George Dubya: Moron or Madman

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George Dubya: Moron or Madman?

In a recent meeting of NATO members in Prague, Françoise Ducros, the communications director for Jean Chretien of Canada, came right out and said it.

She claimed that George Bush was neither more nor less than a moron.

Following the lead of other women in high places, such as the aide to Gerhard Schroeder who made an equally astute pronouncement, Ducros seems to have penetrated the swaggering aura of superiority that floats about the intellectual residue and refuse that is George Bush and found him wanting.

Unfortunately, she, like her German predecessor, has gotten the boot for her remarks, though she claims to have resigned. And Chretien, who should know better, has sworn that he and Bush are bosom buddies – and this despite the fact that Bush calls him “Dino” (for “dinosaur”).

What neither of these women could grasp, of course, is why Bush is so hellbent on going to war with Iraq and dragging the rest of the world along with him into his personal grudge match. Nor can they understand why the American people are so willing to give His Eminence carte blanche to run roughshod over his own country and its constitution.

In fact, when you consider what’s been going on lately, you wonder if we’re dealing not with a moron, but with a madman.

Despite the news that the Iraqis are complying completely with the requests of the inspections teams in that country, Bush came out two days ago and assured us that the results “are not encouraging.”

What he obviously means is that the news is not encouraging insofar as his war effort is concerned. How is he ever going to persuade anyone but the incredibly obsequious Tony Blair that they should fall in line behind a misguided attempt at military lunacy if the evil Saddam all of a sudden turns cooperative?

No, the news is not at all encouraging. Indeed, Saddam is even allowing the inspection teams into his palaces. And if they can go there, where can’t they go?

But, lest we think that Bush is introducing any semblance of reason or reality into his maniacal war mix, he did announce three days ago that federal workers would receive no pay raise because of the immense amount of money we must dole out for the war against terrorism - to the tune of $200 billion for Iraq alone.

Indeed, just to show you how bad things are getting, two Democrats, Bill Clinton and John Kerry, have actually come out of their holes to protest. Now, you know things are getting out of hand if any Democrat actually has the guts to pipe up and hint at the fact that there might be something to be said in opposition to the heavy-handed activities of the man Maureen Dowd calls the Boy Emperor.

In fact, both Clinton and Kerry had the effrontery to proffer the idea that perhaps we should be worrying more about bin Laden and his operation than a cooperative Hussein. Rather amazingly, Kerry went even further and offered the possibility – horror of horrors – that Bush might be using the Iraqi escapade as a cover-up for his inability to effectively prosecute a war against al-Qaeda and its henchmen. Echoing Kerry, Hillary Rodham Clinton told Chris Matthews this week that the Bush Dynasty “had issues” with Saddam. Issues indeed.

Even the wannabe, but afraid-to-be, Democrat, Jim Jeffords, has suggested that homeland security as Bush sees it is a sham, and that our real security issues lie in the areas of education, clean air, a protected environment and health insurance for all.

What Jeffords seems to be saying is that Bush is just as maniacal when it comes to shredding the country to pieces for the sake of corporate gain as he is in his insistence on obliterating Iraq.

Christie Whitman notwithstanding, the Clean Air Act has been delivered into the sludge ponds of pollution and our national forests are now fair game for loggers. Nor do we seem to care that 45 million Americans are without health insurance and that those who do have insurance are paying astronomical premiums.

No, Bush’s answer to all that is to protect the pharmaceutical companies from losses and lawsuits and to hide provisions in his Homeland Security Act which would definitely enhance the prospects of his buddies in the insurance business.

In other words, his mania for the propagation of an extreme right wing agenda has taken all the wind out of the sails of compassionate conservatism. There is no compassion, and his brand of conservatism involves no conservation at all.

Perhaps Ducros had it wrong. Perhaps George Bush is in fact no moron. For it’s hard to believe that a moron could have so successfully persuaded the American people that he is looking out for their best interests, when in fact he has dismantled the very safeguards that have protected them since the day the constitution was written.

America has become his corporation, and he’s running it accordingly. His stock his high, though one cringes to think what dividends will accrue to the vast majority of people who have put their faith in a man with a mania for war and a delight in the extremities of the over-the-edge right.

December 5, 2002