Saturday, April 29, 2006

The "Unreachable President"

Update [2006-4-30 12:14:42 by howieinseattle]: You won't be too surprised to hear that "President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office," but it is nice to see it in the Boston Globe today.

Perhaps because of my own background as a psychiatric social worker, I find this analysis from Harvard-trained psychoanalyst Justin Frank to be very accurate:

We have a drunk as president, a drunk with a history of being able to do whatever he wants to -- with the possible exception of privatizing Social Security (though he is poised to bankrupt it instead by draining the Treasury). The only way to stop him is with an intervention, just as it is done with alcoholics.

Bush kids around like a fraternity boy with the press corps about Tony Snow while he is simultaneously destroying the future of our nation. The Senate, a deliberative body, has done more drooling than deliberating of late. And it's time to stop. Congressman Conyers is taking action, as he knows full well that our nation that is at stake -- the lives of our fighting men and women, our civil liberties, and our children's future.

The most important lesson I learned in my psychiatric training was that there is no substitute for "setting limits" -- limits on delinquent patients are the pre-requisite for any kind of contact or communication. Without limits, destructive and anti-social behavior thrives. The time is well past for such limits on Bush, and terrible damage has already been done. But with more than two years left to continue on his destructive course, there is still SOME time. People like Senator Byrd now are talking about impeachment. But Bush is too fast for us -- he will nuke Iran before any hearings on his high crimes and misdemeanors can take place.

The April march, as it were, is all good and well. But protests don't mean what they did in the 1960s. They just don't. It is past time for action, and the action that is necessary IS to take away Bush's Senate credit card. Specter is right. You can get Bush to say anything, but you can never get him to do what he is supposed to do if he doesn't want to. It's really that simple. He needs his access to money taken away. Only then will any discourse with this White House be even remotely possible. The House and Senate, even the media, must push through the shock and awe visited upon them by this delinquent and destructive president."-The Huffington Post.

Howie question for this other Good Doctor (Howard Dean comes to mind): How do we get a "drooling" Senate to take away Bush's "access to money," FAST?

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