| From Capitol Hill Blue The Rant Questions most often asked at power breakfasts around Washington this week center on the White House staff "shakeup." What does it mean? Will it change how Bush conducts its presidency? Can Bush's presidency be saved? Does Bush finally realize he is in trouble? The answers: Not much, no, no and no. The so-called shakeup is cosmetic, a reshuffling of the same power players who have advised and served Bush's agenda of false optimism, fake assessments and outright deceit since they took over the West Wing on January 21, 2001. Karl Rove still sits at the right-hand of the self-proclaimed messenger of God, dispensing the same Orwellian advice. A new press secretary will have to stand up in front of reporters day after day and lie through his teeth to try and protect Bush's failed presidency. Bush isn't bringing in fresh blood. He's recycling the same tired stuff, the blood infected with multiple viruses of deception, distrust and destruction of the Constitution and the freedoms that hallowed document once guaranteed. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld still calls the shots on the Iraq debacle, a complete failure that will forever tag the United States as an international bully willing to wage war on the flimsiest of excuses, hiding behind false pretenses and willing to kill at random to further a failed political agenda. Dick Cheney still sits in the VP's office or one of his "undisclosed" locations, greasing the skids for the nation's downward plunge into mediocrity while doling out bloated, no-bid contracts to his cronies at Halliburton and other fatcat friends. The "please sir, may I have some more" Greek chorus on Capitol Hill still runs Congress, driving the nation deeper into debt with record-deficit budgets, lavish pork-barrel spending and other legislation for sale to the lobbyist with the biggest bank account. No, nothing changes with the meaningless reassignments at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Crooks still run the country, lining their pockets while the nation drowns in a whirlpool of debts, deceit and damnation. Some members of the mainstream media fell for the ruse, writing long, uninformed puff pieces about the new approach of the Bush administration, falling for the sham that Bush can change and things can improve. Nothing will change as long as Congress remains in the grip of an extremist right-wing that places polarization above compromise and party loyalty above the best interests of the nation. And nothing will change as long as partisan sycophants on both sides of the political fence cling to the foolish notion that one political party is better than another, that replacing one group of political hacks with another will fix anything or that draining one cesspool and filling it with different, but still toxic, political extremism will solve the serious, long-term problems of America. © Copyright 2005 Capitol Hill Blue |