Whig trouble. posted by lenin

I had never heard of this White House Iraq Group (or WHIG) until a few days ago. But now it's hot gossip, what with it having been set up by Chief of Staff Andrew Card to disseminate a pack of lies - a trick they called "educating the public about the threat from Iraq". Now, this small-fry Plame leak case has the same Mr Card worried about dark days for the White House, not least because indictments may be served against Cheney's aide Lewis Libby and Bush's puppeteer Karl Rove.

This, along with the failure to get Harriet Meirs - a much maligned lady who will make a fine living from stairlift commercials - onto the Supreme Court is compounding a deep crisis for the Bush administration. Not, I might add for those already stifling yawns, because these things are all that significant in themselves: they merely signify that as Bush loses his ability to keep the public onside, the levers of the state are gradually slipping from the administration's previously robust control.

Far more interesting is, of course, the continuing collapse of the putative case for invading Iraq: puffed up like a half-baked souffle, it has been slowly deflating for some time. And now, the last gasps of air:

A secret draft CIA report raises new questions about a principal argument used by the Bush administration to justify the war in Iraq: the claim that Saddam Hussein was "harboring" notorious terror leader Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi prior to the American invasion.

...

An updated CIA re-examination of the issue recently concluded that Saddam's regime may not have given Zarqawi "safe haven" after all.

This has been known for some time, of course, but to have the CIA finally come up to speed is progress indeed. Maybe some day they'll figure out what happened with that anthrax - when they've ceased training 'Iraqi security forces' and death squads to torture and kill. Katrina, Iraq, the economy, 'gas' prices - Bush is a loser on all fronts, and this may well be his Nixon moment: not in the precise sense that he will have to resign, but simply that US power (state, capital and media) will realise that it needs another, better ambassador. The Republicans know he is popular with their base, but no more than that. His name isn't on the ballot either in the next Congressional elections or in the 2008 Presidential one. Plenty of time between now and then to distance themselves from Bushism. Possibly why some Republicans, apparently heeding Aaaahnold's advice, are moving to the 'left' of Bush. Meanwhile, the Democratic Leadership Council will probably ensure that whoever runs for 2008 is a 'competent' warmonger, a carefully painted figurine diapered in the Stars n Stripes and padded out with neoliberal doxies.

At any rate, you can place bets on this: whoever succeeds Bush, Democrat or Republican, boy or girl, will be an unabashed Whig.