Holy crap. Look at what Bush said to Speaker Pelosi:
In my first act of bipartisan outreach since the election, I shared with her the names of some Republican interior decorators who can help her pick out the the new drapes for her new offices.
You going to take that kind of patronizing, condescending “bipartisan” baloney from Bush, Speaker Pelosi? I hope you’re getting warmed up for a good fight.
When it was live, he pronounced it “interior devekerators.” No joke.
By the way, she’s already stated that impeachment is off the table. I can see that to force Dems to focus on the issue of getting out of Iraq, but after he leaves office, something needs to be done.
‘By the way, she’s already stated that impeachment is off the table.’
If Bush keeps hitting her with sexist smart-arse comments, he himself might convince her to put it back on…
Well there’s that trademark folksey charm that Americans have come to loathe.
C’mon now, the President is a true gentlemen who is enormously respectful of powerful women. Why, just ask Chancellor Merkel! ;)
I wonder if Bush will claim that it was just a “botched joke”?
did anybody else find the rethuglican focus on Kerry’s poor taste in jokes a rather pathetic and desperate attempt at smearing?
It was a joke, PZ. There’s been an ongoing back-and-forth about measuring the drapes over the last few days. Sheesh.
Wow. That’s…horrifically catty of him.
Just hope he doesn’t decide to give her an unexpected back massage. Although he’s not trying to play nice with her, so I suppose it’s unlikely.
One of the pundits I was watching last night – it might have been Begala but I don’t think so because I was watching MSNBC; it must have been Matthews – took Karl Rove to task for screwing that up. People didn’t care about Kerry. This pundit said that it came out last week that the airplane plot that British intelligence discovered was to blow up planes over American soil and that they should have hyped that up.
I have a nice frilly apron for Georgie Bush to wear while he’s sponging that rug barf that he calls an administration.
I think I saw the end of that story as I was getting home, FishyFred. I was concerned about the fear-machine until I noticed it was in the ‘and finally, in lighter news’ section of the network crapcast.
‘When it was live, he pronounced it “interior devekerators.” No joke.’
Sounded more like “d-decorators” to me. You can judge for yourself:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/08/video-bush-on-pelosi-i_n_33658.html
This isn’t the time for Democrats to be making tempests out of teapots. Oops, was I just being sexist and patronizing?!?
She is smart enough to see that the mood in the country is not for impeachment. Sure Reps never care, and just try to di it. But we are suppose to be better. The key is to get oversight, control judicial appointments, and start investigating what the Rep leadership turned a blind eye.
Riling people up now is a waste of energy. If they uncover clear evidence of what Cheney or Bush or Rove have done, that is when it is time to talk about the I word.
But apparently last week was the perfect time for the fascists to make tempests out of the non-existent teapot that was John Kerry?
Odd Jack- I’m with you, I’m for a year or so of quiet, thorough investigations out of the media spotlight, then raising a big ruckus when they’ve got the goods.
“But apparently last week was the perfect time for the fascists to make tempests out of the non-existent teapot that was John Kerry?”
That is playground “But they did it first!” mentality.
I heard it as a tacit acknowledgement of the Chrisopher Lowell proclivites of the Mehlmans and Foleys and others, usually kept on the DL by the GOP. I’m sure Bush could’ve spared Speaker Elect Pelosi plenty of methamphetamine too, at least until last week when his connection Pastor Haggard had to clean up. I heard him on the radio, so I couldn’t tell if was he working his jaw, popping and grinding his teeth as much as he usually does.
With so many criminal investigations chronicling the misadventures of this inept gang of crooks, there are only so many dominos left to fall. The House won’t have to lift a finger. Just because impeachment is off the table doesn’t mean they won’t use their subpoena power.
I expect the petulant little boy will be confined to his room for the next couple of years while more of Poppy’s Iran-Contra cronies try and save a bit of face. Personally, I’m less interested in impeachment than riding him out of town on a rail, as portrayed in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? but there are more important issues to attend to.
Beg to differ, but hey, that’s just me. ;)
I favor impeachment. I believe Bush has committed crimes; at the very least he has lied, repeatedly, to the entire nation. He’s also been woefully incompetent, but that’s not an impeachable offense.
Suspending Habeas Corpus, now … heh, that could be a bit tougher to wiggle away from.
If the Dems really want to change the national course, they’ll have to be tough. Very tough. Kissing Bush’s ass is not an auspicious beginning.
“Republican interior decorators”
What? Even more closet-gay rethuglicans?
“She is smart enough to see that the mood in the country is not for impeachment.”
She must not be hanging with my crowd then. Impeachment is vital — otherwise we can’t try him for treason.
Bush added, “This interior decorator is fabulous!
I dunno. He’s said worse and will say worse, but this might just be his stupid folksy routine. In fact, this might be the closest you’ll ever hear Bush come to saying “I was wrong.”
He made a comment before the election that the Democrats shouldn’t be measuring for new drapes just yet – not aimed specifically at Pelosi, but all of them. Now he says this.
I think its just his folksy dumb-ass way of acknowledging the loss. Texans (not that he’s a real texan) NEVER admit that they are wrong. They say shit like this instead.
I dunno. He’s said worse and will say worse, but this might just be his stupid folksy routine. In fact, this might be the closest you’ll ever hear Bush come to saying “I was wrong.”
He made a comment before the election that the Democrats shouldn’t be measuring for new drapes just yet – not aimed specifically at Pelosi, but all of them. Now he says this.
I think its just his folksy dumb-ass way of acknowledging the loss. Texans (not that he’s a real texan) NEVER admit that they are wrong. They say shit like this instead.
Y’know, PZ, I voted straight Dem in this election, can’t stand BushCo et al., but can still recognize a joke when I read/hear one. Botched, no doubt, because uptight dems & liberals will hop all over it as an example of sexist condescension. He should have used “Republican free-trade coffee shop” or something of the like. But, sheesh, it’s just a joke. Even ol’ in-the-pockets-of-the-oil-sheiks Mr. Decider GWB can, once in a while, make a joke and have it just taken as a joke? Surely?
I was rolling my eyes about the reaction to the Kerry joke a week or two ago, as well, so I’m an equal-opportunity “let politicians tell jokes now & then” kinda person.
PZ, I’m just chiming in to back up the others who say it had nothing to do with Pelosi being a woman; it was just a good-natured reference to the whole “the Dems are so confident, they’ve already started measuring drapes for their new offices” joke.
Check out this post on AmericaBlog: americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/mr-reid-your-drapes-are-ready.html
I don’t think John is say Sen. Reid is gay. ;-)
Nancy’s from San Francisco. She knows *plenty* of interior decorators.
8^)
I wonder if he wanted to go for the above joke, but toned it down to what we got.
Greetings from the Land of Deval Patrick!
I wouldn’t make to much of this. I think “measuring the drapes” is an old Washington joke that gets pulled out when there are transitions like there, where high-profile officials move into their new offices, which were previously occupied by other high-profile officials…
KeithB – LOL @ San Francisco
Of course it was a joke. However, I think that our side should make as big a deal out of it as they did about Kerry’s lame-o joke. They knew that Kerry was making a joke, too. That’s how they play the game.
My understanding was that they weren’t planning to jump straight to impeachment proceedings. But yeah, I think it’s vital to impeach and convict Bush. It would go a long way, I suspect, toward restoring our credibility with the rest of the world and help to bury the abomination that is Neoconism…
I agree. The whole reaction to this is so overblown as to be laughable.
It was a joke that fell flat – the look on Bush’s face was priceless as he realized his audience was not amused.
First, Craig, I’m a Texan, born and raised, and I’ve admitted I’m wrong plenty of times. Just ask my wife.
Second, to the impeachment crowd, I am curious as to what the charges would be. What laws has Bush broken?
I, too, dislike many of this administration’s policies, but the level of hatred being exhibited here cannot be healthy or conducive to democracy.
This “us against them” mentality has done more to harm the US than any foreign power ever could.
Yeah, it’s a joke, but it’s a sexist joke. We liberals are supposed to care about feminism, I think. We should at least point out sexism.
Or maybe we’re still all about being just-to-the-left-of-the-fascists.
Kerry botched a joke. Bush botched a war… and a joke.
It’s the Republicans who were saying a vote for a Democrat is a vote for terrorism. This incivility was not started by Democrats. Don’t expect us to play nice for a long long time. Republicans need to learn a bit of humility.
There’s a reason Bush is loathed and it’s not because he’s a Republican.
Well, last time I checked it was illegal to wiretap americans without a warrant.
Also taking the country to war under false pretenses might be an impeachable offense,
but it’s nearly impossible to prove. The phrase Downing Street Memo is not one
he wants brought up though.
Signing Statements. Secret CIA Rendition. Ousting CIA agents. Leaking nuclear secrets. War profiteering.
Pick one and hang him.
Also, war crimes. Lying about the case for war in Iraq. (at least 5 separate lies). Torture.
Seriously, that was a sad, sad performance. Made me think of some schmuck trying to yuk it up on open mike night.
If the Democratically-controlled Congress does its jobs, the administration is going to face a host of subpeonas. If Bush et. al. refuse to cooperate, the ensuing constitutional crisis might make an impeachment bid feasible or even good politics. Until and unless something like that happens, impeachment talk will get the Democrats exactly nowhere even though Bush has violated the Constitution in many, many ways, not to mention his crimes against international law.
The trick is to get the Confederates to fire on Fort Sumpter.
The administration is stupid, but is it really *that* stupid? I’d think Rove would torpedo metaphorically “firing on Fort Sumpter” right away.
Pelosi is one smart lady. She was active in San Francisco politics long before she ran for a congressional seat and I used to read about her when I was following SF activities in the San Francisco Chronicle. Pelosi knows that there is no benefit in pushing impeachment while the Senate remains miles away from a two-thirds vote for conviction. The GOP got mud all over its face trying to do that to Clinton over a triviality and didn’t even get a majority against him in the Senate trial. Pelosi won’t fall for a waste of time like that.
There will, however, undoubtedly be subpoenas and oversight investigations. The White House’s free ride is over. Impeachment will go back on the table when some Republican puts it there. The Democrats can’t do it alone. Simple as that. If Conyers, for example, as a congressional committee chairman, dredges up enough real dirt on Bush & company that a groundswell for impeachment builds, we’ll see what happens.
Pelosi is a tough and savvy leader, canny enough to have a clue what will work and what won’t. She’s not going to tilt at windmills. I’m very satisfied to see her take the lead role in the House. She’ll make sure that Bush remains a lame duck for the balance of his term in office.
You can find its mirror image over on the right-wing websites. The whole atmosphere has the odor of Spain circa 1935.
Impeachment would be pointless unless you can get 2/3 of the Senate to vote to convict. Without that it’s just another meaningless media circus like it was against Clinton.
Investigation, now, that’s worthwhile. And if they dig up something really big, *then* it might convince the party to throw Bush overboard so he won’t drag them down in ’08. But it would have to be something on the order of personally ordering the torture or murder of an innocent American, to get through the thick skulls of the remaining Republican base.
Otherwise, shine the brightest spotlight you have on all the slime you can find and wait. Most of the Senate seats that were up this year were Democratic despite the Democrats being the minority – but every seat they won this year is now safe until 2012 while more Republicans come up for reelection in 2008 and 2010. Control of the Senate shifts slowly, but if you can pull decisive wins in two or three consecutive elections you have it for a while.
Anything that a Republican did, lied about, or covered up needs to be hung around their neck and the party’s neck for the next two years.
Actual solutions to the nation’s problems will be blocked by Bush for the next two years, which is why this is only the beginning.
Indeed. While not formally a crime, this may be the most serious offense the Republican Party has committed. They’ve spent years dragging political discourse down to a level below a kindergarten playground, and now it’s hard to resist the impulse to stay in the mud and wrestle right back. Calling someone a traitor or an enemy of the country because of their political views is not just dirty pool, it is a direct assault on the process of democracy, which *demands* open and public discussion of all points of view so that the people can choose which one we prefer.
Let’s keep in mind that although individual races have favored Democrats, anti-Bush forces are only a majority by a very narrow margin. The balance of power has shifted, but not as much as we need for a truly crushing victory.
Bush’s attempt at humor was lame, just as lame as Kerry’s. Let it be. But I agree with Caledonian that the Democratic control of Congress will be limited. If they maintain discipline, they can pass bills. But, if Bush vetoes them, they won’t have the power to override, unless they can cajole an awful lot of Republicans to join them. So for me the real question now is whether there will be enough Republicans in the new Congress who want to distance themselves from Bush–keep in mind he’s a lame duck who will probably have little influence on the Republican nominee in 2008–and be willing on some issues, like immigration reform, minimum wage, rewriting the Medicare drug bill to enable the government to negotiate drug prices, or funding embryonic stem cell research, to join the Democrats and enable an override.
For any bills to pass, Bush and the Democratic Congress have to agree, which means compromise, something Bush has steadfastly refused to do in the last six years with only a couple of exceptions. In the meantime the Congress should hold hearings on the Iraq war, its use of torture and other violations of the Geneva Convention and American law, the political abuse of science, incompetence in FEMA, and a host of other issues. In fact so many hearings are warranted that they may consume the entire next two years.
You’re quite right, Keanus, although I wasn’t talking about Congress. The segment of the population that put the Democrats into power is a majority only by a very narrow margin. The widespread sweeping of anti-Bush forces into office doesn’t equate to widespread public support. Nearly half of the US still supports Bush.
By that I can only gather that the entertainment industry (journalismists included) have succeeded in making the American public fat, stupid tubeworms gaping their doughy maws at the flashing lightbox.
Be fair, Stogoe. The entertainment industry can’t sell what people aren’t willing to buy. Most Americans want to be fat, moronic tubeworms. Our society has been so unhappy for so long that we’ll settle for stupified corpulence – at least that doesn’t hurt.
doughy maws
that sounded suspiciously like doughnuts.
mmm… doughnuts.
*drool*
Hmm. I thought it was obvious that Bush was making a lame joke. Why would anyone think otherwise? That doesn’t mean it wasn’t offensive.
If the new speaker of the house were black, and Bush made a tired old joke about watermelons and fried chicken, would you think that was OK? It’s just a joke, after all. He wasn’t serious.
PZ – Last week either Keith Olberman or Jon Stewart (I forget which) had a clip of Bush, Ken Mehlman and a couple of other Republican mouthpieces all saying something to the effect that Democratic challengers were getting ready to “measure their new offices for drapes” –using similar phrasing all around.
Lame though it was, I suspect that’s what he was referring to.
You have divined their function correctly.
I hope those aren’t the same decorators that dress the Laurabot.
Pelosi has far more taste than that.
And I don’t think she would buy drapes from WalMart.
No, nearly half of the people who voted still support the Republican Party. Support for Bush personally is still in the 30s.
This means there is a fairly substantial number of people who disapprove of Bush, but still support other Republicans.
I think the blame is shared between the entertainment industry (You don’t need to think, just watch this) and the religion industry (Thinking is bad for you. Do what we say or go to hell.)
One thing is clear though – education is pure poison for Republicans. They can only get elected by an ignorant electorate.
This incident gives us a look into the internalized sexism of the leader of the free world, as did the racism of the “Macaca” scandal owing to Allen. Our grand ol’ politicians and their manly words!
C’mon, PZ, this has been the running campaign line for at least two campaign cycles, the rallying cry for the incumbents. Probably longer than that. This was very self-deprecating humor by Bush. Sometimes a cigar joke is just a cigar joke, and I appreciate Bush at least trying to pretend to be self-deprecating.
I was checking back in on these comments after posting earlier, and I’m surprised that people still aren’t getting this. It was not sexist! It didn’t display Bush’s “internalized sexism,” as it had nothing to do with her being a woman!
Jesus tapdancing Christ, it’s very simple: Pelosi’s the new Speaker, therefore she has a new office, and she’ll most likely want to make it her own, so she’ll want to “measure new drapes.” Same goes for Harry Reid.
This is getting ridiculous. It’s one thing to take a joke the wrong way at first blush, but to continue on this “what a sexist creep” train is pure idiocy.
I checked the video and what he said was “interior de-decorators”. He wants to de-decorate the offices while pretending like it’s a bi-partisan act. Why, that little son of a …
Of course it was a joke–he was, for once, being self-mocking. One of his standard stump-speech lines over the last few weeks has been that the Democrats are already “measuring the drapes for their new offices” or some such.
Fortunately, the joke landed about as well as those nervous cracks that people try with IRS auditors, and for the same reason. We’re not here for the stand-up routine; we’re here to ask some pointed questions about the Republican concept of “good government.”
As Michael Moore said a couple of years ago, the Democrats don’t stand for anything. Now they win an election, not because they are good, but because the republicans are so god-awful.
Then immediately they start talking about “bi-partisanship”. What a load of crap. It is time for some real republican bashing. But Democrats are wusses and won’t do the job.
She is smart enough to see that the mood in the country is not for impeachment.
I see … so it’s smart to be an ignoramus who doesn’t know what the polls say, to just make stuff up, and to assume that your mood is the country’s mood?
Then immediately they start talking about “bi-partisanship”.
No, you putz, it’s Bush who’s talking about bipartisanship.
There is a difference between “thinks is doing a good job” and “supports”.
Thanks, I thought I was the only one that noticed that little comment. I also noticed that his “joke” was greeted with total silence. Usually, when the president comes up with some stupid attempt at a joke, the press corps obliges with some chuckles. Not this time. Nothing. Bush and his cohorts seem to be caught in some sort of 1950’s timewarp where the “little ladies” are only interested in domestic chores and they all wear high heels to vacuum the house just like Mrs. Cleaver.
For those of us capable of keeping two ideas in our heads at once:
(1) It was just a lame joke AND
(2) Bush is a sexist creep.
If we want to get really complicated about it, we could make an argument that he chose the particular lame joke he chose BECAUSE he’s a sexist creep, but that’s more work than I want to do and more than I think is worth doing. This “flap” is small beer, and not worth getting too worked up about, but we’re entitled to a cheap laugh at W’s expense. If we start playing it up the way the other guys played up Kerry’s lame joke, then it will be time enough to call people on it.
To all the folks who are accusing Bush of being condescending, sexist, etc.:
Get a grip.
Take a deep breath and absorb the context.
A week ago, Bush said that the Dems shouldn’t yet be measuring for drapes.
Yesterday, he offered to suggest some de-decorators to Pelosi.
It was a joke. It was funny. And it showed some class from a generally classless person (imho).
It was a Bush mea culpa — watch carefully, because he doesn’t do that often.
…
“But what about what they did to Kerry?”
Geez, take a little time off from examining your navels.
Interior decorators? Republican interior decorators?
What a transparant ploy to plant bugs in Pelosi’s office.
Maybe she should take him up on the decorators, and make sure that all the conversations in that room are carefully crafted for their intended audience.
“Teddy, did you get that report from our mole in the whitehouse? You did? What did Kar…umm, what was his code name again? Oh yes, ShitFlower. What did he say?”
i don’t think anyone needs to look at the loss of the war in Iraq or the Military Commissions Act, as evil as these things are. i think the abuse of “signing statements”, abrogation of international treaties, lying to Congressional oversight committees, and interference with the judiciary are all quite sufficient to justify impeachment proceedings.
thing is, they’d need to impeach Cheney, too.
and possibly Rice.
Yeah, HA HA. I can’t speak for my entire politically underrepresented gender, but that remark by Bush offended me.
Yes, it was a long-running joke, and yes, he was playing off of it. BUT, that particular joke as worded and as delivered to the first woman speaker also could easily be taken with sexist connotations, and his handlers should have been aware enough of that to make him steer clear of the drapes reference. It’s just another example of his social ineptitude (ineptness? inepticity?).
I also agree with Pelosi that the Dems shouldn’t be all about impeachment and interrogations and inquisitons at the moment. The Democrats have enough trouble already articulating what they stand for other than “Republicans are bad”. They can’t afford to do nothing for a year or two other than point fingers at Republicans, no matter how much the Republicans deserve it. They need to have some concrete successes first.
PZ: “holy crap” ?? Is it lbecoming of an atheist to invoke holy crap ? And what’s holy crap anyways ? Is it the same as divine crap ? Or is it crap from the holy ghost, in which case you’d have to be a catholic to be able to make sense of it. Does the pope pass holy crap ?
Ok, it’s been a long day already….
Sigh…
Taken in context, the joke was actually funny and would have been viewed as an olive branch from Bush to the Dems. (And any sexist intent was ascribed only by others)
Taken out of context,… well, that’s what the Republicans did to Kerry a few weeks ago.
Saying that it “could have been” taken out of context,… well, that’s just plain sanctimonious.