Reply #20: Contrary view: They are not breaking a sweat

[HamdenRice]

I don't think that this or any other scandal is consuming the WH. I don't think that Bush -- or even his puppet masters, Cheney and Rumsfeld -- are introspective enough to be "consumed" by any crisis.

This is just a pragmatic problem for them to be managed -- eg by the fake disclosure that Bush is somehow mad at Rumsfeld. This is opinion management, not news; real news about an appropriate Bush response to Rumsfeld's performance would be, to paraphrase the Donald, "You're fired!"

Remember these guys (eg Wolfowitz) don't even care enough to read the newspapers to find out how many American soldiers have been killed.

Only Powell seems agonized -- and as the other thread today shows, this is basically self-serving, self-pittying agony on Powell's part.

On a purely pragmatic level, they may be worrying a bit about re-election, but -- and here I disagree with most of the media and most of the posters here -- I don't think the admin is worrying much about the election. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that these guys are so sure of their own correctness that they won't let a "normal" election occur. Rove knows, by computer programs, down to the county level how he can squeak out a victory. A terrorist bomb threat in some obscure democratic county in Ohio, a quiet purging of voter rolls in semi-suburban Florida, and Bush can pull out another popular losing, electoral winning coup