{"id":2121,"date":"2007-04-04T11:12:46","date_gmt":"2007-04-04T17:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/even-the-faithful-can-see-the-truth\/"},"modified":"2007-04-04T11:12:46","modified_gmt":"2007-04-04T17:12:46","slug":"even-the-faithful-can-see-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/even-the-faithful-can-see-the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"Even the Faithful Can See the Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ex-Aide Says He\u2019s Lost Faith in Bush<\/a> – New York Times, By JIM RUTENBERG<\/p>\n

In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush\u2019s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal. …<\/p>\n

He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush\u2019s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president\u2019s chief campaign strategist.<\/p>\n

Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush\u2019s leadership<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a \u201cmy way or the highway\u201d mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really like him, which is probably why I\u2019m so disappointed in things,\u201d he said. He added, \u201cI think he\u2019s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush\u2019s inner circle to break so publicly with him. <\/strong><\/p>\n

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush\u2019s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article titled \u201cKerry Was Right,\u201d<\/strong> arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from Iraq.
\n– – –<\/p>\n

More Than a Feeling<\/a> – New York Times<\/p>\n

President Bush and his advisers have made a lot of ridiculous charges about critics of the war in Iraq<\/strong>: they\u2019re unpatriotic, they want the terrorists to win, they don\u2019t support the troops, to cite just a few. But none of these seem quite as absurd as President Bush\u2019s latest suggestion, that critics of the war whose children are at risk are too \u201cemotional\u201d to see things clearly<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The direct target was Matthew Dowd, one of the chief strategists of Mr. Bush\u2019s 2004 presidential campaign, who has grown disillusioned with the president and the war, which he made clear in an interview with Jim Rutenberg published in The Times last Sunday. But by extension, Mr. Bush\u2019s comments were insulting to the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose sons, daughters, sisters, brothers and spouses have served or will serve in Iraq.<\/p>\n

They are perfectly capable of forming judgments about the war, pro or con, on the merits.<\/strong> But when Mr. Bush was asked about Mr. Dowd during a Rose Garden news conference yesterday, he said, \u201cThis is an emotional issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Dowd\u2019s case, Mr. Bush said, \u201cas I understand it, is obviously intensified because his son is deployable.\u201d …<\/p>\n

This form of attack is especially galling from a president who from the start tried to paint this war as virtually sacrifice-free: the Iraqis would welcome America with open arms, the war would be paid for with Iraqi oil revenues \u2014 and the all-volunteer military would concentrate the sacrifice on only a portion of the nation\u2019s families.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bush\u2019s comments about Mr. Dowd are a reflection of the otherworldliness that permeates his public appearances these days. Mr. Bush seems increasingly isolated, clinging to a fantasy version of Iraq that is more and more disconnected from reality. He gives a frightening impression that he has never heard any voice from any quarter that gave him pause, much less led him to rethink a position.<\/strong> [mjh: some call it dim-witted boneheadedness, but in Texas they call it resolute.]<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Bush\u2019s former campaign aide showed an open-mindedness and willingness to adapt to reality that is sorely lacking in the commander in chief<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ex-Aide Says He\u2019s Lost Faith in Bush – New York Times, By JIM RUTENBERG In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush\u2019s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal. … He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush\u2019s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him … Continue reading Even the Faithful Can See the Truth<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}