Dump Dubya? Not a Bad Idea

Jackie Mason was right when he said, "George W. Bush is a great speaker. It's just that English is not his field."

Neither is politics.

Dubya still insists that the only mistake he ever made was trading Sammy Sosa.
Whom does he think he's fooling?

As owner of the Texas Rangers in 1994, Bush wanted to be commissioner of baseball. But when he revealed that ambition to Bud Selig, then chairman of the executive committee searching for a new commissioner, Selig told him an owner shouldn't be commissioner.

Four years later, Selig swallowed those words and took the job himself, even though he was the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. A wise wag wrote that hiring Selig to search for the new commissioner was like hiring O.J. to find the killer.

During his nine-year tenure, the best thing Selig did was to go to Israel on vacation. The worst thing he did was to come back.

His reign of error has included breaking up each league into three divisions (an idea owners rubber-stamped by a 29-1 vote, with Bush the only dissenter);
maintaining leagues and divisions of different sizes; cheapening the integrity of the World Series by foisting interleague play upon an unsuspecting public;
foolishly awarding home-field advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All-Star Game; allowing baseball's showcase events (All-Star Game, playoffs, World Series) to start so late that the fans of the future can't stay up to watch the finish; allowing leagues to operate under different rules (the DH in the American League only) but eliminating league presidents and combining umpire staffs; and presiding over a 232-day player strike ended by the courts.

Should we add cancelling the 1994 postseason and ushering in the steroids era
as baseball looked the other way in an effort to repair the strike damage?

Even Bush could have done a better job.

Rebugged by Selig, Bush turned to politics, ran for governor of Texas, and placed himself on the fast track to the White House -- even though he had to steal two elections to get there (thanks to brother Jeb and the Supreme Court in 2000 and his Ohio campaign chairman, who just happened to be the state's voting commissioner, in 2004).

"Hail to the Thief" has never sounded better.

Even though Ralph Nader tipped five states to Dubya in 2000, the voting public should have known better. Al Gore may have been more wooden then but was light-years ahead of Bush in experience, integrity, and intelligence. But the voters in the west and south decided they liked a drinking buddy better. Judging by the current low ratings Bush is pulling in the polls, I bet even the rednecks are sorry they voted for him.

His hanging-judge days as governor in Texas should have been a good hint; this "pro-life" president appointed a tobacco lobbyist (Tommy Thompson) as Secretary of Health and created all kinds of excuses for launching an unprovoked war that has killed thousands -- and may kill millions more because new terrorists are created every day the war lasts.

The Sunnis and Shiites agree on only one thing: they want the Americans out of Iraq. We are an unwelcome occupying force and will never know when to leave. We may have won or lost already but how will we know? We don't even know whom we're fighting. We do know this, however: Islamic militants from other countries have found a welcome training ground.

Given that we've already knocked off Saddam Hussein, our mission is Iraq really is accomplished. Better we should return the National Guard to Kansas, to clean up the tornado damage, and even to Louisiana, where the post-Katrina situation remains critical. I was at a City Hall rally in New Orleans in January where picketers held signs that said, "Rebuild New Orleans, Not Baghdad."

If Bush and Cheney really want a war, Iran would be a good place to start. Unlike Iraq, Iran is a serious threat to Western Civilization -- and will become much more dangerous if allowed to build nuclear bombs. But the U.S. and European Union are behaving like they are Neville Chamberlain and this is 1938 all over again. Appeasement won't work against a madman. Not then and not now.

Bush just doesn't want to hear it. In fact, he doesn't want to hear anything that agrees with his personal point of view. He has surrounded himself with yes-men
who reflect a tiny, right-wing mindset completely out of step with the rest of the country. The man is an embarrassment, especially in the wake of the worldly Bill Clinton. All the sympathy the United States received from around the world after Sept. 11 has been squandered.

Dubya hasn't done himself any favors at home either. Instead of firing CIA director George Tenet after the intelligence agency ignored warnings of 9/11, he awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Ditto Tommy Franks, the general selected as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq because he's a long-time Bush crony from Texas. Franks let Osama bin Laden and Omar escape but wound up with the presidential medal too.

Why is incompetence routinely awarded in this administration? Maybe because the incompetence level starts at the top.

No wonder there's a website called impeachthem.org. If the Republicans can waste millions of taxpayer dollars, not to mention months of valuable time, trying to dump Bill Clinton because of an apparent sexual escapade, they should be shaking in their boots that the Democrats will find cause to ax Bush for sending so many young men to the deaths for no apparent reason. For my money, they could dump Cheney too and make Nancy Pelosi the first female president -- even if it happens on the last day of the Bush Administration.

George W. Bush is as stubborn as Lyndon Johnson, as paranoid as Richard Nixon, as naive as Jimmy Carter, and as stupid as Ronald Reagan. When Bush and Cheney seized the White House, they ushered in an error of government by Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and Big Business. To hell with the good of the country.

The Iraq War is not worth one more American life. Nothing will come of staying put except many more shattered families and many more Islamic terrorists. My solution is to withdraw now and forever hold the peace. That's what the Iraqis want and that's what the Americans want. Just ask.

Oh, yeah: Bush doesn't want to hear the answer.