No one's buying it anymore

Bob Raymond called the other day with an interesting theory.

"Bush is Bush," he said. "We've got to stop wasting our energy on him because he's only doing what he's supposed to do. He's a liar, and a sociopath and a criminal. How do we expect him to act. They stole the elections for him just to let him do what he's doing. He obviously doesn't care what people think. We've got to focus our energy on those around him. Those who might listen, and do something."

As Bush shrugged, and winced and smirked and fidgeted through his press conference yesterday, fabricating truly incredible answers that defied fact. It was a performance we've seen and marveled at before. This...this from a president? He denied his government's security report on the strength of Al Qaida. He linked insurgents in Iraq with 9/11. He claimed to have preferred the use of diplomacy in Iraq. He dismissed with a "we've got to move beyond it", the admission that someone in his administration outed a CIA agent. He took questions only from reporters selected in advance, and noted on a list on the dais. In the midst of the most serious topics in the world, he made adolescent jokes. And, shamefully, many of the reporters laughed along with the leader of the world whose shoulders bobbed up and down in self-congratulatory laughter. As men and women die in a war he started.

I begin to think Bob is right. I'm all for impeachment, but let's urge our representatives to begin with the most susceptible enemies of the Constitution - Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, John Roberts.

Though I don't hold out hope. Yesterday, the Appropriations Committee, controlled by Democrats couldn't even de-fund the office of a Vice President who defies that he is a member of the executive branch.

Yesterday, a former White House aide defied Congress by not showing up for a subpoenaed testimony.

Yesterday, the President claimed that the military had successfully moved toward eight benchmarks when the same document appeared in draft form two days ago claiming that no benchmarks had been met.

As Chuck Brodsky sings, "these are dangerous times." There are eighteen months left to this administration, but they could be the most frightening eighteen months we've ever lived through.