Reply #87: Yes, it's something the Bush misadministration should never live down.. BUT...

[Ghost in the Machine]

.. (there's always a but, isn't there?)... BUT... what *you* ascribe to incompetence, some of us ascribe to complicity...

"ok, you've covered your ass now"...

Incompetence doesn't get you everything you want, including your "catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor", and everything that has followed it since... do you honestly think they wrote the Patriot Act in a month?

LIHOP, at the very least. Incompetence doesn't cut it here... maybe an illusion of incompetence, but not *real* incompetence.

Would people *purposely* make themselves look incompetent?? You betcha they would. I do it myself from time to time. Why? Different reasons, usually. Mostly though, because it makes people expect less out of you.. and it surprises them when you exceed their perceptions/expectations. Other times it's just because I wanna get out of doing something I don't really want to do in the first place. I have a good cover though.. I just *look* like a big dumb hillbilly...