Lonely at the Top: Well, at least Bushie still has "his own pillow"

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: And Away They Go
Lonely at The Top
For the President, Confidants Are Lacking
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 28, 2007; Page C01


President Bush, in Waco, Tex., addresses Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's resignation, the latest drain on his inner circle. (By Evan Vucci -- Associated Press)

A friend who saw Alberto Gonzales socially over the weekend said the attorney general seemed calm for the first time in months. But in truth, the weight was likely lifted off Gonzales two weeks ago when Karl Rove announced his resignation -- opening the door for one of the last of the Texas loyalists to bolt.

There is a moment in every administration when it starts to look like Enron after the collapse, when the hometown heavies start leaving in droves (either by choice or by cattle prod), replaced by the hired guns with no particular loyalty to the company.

Gonzales's announcement yesterday that he was resigning could very well mark that moment for Bush, a president who has always made it quite clear that he functioned best buffered by friends, loyalists and his own pillow....

***

Much was written about Bush's demand for loyalty and his friendships when he was elected in 2000. His prep school and Yale buddy (Clay) Johnson was promptly put in charge of political appointments and would open interviews asking: Do you want to work in the White House, or do you want to work in George Bush's White House?

In the end, many of the top jobs went to those who had been with Bush when he was Texas governor or who had known him long before he was considered presidential timber, those who were well aware of any skeletons -- and who would never talk.

It was Gonzales, the president's first White House counsel, who in 1996 got then-Gov. Bush out of jury duty in a drunken driving case, when he surely would have been questioned about his own DWI arrest two decades earlier. And it was Karen Hughes, among Bush's closest White House advisers, who dug through records of Bush's service in the Texas National Guard in search of a smoking gun that could have derailed his candidacy....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/27/AR2007082701822.html?hpid=topnews

[TwilightGardener]

1. That's a pretty shot of the blue sky. Too bad there's something ugly marring the view.

[TahitiNut]

2. An heir-head in cloud-cuckoo-land

:shrug:

[TwilightGardener]

3. ...

:rofl:

[monmouth]

4. A whaco in Waco....

[rodeodance]

5. yes, it is a nice shot---all alone is Bush! ----but he has Karen HUGES yet!

[rodeodance]

6. Ha ha----his pillow. I can't believe that the WPost put that in the story!

[rodeodance]

7. Bush seemed real pissed yeasterday

When he finally accepted the resignation of Gonzales, which he had adamantly resisted despite a seven-month siege at Justice that ballooned into allegations that the attorney general had lied to Congress, Bush remained defiant.

"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign," Bush said grimly. "It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."

[DeepModem Mom]

8. Emphasizing his total denial of reality, and/or his total isolation... nt