[antimedia] antimedia: Is Bush intimidated?....

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Posted by antimedia:
Is Bush intimidated?....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1151460480.shtml


   ....I alluded to this earlier, but [1]this article congealed my
   thoughts on the subject.

     But although the Times is open about its willingness - make that
     eagerness - to publish secrets in wartime, it doesn't appear that
     the Justice Department plans on doing anything in response. And so
     it's fair to ask: Does the Bush administration have a serious plan
     for winning the international war on terror, or is it drifting down
     the path of least political resistance - and thus to defeat?

   It seems so long ago that Bush grabbed a bullhorn, stood on a pile of
   still-smoking rubble and warned the terrorists that America was
   coming. Now the administration protests that it argued aggressively
   and repeatedly with NY Times reporters and representatives that they
   should not print the banking story.
   Why did they argue? Why didn't they just tell the Times, "Print the
   story and the next time you see us will be in a courtroom"?

     So why hasn't the Bush administration done anything? One answer, of
     course, is that the wheels of justice grind slow - and unseen, at
     least for a while. But a better answer comes from Fox News' Bill
     O'Reilly, who argues that the Bush administration has been
     "intimidated" by the media and by allied critics in Congress. That
     would explain the Boston Globe story on Monday, detailing how the
     Bushies, who once asserted that the phone taps were perfectly legal
     just the way they were, are now willing to accept closer
     Congressional supervision. So score a media-political victory for
     the Times.
     And so the Gray Lady has every reason to think it will win this
     latest battle, too. The fate of the war on terror, of course, is
     another story - but the Times is too busy crushing George W. Bush
     to worry much about that.

   Something vaguely disconcerting is going on in the White House. They
   seem to have lost their nerve. The forceful leader of post-9/11 has
   disappeared, replaced by a docile politician, testing the waters for
   concensus, sniffing the wind for a hint of direction, hoping his
   agenda will move forward.
   Perhaps that explains, more than anything else, why Bush doesn't enjoy
   the same popularity he did in 2001.

References

   1. http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-oppin274797112jun27,0,2264978.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines