Yeesh

Setbacks and infighting mar Bush's second term, threaten his legacy

In case you were wondering, that’s his legacy as a brilliant president. His legacy as a complete and utter asswipe is solidifying by the day. Anyway…

President Bush is meeting the second-term jinx less than a year after he won triumphant re-election.

Triumphant re-election? Give me a break. He was a war president who won in a squeaker. I can only hope that lede from Knight-Ridder is either tongue-in-cheek or a literary conceit used to make his eventual thud resonate that much more resoundingly.

His White House appears in disarray, its once sure-footed political operation stumbling over his choice for the Supreme Court. His party is rebelling over the court pick, runaway spending and more. Top aides face a grand-jury investigation, and key allies in Congress are in legal trouble, too.

His bold domestic agenda, centered on transforming Social Security, is all but dead. His dream of transforming the Middle East is a nightmare in Iraq. And he appears powerless, at least for now, to do anything to climb back.

Underscoring it all: A new Pew Research Center poll Thursday shows that Americans are increasingly sour about Bush, his Republican Party, the war in Iraq and the overall state of the country.

Bold domestic agenda? Again, please. There’s nothing especially bold about redistributing wealth to the upper classes, warmongering, or bullying gays and women. As far as I can tell, that’s been his base’s agenda for my entire lifetime.

"It's a dramatic turnabout," said presidential historian Robert Dallek. "Events have overtaken him."

No, events haven’t overtaken him. He’s just been hung by his own stinking petard. And the popcorn has never tasted so good.