Call Me Crazy, But Think I've Been Here Before

Call Me Crazy, But Think I've Been Here Before
by Stephen Pizzo | Dec 9 2006 - 9:13am

Remember Watergate? I sure do. I lived through the entire sordid mess. But yesterday a particularly chilling image from those days returned to haunt my imagination. It was at the height of the crisis. Nixon, hunkered down in the Oval Office, buzzed his secretary and asked for his chief of staff, Al Haig.

When Haig walked in Nixon thrust a pill bottle at him. It was Valium. A frustrated Nixon asked Haig to open it for him. The bottle had a childproof cap Nixon could not dislodge. As Haig went to open the bottle he noticed the cap had been nearly chewed off.

I always considered that moment -- an American president, the most powerful person on earth, in emotional free fall and desperately chewing the cap of tranquilizer bottle -- the most frightening image of my life. That is, until this week.

This week I saw that look again. It was the look Richard Nixon had just weeks before the Valium bottle incident. It's hard to describe, but unmistakable -- an unsettling combination of nonsensical defiance, confusion, Captain Queeg-like paranoia with a dash of self-pity.

I saw that look in George W. Bush's face twice this week. The first time was during his Wednesday morning photo-op with the members of the Baker/Hamilton Commission. The best way to describe Bush's manner is that he seemed untethered from what everyone else in the nation considered a momentous moment. He lacked even appropriate voice inflection, delivering disjointed and rambling comments in a monotone. His comments were so bland and generic he might as well have been responding to a report from a local Rotary Club on the importance of good street lighting fighting street crime.

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And no president in America's history has been less imaginative than George W. Bush." Truer words were never spoken.

Kicked and recommended.

--IMM

How soon before a national media outlet uses that headline? I figure he will feel like a prisoner condemned to a two year sentence in which his every word is questioned and his every action is monitored. It's no longer any fun for him without an aquiescent Congress and with a media that smells blood in the water. With this bully now ridiculed and derided, the people may just realize that they ultimately hold the power in this country and that feeling may be followed, it is hoped, with a new sense of their awesome responsibility as well.

It's more and more unsettling to observe W. He gives the impression of someone hanging on by a thread in danger of snapping at any moment. Watching anybody in this predicament would provoke unease, let alone the most powerful person in the world. SG

:scared:

this is our 'captain'? Ugh.

Scary indeed.

if Bush realy were to be obviously unfit, even in the eyes of the Republicans around him, to serve as President, and they persuaded him to resign, then Cheney would be officially in charge. :scared:

Now hear me out before you jump on me. See Cheney is pretty much running it already and probably always was. Cheney likes to run things with little public scrutiny. When our Democracy is functioning at all, the President is the most scrutinized feller on earth. That would be like throwing battery acid on Cheney. His blood pressure would spike by week two and he would likely stroke out by week 4. If the heart attack doesn't get him first. So the best thing to do with Cheney is put him out front with all the scrutiny he can stand and then a measure more.

MKJ

...my friend and I (who both volunteer at shelters for people with drug problems) heard his radio address on saturday, and three words into it I slammed on the brakes. We looked at each other and simultaneously said "Quaaludes". The lack of inflection, the slurred s's... it's all there.

But, yeah, that boy is back on the drugs.

Why do we expect our athletes to be drug-free when our elected officials can abuse whatever they want? And look what we get.

*'s handlers will get him anything he needs to appear normal. They know he is bat-shit insane and are just trying to not let US know it.

Seriously.