Finally, Something to Write Home About
By Vincent Fiore (06/21/06)
Dear Mom and Dad: What a difference a few weeks make! If someone had said to me last month that we would have bagged Zarqawi in Iraq, I would have replied that there was a better chance of me sprouting another head. It takes a little good luck, as well as all the hard work our brave servicemen and women have been doing in Iraq, to make that happen. And, Dad, at the time, that seemed unlikely in the least.
And heck, it surely seems like if I didn’t have bad luck, I’d have no luck at all these days. Sorry to sound so 1992-ish, Dad, but it has been that type of presidential term.
You had a Democratic Congress and the Iran-Contra/Caspar Weinberger scandal; I have Osama Bin Laden and a press corps gone stark-raving liberal-mad.
And don’t think the Democrats in Congress don’t see this. Now I really understand why Mom genuinely disliked those folks over at the New York Times. I’m sorry, Mom, that I ever even doubted you.
It’s just amazing, though, how good the last two weeks have been. First, we finally “Bring Zarqawi to justice,” which is what I have to say to the press instead of what Rover said to me, which is “we killed that son of a …” Well, you get the picture.
And speaking of my chief counsel: Karl is “officially” off the hook, and there will be no “Fitzmas in July” as the bloggers like to say. Come to think of it, I think the mainstream media was echoing that as well.
Even the polls are starting to look up a bit, as I was down there in Nixon-territory for quite some time. Still not as good as we need to get them, but it’s a start, and I hope to heck that the conservative base sees that its president can “take a licking and keep on ticking,” or something like that.
Why, Dad, we even managed to keep my emergency request bill at a manageable 94.5 billion. The Senate tried to roll over me, like they did with you dad when they buffaloed you into raising taxes in 1990. The House held the line, but the Senate tried for a few billion more. I stood tough, and threatened a veto, though I cannot for the life of me seem to find that darn veto pen.
But I guess the best was going off to see the troops in Iraq. Mom, dad, it was just a success all around, as I met with the new Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and urged him, like dad would often say to us kids, to “seize the moment” in Iraq.
We are going to stay the course there, and we are going to win.
But I think this momentum, or this “good week” as the press calls it, has been happening for a bit. Just look at who I brought into the fold recently, right? Josh Bolton is now chief of staff, Tony Snow is press secretary, and I got Hank Paulson as treasury secretary. How’s that for staff talent, dad?
I’m being told that the biggest moment of the week was the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. I felt a sense of triumph for the Iraqi people, and the American people who have been so patient with me, when “Maj. Gen. William Caldwell displayed the framed picture of Zarqawi’s lifeless face in triumph at a news conference last week.”
Of course, the media don’t see it that way. Already, they are starting to say regarding my good fortune that "That's when the 'Bushisms' happen. That's when we see his hubris." Yeah, I think that was Claire Shipman reporting that on “Good Morning, America.” I mean, the week is barely over, and already I’m toast. Well, Mom, you always said that if you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything. I wish the media would take a cue from you. (www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=2083881)
After I returned home from Iraq to that Rose Garden news conference that was nothing short of a chest-beating exercise in politics, I got to thinking of our party’s chances in November, and I like them.
Dad, I have never seen such silliness in a party then what I see in the Democrats. Take those two resolutions voted upon in the House and Senate. You would think Senator Kerry would have learned his lesson in 2004, with his flip-flopping and “I voted for the war before I voted against it” nonsense. Instead, Kerry loses big-time, 93-6 on his own resolution that called for the withdrawal of the troops. And they call me dumb.
(http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060615/D8I8S5D00.html)
The House vote was more of the same, but that resolution stated a “completion of the mission" in Iraq and rejects any "arbitrary" deadline for an American troop withdrawal.”
The outcome? The vote was 256 to 153, with over 75% of the Democratic Party voting against that bill!
With Democrats, it does not even seem to be a question of pulling out or not anymore. Now, it’s just a question of when. (www.nytimes.com/2006/06/17/washington/17cong.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
Well, I have to get back to the residence, as Laura is waiting patiently for me to return. Dad, happy Father’s Day to you. And Mom, I love you, and I will see you both soon at the house. I think I will try to push through that immigration reform that I have been working on, and also see if I can get Frist to push through some of those judges that have been sitting on the back burner for so long.
Heck, Mom and Dad, it sure is good to be president when you have a few victories in your pocket and a song on your lips, but I know that these victories are always fleeting. But then again, the fortunes are such in Washington that even the most besieged have their days in the sun.
Come November, we all just might look back at these few weeks in June and realize just how timely, and possibly majority-saving, these events were. Of course, it helps that the opposition party makes about as much sense these days as a nun in a brothel. I will, as always, keep you both up to date. The twins say hello.
Your Loving Son,
Dubya
(Printer friendly version) Email: Vincent Fiore
