Now it's official

Okay, it is official. The Bush Administration is in trouble. I held off making this call to see how he fared after throwing Miers out the window and nominating Alito. But now it seems that the White House can't even try for the mantle of "lame duck". The POTUS will get his Alito confirmation, but that has more to do with current make-up of the Senate and less with Bush's political strengths. Let's do the rundown.

Karl Rove is out. No, really out. Rumors abound about an indictment. Don't bet on it, but Rove is the new Rommel. He now realizes that he is probably more of a hindrance to Bush overall and it would be best that he just take his own life than try to stick it out. I mean all this metaphorically, of course, but the scuttlebutt on the street indicates Rove is just looking for a chance when he can discreetly step aside and clear some of the air around the West Wing.

While Rove was slowly becoming more and more ineffective, Bush was gearing up for a major economic visit to Latin America. The Administration really had high hopes for the trip. Expanding democracy, capitalism and economic empowerment around the world has been a staple of the Republicans since Reagan reinvented the GOP back in the 80's and the policies went over as well this time as it did two decades ago. Not only was Bush met with a collective yawn by national leaders, but there was outright violence by people on the street.

To be fair I should point out that neither of the states, New Jersey or Virginia, that recently elected Democratic governors had Republican incumbents. But it is being played out in the media as a defeat for the GOP and as we all know, if it is on TV it must be true (go back and read that last part again with the sarcasm it deserves). At any rate, it could be the media momentum the Dems needed going into the mid-terms, which are now only 11 months away. Now, I know you're saying, "Brock, what does that have to do with Bush?" Bush stumped about as hard as any sitting President has in recent memory for the Republican candidates in each state. The voters responded to his campaigning about as well as our neighbors to the south (without the violence).

But the big one is Iraq. While things appear to be moving in the right direction in the country (they really are if you ignore the MSM and look at what people "in the know" are saying), Americans are quickly tiring of the war. We went over 2000 American casualties and a newly declassified Defense Intelligence Agency document (the DIA are the military's spies) reports that they determined in early 2002 that Saddam had no connection to 9/11 or anything other than a cursory relationship with Al Qaeda. Fifty two percent of Americans now feel that the President intentionally misled the nation into a war. The truth is probably much closer to just a general screw-up, but the POTUS refuses to acknowledge that he made a mistake at all and reiterated the wrong information in a speech just days after the DIA memo was released.

Yes, it appears that Bush is about as useful as Steve McNair. He's still got the arm, but he's too banged up and has no receivers to take him through the rest of the season. Nope, I'm calling this one done.

Brock Tanner does his research for this column in his underwear. He can be found throwing half-full beer cans at the television every time a Fox News Alert plays and its Greta Van Susteren talking about someone "missing." Contact him at brocktanner@hobotrashcan.com.