Crossposted at Shadow Blog for America
I had to do a screen capture of this headline, on CNN.com. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes, and I thought that if I navigated away from the page without saving the headline, it would disappear and I’d be left with no evidence that I’d ever seen such a thing. It read, BREAKING NEWS President Bush says he takes responsibility for the federal government’s failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. Details soon.
Isn’t “Bush accepts responsibility” one of the signs of the apocalypse?
What we have here is strategery in action folks. Soon there was a new headline. Here come the weasel words… (emphasis mine)
“Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn’t fully do its job right, I take responsibility,” Bush said during a joint news conference with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Bush said he wants to know what went right and what went wrong so that he can determine whether the United States was prepared for another storm, or an attack.
“I’m not going to defend the process going in, but I am going to defend the people who are on the front line of saving lives,” Bush said.
Earlier in the day, the White House announced the president will address the nation Thursday night about recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast.
Also on CNN, we have this headline:
Rice: Disaster shows ‘ugly way’ race, poverty collide
NEW YORK (CNN) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the people who were stranded in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina are evidence that race and poverty can still come together “in a very ugly way” in parts of the “Old South.”
Okay, so it’s just the Old South that has a problem. Whew–we don’t need to confront any painful issues about race after all, (contrary to what Howard Dean has claimed.) No, it’s only those backwards folks in the “Old South” who have a problem. Well, that’s a relief–that “I’m okay, it’s all your fault!” approach always goes down a lot easier.
I’m reminded right now of what Mark Crispin Miller said a few years ago about Bush’s fumbling of the “fool me once, shame on you…” saying.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1128-02.htm
Actually, I’m pretty sure Fonzie was trying to say the word “wrong” and it kept coming out “I’m wr-rr-rr–I’m wr-rr-rr–“. But I suppose that’s beside the point. What I do know is that, even though Bush has accepted “responsibility” in some weasley way, that’s very different in his mind from accepting blame.
Fonzie kept trying to say “I was wrong” but couldn’t. Dunno if that was a pre- or post-sharkjump episode, though.
You can bet too that Rove’s stones must be better because the shift here is almost too hard to believe. They are trying to cover their collective asses. Will the MSM let them get away with it this time.
Is it just me, but it seems so obvious they looked at all the polls and decided what needed to be said and by whom. God these guys are good.
I love how in this picture:
He’s trying for the Clinton lip bite. Bush is trying to “feel our pain”. Good freaking luck. The entire Bush family feel nothing for anyone except themselves.
I’m sure the answer is yes, given that it was another Malcolm Gladwell NYT bestseller.
Anyway, he goes into significant detail about the unconscious language of facial muscles, and how we both create and recognize a rich variety of what is essentially a whole language without realizing it.
To one trained in these “action units” of facial muscles and their combinations, President Bill Clinton was screaming “I’m a bad boy–come and get me!” nearly every time he appeared in public, with a subtle smirkish look he displayed with regularity.
You and I see Bush and we’ve known he’s clearly lying and also terrified at being so far out of his depth. His face tells the truth, even when he doesn’t. I’d love to hear a more detailed analysis of “the faces of Bush” from one who is trained in AU expression analysis.
dysfunctional and messed up this White House is.
The usual response in such a massive screw-up is for people to get fired. Even CongressCritters to resign for their lack of oversight.
But here, who is left holding the bag?
Georgie.
This isn’t something Rove and Hughes planned for or anticipated. This is a cobbled together reaction, not a well thought out “action.” To leave Georgie so exposed is a massive fvckup on their part…
We should be seeing most of DHS and FEMA leadership on the chopping block. I guess when you buy people off, they really do end up owning you. 🙂
a connection between Bush’s sudden willingness to admit mistakes and this bombshell from Media Matters?:
If he were to say I “accept” responsibility and for these failures I apologize …. or something to that affect, it would carry more weight with me. “I take” just pisses me off. I take it where? To heart? Up the nose? Mainline in the neck? I know its just “simple man” speak, but it still pisses me of because I know he doesn’t mean one word of it. I like the idea of facial expressions, there is just something about this guy taht would piss me off even if he was presenting me the Medal of Freedom and a check for a million bucks.
Two points:
One, the Bush League has done this before. Someone “accepts responsibility” for a screw-up, but nothing really happens beyond that. George Tenet did for the “intelligence failure”, Runsfield did it for Abu Ghraib, etc, etc, but it’s a hollow PR gesture. There’s no true accountability, no real consequences.
Two, does this bit sound familiar?
It should. It’s the same dodge the Bush League uses whenever anyone criticizes the Iraq fiasco. They pretend that people are criticizing the troops, and then oh-so-bravely rush to defend them. It’s real nice that your so willing “to defend the people who are on the front line” from criticism, but it’s not them who are being criticized. So stop trying to hide behind them.
I’m sure after the Thursday night clarification we’ll find out he’s taking responsibility for absolutely nothing.
This would have been better “Its my fault I hired an idiot like myself with no experience to run FEMA. Its my fault I recklessly cut taxes. Its my fault I got us into a war that is making us less secure, is immoral and is driving us broke. Its my fault innocent people died in N.O. and Iraq. So therefore, I RESIGN THE PRESIDENCY.”
Now that’s what I want to hear. 🙂