The Great Decider

Bush was up in front of the cameras and lights and microphones today, defending, among other things, Donald Rumsfeld, something he's been doing a lot lately. But it looks like the effort is starting to wear on him because he very nearly snapped. Bush wasn't defending Rumsfeld so much as pitching as hissy fit, telling everyone that he's the "decider."

I hear the voices and I read the front page and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.

Of course, reading these words doesn't do justice to the manner, the tone, with which Bush presented them. I just heard this little rant on the radio and I don't think I've ever heard any government official, least of all the president, sound so pissy. He couldn't have sounded more like the spoiled little rich kid he has routinely acted like and which we all know him to be.

Normally bumbling in these question and answer periods, the manner that presented itself today, as has been so well documented by Mark Crispin Miller in The Bush Dyslexicon, was directed and without the slightest slip. And it was that way for one reason: George Bush was angry. It was a remarkable demonstration of Miller's thesis that when Bush is mad, he becomes concise, articulate and ... frightening, as though his inner ruthless dictator pops out of its cage to rant at the peons.

The good folks at Crooks and Liars have it up already, so check it out. Bush appears on the verge of simply loosing it. Though it has long been known that Bush is not really the one in charge, if he gets pee-oed enough about finally realising how embarrassing that is, then god knows what he'll be capable of.

Yeesh.