Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe columnist began a recent column
"It is October and the harvest from the spring's planting of troops remains a grapeless vine, withering into winter compost. Without weapons of mass destruction, Tikrit has given way to Texas, Fallujah is fading into Florida, and the idiocy of another $87 billion for Iraq is rapidly becoming apparent in the latest news from Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. In the season of pumpkins, Bush is turning into one, with millions of Americans feeling like Cinderella after the ballyhoo of violent, vengeful patriotism. Bush hoped he could sneak back into the White House in 2004 before the clock struck midnight. It is too late. The original support for the war is waning as Americans realize that they have also waged war against themselves."
Jim Lobe in Asia Times is equally damning. According to Mother Jones he is normally quite a sober writer.
"With the exception of practicing extramarital sex in the Oval Office, Bush and his Iraq policy are now being charged with violating just about every imaginable tenet - from deceit and corruption, to incompetence and betrayal - of what has come to be called 'good governance.' That many of these charges have moved in just the past few weeks from the alternative to the mainstream media and from grassroots activist groups to Capitol Hill indicates the seriousness of the situation faced by Bush."
The tide is turning against Bush & Co. Mother Jones covers it in a comprehensive article titled "Washington Implodes".
So Washington is imploding. We've evidently reached something like the tipping point. This has been building for what seems forever. Suddenly, the press -- even the front-page of my hometown newspaper -- has burst forth with what increasingly looks like the unvarnished news. Prime-time TV news shows are now litanies of bad tidings for the Bush administration.
I wonder if the folks in the Bush Administration really understand how this happened and what they should learn from it? I rather expect they are instead putting it all down to non-conservative journalists.
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