Burning "Political Capitol"

Via Make Them Accountable

Some critics contend that proclamation was as much a jinx as the "Mission Accomplished" banner hanging behind Bush in May 2003 when he declared that major combat in Iraq had ended.

Kenneth R. Bazinet of the New York Daily News tells us Bush 2 off to shaky start.

The victory lap is long over for President Bush, tripped up by a series of gaffes since Election Day that were either self-inflicted or made by his own allies, both aides and critics said.

"It's been sloppy. ...People are off message," conceded a senior administration official, who said Team Bush's trademark discipline had crumbled since winning a second term.

"It's the worst I've ever seen it," the official conceded.

In the view of former GOP strategist Marshall Wittman, now a senior fellow at the Democratic Leadership Council, "The honeymoon blew over quicker than a Texas thunderstorm on a hot July day."

The problems started at once and just kept coming.

Among Bush's biggest headaches were the aborted nomination of Bernard Kerik as homeland security secretary, a ferocious battle within his own party to get recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission through Congress and loose-tongued Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's answer to G.I.s in Iraq concerned about the lack of protective armor.

Bush was even blindsided by John Danforth's resignation as UN ambassador, a snap move that came as Kerik withdrew his nomination in shame.

The Kerik fiasco was a result of staffers being afraid to tell the boss anything he didn't want to hear. [See Kerik was Bush's kind of guy. ]

"The Kerik appointment was the worst of all," said the senior administration official, who complained that since the election too many White House staffers have been more concerned with trying to move up the career ladder than their day-to-day work.

Bush may have trouble with the Republicans as well as the Democrats so these problems can really hurt his agenda.

The administration knows that it will face a hostile Democratic minority in Congress, but it can't be certain how staunchly allied the GOP majority will be. It took major arm-twisting for Bush to persuade Republicans to pass the intelligence reform bill late last year.

We can only hope!!!!!