to be in writing,” Specter said.


  86. PTF says:

    Dowd backwards is d-wod.


  87. Nicki Langewis says:

    Another predictable attack.. the wider view can be seen in this excellent article
    http://www.counterpunch.org/behan03302007.html
    There are wheels turning a different direction though, ie the mideast summit called by the Saudis this week…. the Eastern Kingdom may push Rome back once again. I predict that by 2012 the US will be an obscure region labeled ‘upstart’ by the rest of the world… pushed down and relegated to a rogue state. The UN will security council will demand we give up our nuclear weapons because we will not be responsible.
    The way we have been swaggering around the world century – not to mention the past several years makes me afraid to travel with my American passport, and even more afraid to live under the current version of martial law.. under surveillance by the keystone kops, at the mercy of idiots with power.
    The most unfortunate thing that has become clear in all this is that whatever the party, the same regime. Until we realize that our constitution has been twisted beyond recognition and return to the founding fathers’ vision, we are doomed.


  88. Nicki Langewis says:

    Wow that was hardly readable! I apologize but you get the drift. I have a migraine right now.
    Another funny image came to mind… Venezuela colonizes us, cuts down our forests to grow coffee beans for the new superpower, Saudi Arabia, which had been created by US and Standard Oil–whose biggest oil customer will be China-after they call in all of our treasury notes!!



  89. thevanishedfrontier says:

    I would say that if anything could bring someone in the Boy in the Bubble’s Bubble to face Reality, going through the death of a preemie, and the survival of another preemie, and the prospect of ones child setting off for Iraq would do it very effectively. Prayers and cheers for Mr. Dowd and his humanity.


  90. Charles says:

    Holy cow. Someone actually stood up to Bush? Amazing. Hey guys, if the boss is lousy go to another party. The Democrats are looking for good leaders to replace the idiots they have in office now.


  91. Penumbra says:

    Sonofa… “Too emotional” about a war in which hundreds of thousands have died?

    I can see trying not to let emotions cloud your judgment, but don’t imply that you should be calculating in your approach to so many human deaths.


  92. Rich Miles says:

    Sorry to jump off topic here, but Prissy is right – BUSHflash.com, not BUZZflash, was shut down for a time yesterday, apparently by DHS, for an alleged violation of Sec 802 of the USA PATRIOT Act.

    The site is back up now, with no mention of the shutdown, so it may have been bogus – perhaps to get people like Prissy and me to take note of the site – but it definitely was shut down yesterday for a while, and it definitely had a link page that showed the logo of the DHS.

    As you were…


  93. jeremiah says:

    This explains why Republican Congressmen have so few sons and daughters in Iraq – it would make their important decision making too personal! Now it all makes sense – Chickenhawk logic comes home to roost.


  94. Davol says:

    Let me get this straight. The Iraq war is now effecting this former Bush advisor personally, since his son is now going to the war, so his views are now different from Bush and the rest of his out-of-touch warmongers. Doesn’t this speak volumes for the priorities and attitudes of this war-profiteering swindle of a Republican administration. Bush is more dangerous to America then any terrorist, and may be deliberately running our military off a cliff and flushing our Treasury along with them in order to sell our infrastructure to equity firms he is destined to retire to along with Tony Blair. Now this multi-country-wrecking folly directly effects one of Bush’s people so he doesn’t want to play anymore. Bush is an un-American fascist traitor, and nobody can be a true American patriot who feels any different. The Americans of a previous generation would have Bush tar’d and feather’d by now. This treason rolling Truman over and over in his grave disgusts me.


  95. Think Progress » Novak Floats New Dowd Smear: Bush’s Former Chief Campaign Strategist Is Just A Partisan Democart says:

    [...] strategist Matthew Dowd first publicly criticized President Bush, conservatives questioned whether “emotions” over his son’s deployment to Iraq were having an “impact” on his judgement. This talking point, which was repeated by [...]


  96. White House Claims Former Aide Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil' « News Coctail says:

    [...] Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’ Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 6:45 am White House Claims Former Aide Turned On Bush Because Of ‘Personal Turmoil’ CBS host Bob Schieffer interrupted to ask: “Are you suggesting he’s having some kind of [...]



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