This is starting to remind me....

...of the old Jimmy Carter joke. To update it, why does Laura have to be on top when the Bushes have sex? 'Cause George can only fuck up.

We all knew todays's teleconference between Bush and the soldiers in Iraq had to be staged (if only because Scott McClellan insisted it wasnt). The biggest clue that it was a 'fix' was that it was only officers in the mix; if Bush wanted 'real' feedback, the only place to get that is from the grunts, the enlisted men on the ground there.

It's fascinating to watch the confluence of errors, missteps, and miscues coming out of the formerly seamless Bush machine. Maybe it's karma catching up with him, but in the old days, Bush was the Turd Blossom, not Rove. He could arrange the most amazing messes (read Molly Ivin's book(s)) and still manage to come out unscathed and higher up the food chain (allowing, of course, bigger messes to escape from).

Now, though, everything seems to be coming apart at the seems. What should have been a quick, easy PR smoozefest turns into an embarrassing gaff because someone manages to tape the rehearsal of the "unrehearsed" event. Thank God for videotape :)

I no longer think Bush is a lame duck. With the continual failure of their flailing efforts, the probable indictment (and obvious sidelining, in any case) of Karl Rove, the MIA act Cheney has pulled, Iraq imploding (and possibly worse to come this weekend), the self-destructing hubris of the Congressional Republicans, and on and on, it's obvious he's moved on to dead duck status.