The Offensive Bushite Counter-Offensive

The Bushites have been mounting quite a desperate counter-offensive on the war on terror and Iraq--not IN the war on terror, no that would be too much like governing and really protecting the country--but on those who question their policies, lies and fantasies, which these days includes two-thirds of the American people.

They're going after the New York Times for publishing information leaked by someone in the Bush government (and likely confirmed by others) revealing a secret and probably illegal program involving snooping into banking records. With no corroboration or even hint of why (because, you know, it's secret right?), they accuse newspapers of endangering the lives of Americans by publishing it.

Actually, they're going after one newspaper--the New York Times, even though several published the story. Why? It's a favorite conservative button to push (and it has been since the 1960s), and they're desperate to get back the angry conservative base.

But even conservative prepster pundit Tucker Carlson couldn't take this one. "How do you know it endangers lives?" he asked a Bushite stooge. "How do you know it doesn't?" the stooge replies, in a McCarthyite manuever we learned to spot in high school debate club.

They're going after the patriotism of anyone who criticizes them, including decorated veterans. It worked with Max Cleland, John McCain and John Kerry, so why not? They've got after James Webb, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Virginia, awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star Medal, two Bronze Star Medals and two Purple Hearts. They've gone after Vietnam veteran Rep. John Murtha, attacking him most recently for something he didn't say.

They don't just say they disagree with these men on Iraq or the war on terror--they call them unpatriotic, and say they hate America. These aren't just attack dogs--they're rabid.


So this, along with the orchestrated "cut and run" rhetoric aimed at Democrats who want a plan for ending the war against Americans in Iraq, and the bizaare inflating of the arrest of some hapless agitators who once fantasized about attacking the Sears Tower in Chicago, though they had no plan, no weapons and made no effort to do anything more than convert people to their interpretation of the Bible. Sense a pattern here?

So is it working-- this attempt to reclaim the sceptor of fear, the faded glory of holy warriors, talking tough and making themselves and their pals even more comfortably rich?

Some polls show a modest bump in Bush's numbers, some show a modest decline. But here's how T. Goddard's Political Wire summarizes a new Greenberg Quinlan Rosner (D) poll looks at "swing voters:"

"It is almost impossible to overestimate the anger of swing voters." An amazingly high 73% say the country is on the wrong track and 66% disapprove of President Bush's job performance. In named trial heats, swing voters prefer Democratic candidates for Congress 45% to 28% over the Republicans.

The battle for the Senate, "influenced disproportionately by Republican travails in Ohio and Pennsylvania," looks even worse for Republicans (53% to 31%).

"Swing voters embrace an agenda that invests more money in new clean energy, affordable health care for all and strengthening education with these investments paid for by eliminating recently passed tax cuts for corporations and people making over $200,000 a year."

Also:

A USA Today/Gallup poll finds President Bush's approval rating at 37%, dipping slighly from two weeks ago. However, the percentage of Americans who say the president has "a clear plan for handling the situation in Iraq" has dropped to 31%, a new low.