Bush says he ‘doesn’t consider Bolton credible,’ laments spending ‘political capital’ on him.
Bush says he ‘doesn’t consider Bolton credible,’ laments spending ‘political capital’ on him.
The New York Times reports that President Bush recently held an off-the-record meeting with conservative writers. During the meeting, Council on Foreign Relations fellow Max Boot asked Bush why he had diverted from the priorities of his first term. “That’s ridiculous,” Bush said. Boot then read from a Wall Street Journal op-ed by war hawk John Bolton in which Bolton said Bush’s presidency is “in total intellectual collapse.” Bush then lashed out at Bolton:
Bush grew more agitated at the mention of his own former senior diplomat. “Let me just say from the outset that I don’t consider Bolton credible,” the president said bitterly. Bush had brought Bolton into the top ranks of his administration, fought for Senate confirmation and, when lawmakers balked, defied critics to give the hawkish aide a recess appointment. “I spent political capital for him,” Bush said, and look what he got in return.
Matthew Yglesias notes, “Of course Bush is right, Bolton isn’t a credible thinker on national security issues. But Bolton is also right — the inherent unworkability of the Bush doctrine has persuaded Bush to substantially abandon it in the waning days of his administration.”
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Boot then read an Wall Street Journal op-ed by war hawk John Bolton in which Bolton said Bush’s presidency is “in total intellectual collapse.”
I'd like for someone/anyone to ask Bolton when exactly Chimpy himself , much less his presidency, was ever capable or connected to something "intellectual"..........
August 31st, 2008 at 2:56 pmWow - Bush must be back in AA or something. That's like three polysyllabic words in one paragraph!
August 31st, 2008 at 3:02 pmI'm even more convinced than ever that all Congress had to do was just bring up impeachment charges, and Bush would have immediately resigned out of fear. The man cannot handle criticism.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:02 pmSorry, Chimpy. You were already overdrawn anyway.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:03 pmThat's funny, comic relief for the comic relief of the GOP campain. I guess he does know all about a lack of credibility. He must have borrowed the capital from China, too. It was probably tainted and that's why it didn't work.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:10 pmDid I read that right? The walrus (kookookachoo) said the bush administration is in ineffectual collapse?
August 31st, 2008 at 3:11 pmBoltons, I think, is criticising others to keep himself relevant as a new administration will be rolling in soon.
Its just more crackpot realism...
August 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pmThis president has shown time and time again he's willing to throw his friends under the bus to save his own ass.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:32 pmSo they're both a=holes! Who knew?
August 31st, 2008 at 3:33 pmThe morally bankrupt ususally turn on each other when things go wrong.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:33 pmI don't concider either of them "credible", or anyone who is in Bush "the Mafia Don's" criminal organization.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:37 pmGeez, Louise, lying war criminal number one (Bush), doesn't consider the comments of lying war criminal number sixteen (Bolton) as "credible?" Incredible, Bush lies are stranger than Bolton fiction...
The Republican rats are jumping off the sinking GOP ship. Bush will be a no-show at the coronation of old John McWar and his blushing new sidekick, McMoosekiller, while Shooter McDeadeye says that he has "other priorities..." When the going gets tough, the ChickenHawks get clucking...
Somewhere there is a three-year-old birthday cake For Johnny, From Georgie, just waiting to being BBQed at McCindy house #5 in Arizona.
POW/PTA '08
August 31st, 2008 at 3:40 pmMy oh my... The great unraveling has begun in earnest...
First step, they begin eating their own.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:43 pm“I spent political capital for him,” Bush said, and look what he got in return.
Buyer's remorse?
Melon-Scaife Industries is sorry to inform you, the product came with no express guarantee.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:47 pm"Of course Bush is right, Bolton isn’t a credible thinker on national security issues."
I beg to differ.
Bolton is not a thinker, period.
He is driven, just like the rest of his neo-con tribe, by a primitive, cave man-like loath for people who are different.
"But Bolton is also right — the inherent unworkability of the Bush doctrine has persuaded Bush to substantially abandon it in the waning days of his administration.”
This is true. But don't you find it amazing that they tried to push the Bush doctrine -in Iraq, N Korea, Lebanon, Iran- even though it was obviously doomed to failure? Why did this fact become apparent to Bolton et al only after Bush no longer had political capital? Maybe personal prestige and connections mattered more than serving the country.
Also, it's amazing how Bush still refuses to take bloody responsibility for his failed policies. Blaming Bolton -when Bush should have known better than to pick this hack- for his own failures is so pathetic, I almost feel sorry for him.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:12 pm"'I spent political capital for him,' Bush said, and look what he got in return."
lol Looks like trouble in paradise in the Bush's base. Bush throws Bolton under the bus. For him to turn on Bolton, it must be the bottle and blow that added to his anger to Bolton. The rats are turning on the rats. No, Bolton was never a critical thinker on national security issues. In fact, he was waste the clown President's political
August 31st, 2008 at 4:13 pmcapital.
BuhEffing WAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
August 31st, 2008 at 4:16 pmI wonder what chickenhawk tastes like? They are certainly eating their own.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:17 pmIt's like watching cartoon cannibals.
“‘I spent political capital for him,’ Bush said, and look what he got in return.”
Let's talk about (our) cold hard cash capital, GDumbya. Look at how much of that you spent on Iraq and look at what we got in return. I could give a flying fig about your "political capital", a**clown. That's your problem.
However, the utter failure of your Iraq fiasco has spent much that is dear to this whole country -- lives, reputation and resources. That I do care about.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:20 pm“‘I spent political capital for him,’ Bush said, and look what he got in return.
Since your credit was used to appoint him in recess, you now have a senate that won't go into real recess, but has someone gavel in a 5 minute session each day everyone else is gone, to prevent any more recess appointments.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:21 pmIs it a function of "intellect" to measure credibility solely by lock-step agreement, even as one's position unravels in the face of events?
According to Bush, unquestioning sycophancy equals "credibility." What an interesting bit of light he sheds upon his own "intellectual" process, here.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:36 pmIt has to suck to be a NeoCon in these waning days of the crumbling, bumbling BushCo regime.
I can't wait to see who else turns, maybe Billy Krystol or JoeL or even Barney!
August 31st, 2008 at 4:46 pmWhich is the rat and which the sinking ship?
August 31st, 2008 at 4:49 pmI find the entirety of the GOP not credible.
August 31st, 2008 at 4:58 pmI think Bolton and Bush were tight; it would not be difficult to believe they had sex with the other. It is alarming to hear of their breaking up. They were such a great couple.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:04 pmSo, a man everyone with an IQ in the three-digit range would call "not credible" says another man, for whom he wasted a lot of "political capital", is "not credible". This is a case of being right but for the wrong reasons.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:10 pmBolton like others were ideological, political choices that Bush made. When he speaks of capital he spent, it demonstrates the lack of statesmanship of which he is capable. Thus, the choices of the Bush administration, and in its wake the McCain campaign, despite all their flag lapel waving and codpiece wearing, belie a dangerous incompetence.
Insofar as Bolton's comment, well even someone who waits for days before doing anything about a hurricane sinking one of our nation's oldest and most storied cities or another who ate cake on the occasion with the first, knows that doing nothing before another hurricane might be foolhardy. It doesn't take a weatherman to see which way the wind blows.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:16 pmBolton was never credible. The Senate refused to confirm him and the drunk in the White House pulled an appointment over a recess. It was during the times that Schivo was such a PR priority. He was using his rubbernecked accomplices to the fullest. Max Boot is a worthless warmongering chickenhawk who should have had to serve in the wars he loves so much.
August 31st, 2008 at 5:45 pmTranslated Bush ~ "My incredibly poor judgement is coming back not only to haunt me, but to bite me in the ass"
August 31st, 2008 at 5:54 pmFight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
August 31st, 2008 at 6:10 pmSeriously though, I'm glad if Bush distances himself from the neocons.
1984 Says:
Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!
Seriously though, I’m glad if Bush distances himself from the neocons.
It is about 8 years too late for Dubya to get much distance from the NeoCons. They own his soul and his Presidency and he will forever be tainted with their scum.
August 31st, 2008 at 6:16 pmIsn't this like a drunk calling a schizophrenic "crazy", when they themselves are going through withdrawal and seeing bugs on their arms and slapping at them?
August 31st, 2008 at 6:19 pmBush sounds like he's just pissed off that Bolton is criticising him, not for pursuing Bolton's idiotic, neocon policy of "give everyone the finger and bomb indiscriminately".
August 31st, 2008 at 6:30 pmI'm no fan of John "walrus" Bolton. But, if he did the right thing and rolled over on Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Wolfowitz and other, I would give him credit for at least one thing done right.
The fact that Bush is taking his co-conspirator on, just shows how really, really stupid Bush is. It would be no surprise to hear that Bolton's plain went down; if I were him I wouldn't fly until January 21, 2009.
August 31st, 2008 at 7:40 pmJust a wild guess here - did Bolton become unqualified in bush's eyes right after Bolton broke ranks ?
August 31st, 2008 at 7:45 pmBush cred + Bolton cred - reality of how much they've fu(ked up this planet =
-2,874,493,202.098
August 31st, 2008 at 7:54 pmThe finger-pointing is getting cranked up now! Bush will be blaming everyone for his pathetic record except himself! The next 140 something days til 20 Jan 2009, will find these rats turning on each other like never before! It's going to be fun to watch!
August 31st, 2008 at 8:05 pmShrub v. Mustache cage match. They go until one is left standing. Winner gets waterboarded.
I'll put 20 on the mustache.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:12 pmThe Dummy and The Mummy
August 31st, 2008 at 10:47 pmThe Euro - Dollar exchange rate collapse has wreaked havoc on 'moustache ride' revenues.
August 31st, 2008 at 10:51 pmMatthew Yglesias notes, “Of course Bush is right, Bolton isn’t a credible thinker on national security issues. But Bolton is also right — the inherent unworkability of the Bush doctrine has persuaded Bush to substantially abandon it in the waning days of his administration.”
Neither one has a clue. Neither one has any crediblity on any issue much less something as complex as foreign policy as it relates to national security.
It is humorous to watch cornered rats turn on themselves though.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 31st, 2008 at 11:13 pmThey deserve each other. Two weasels.
August 31st, 2008 at 11:15 pmEach one attacking the other one - beautiful.
"...the inherent unworkability of the Bush doctrine has persuaded Bush to substantially abandon it in the waning days of his administration.”
This could be changed to read:
"...the inherent unworkability of the Conservative doctrine has persuaded the dying man to substantially abandon it in the waning days of his life an renounce his unflappable adherence to it."
With this as a kicker:
Has there EVER been a liberal who, on their deathbed has renounced the liberal agenda, and said that they should have done more to restrict their concern for others?
NO
The renouncing is ALWAYS the conservative (I Await Bob Novak's) who recognizes the harm their illogical and callous disregard for others has caused, and they seek closure on their self-serving egomaniacal life lamenting their ways.
Conservatives are truly disgusting.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:18 amWayne Says:
“‘I spent political capital for him,’ Bush said, and look what he got in return.
Since your credit was used to appoint him in recess, you now have a senate that won’t go into real recess, but has someone gavel in a 5 minute session each day everyone else is gone, to prevent any more recess appointments."
Actually, this point is more involved than that.
The term "Honorable" that is used in Congress, is because, each Congress member recognizes where the cracks and cervices of the Constitution, and they each call each other Honorable, as a means to slap each other on the back because they do not pry open the cracks and crevices of the Constitution. This is HONORABLE.
The Bush/Cheney Junta has not only broken open the Constitution, they have dumped it over and spilled the contents out on the floor. There is no Honor in their continued actions to undermine the Constitution, and as proof of that, the Senate..."has someone gavel in a 5 minute session each day everyone else is gone, to prevent any more recess appointments."
Basically, the Senate has to remind Il Douchbag that thay will not let him continue to subvert the Constitution, even though he supposedly took an oath to "protect and defend" it. This alone is proof positive that Il Douchbag is a traitor.
September 1st, 2008 at 12:32 am"Under the spreading chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me" -- George Orwell 1984
September 1st, 2008 at 1:44 amThis looks like an opportunity to charge them all and let the ratting out begin first rat at the immunity window wins
September 1st, 2008 at 6:38 amWas'nt it john bolton, leading the charge . to attack iran? he had pres. G.W. bush's, hear. what happen to the claim of bringing people together? What (will we tell the childen)?
September 1st, 2008 at 9:25 amThanks for appointing someone who's not credible to represent us in the U.N.! Or did he only stop being credible when he disagreed with you?
September 1st, 2008 at 10:54 am