Where were these people in 2004?

Oh, that's right they were propping up George W. Bush as the second coming of Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, and Jesus Christ all in one.

Note that the President has not changed at all in that time. Only his popularity and the outlook of the American people toward him and his policies have. So all but his staunchest allies are abandoning ship, not out of principle, but out of personal concern.

Sad.

Hopefully everyone will learn from this elect someone intelligent who actually cares about policy and the government in 2008.

"Hopefully everyone will learn from this elect someone intelligent who actually cares about policy and the government in 2008."

Alas, the "Heathers" that control our media discourse would crucify such a person.

I had finally come to the conclusion that maybe all these things along do add up...

Sorry. You are a Wanker.

Here's a question Mr. Dowd:

How was it that I knew from the first sentence I ever heard Bush speak that he was a low-brow brute?

Was is it that I have that you don't have Mr. Dowd?

Brains? Human insight? Better hair?
All three?

Mr. Dowd:

Get ready.
If you really believe in karma you'd better go bury yourself in Cheney's bunker.

Because Mr Dowd simply put:

You and the President you helped elect are WAR CRIMINALS!
Vile brutes...
Deserving immense karma pain...
Go fuck yourself!

Well, as anyone who reads this site should know, Matthew Dowd was one of the authors of Bush's base motivation strategy. You know, the doctrine that said that since so few voters are actually persuadable swing voters anyway, Bush should pour his resources into motivating his extreme right wing base to vote. If anyone is disappointed by the failure of Bush to follow through on "compassion" in New Orleans, or his inability to admit mistakes in Iraq, or Bush's use of 9/11 to divide rather than unite it should not be Dowd. All of those things flowed directly from Dowd's own advice to Bush.

Who does Dowd think he is fooling? Probably the same people who think Chuck "when you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" Colson is some kind of sincere Christian.

Somehow the words "rat" and "sinking ship" reverberate through my mind on hearing that Matthew Dowd is having a "change of heart." I wonder which candidate that evil parasitic slime will latch onto next...

"missed a real opportunity to call the country to a shared sense of sacrifice.

Don't worry, Mr. Dowd, just because we(most of us) have not yet begun to pay, doesnt mean that we won't, for generations. Unfortunately, the architects of our dismay, will pay little, if anything. If we had paid more initially, there is no guarantee that we would have seen the error of leaderships' ways any sooner, or even now. Persistence in the face of insurmountable cultural obstacles is not a virtue. Is there a country in the world that would be less amenable to the kind of transformation invisioned by this administration than Iraq?

Hmmm - think the defense attorneys for the accused will open by subpoena'ing Rove, Rove's e-mail, and in fact the entire gwb43.com e-mail archive?

Cranky

Other kids getting shipped off to die fighting for oil companies = A-OK!

Your own kid getting shipped off to die fighting for oil companies = End the Iraq War!

You're a chump, Dowd.

Dowd was for George Bush before he was against him. What could be wrong about that?

The type of mystery we aren't supposed to notice: How do you stop being "a top strategist for the Texas Democrats" in 1999 and "join Bush's brain trust" in that same year? Given the Bush campaign's focus on loyalty, I find that bit of history fairly puzzling.

The people who are left in the bunker are never coming out - they will resist the intrusion of reality until it runs them right over.

"Bush's brain trust"

We did that once. Fool me once...

Ah, Kevin.

Good riddence, Dowd. Don't let the door hit ya on the *** on the way out.

Sad thing is, this guy is relativly young at 45, meaning he'll live long enough to see history's judgement come down in Bush's favor.

Dowd must be a real dullard if it took him 8 years to figure out that George W. Bush is a phony and a criminal.

Karl Rove has been a criminal since the early 1970's , as this article makes clear.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

In the fall of 1970, Karl Rove, current Bush Administration Deputy Chief of Staff, used a false identity to enter the campaign office of Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Illinois State Treasurer, and stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead. Rove then printed fake campaign rally fliers promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing," and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon's rally (Dixon eventually won the election).

Bush and Rove both need to go to prison for the rest of their lives!!!

The apostasy of Matthew Dowd is a sad, sordid little tragedy. Naturally liberqls will gloat, but mst of us will mourn a good man lost.

The apostasy of Matthew Dowd is a sad, sordid little tragedy. Naturally liberqls will gloat, but mst of us will mourn a good man lost.

There is more rejoicing in heaven over the one sheep that was found....

I hope Mr. Dowd's son survives his father's mistakes. If only more of our national leaders had skin in the game.

Sorry, but there's no such thing as a "good man" who supports President Bush -- they're mutually exclusive. Dowd has blood on his hands, just like every single Bush apologist, and no amount of crying "out, damned spot!" will change that.

" . . . he'll live long enough to see history's judgement come down in Bush's favor."

And the advent of porcine aviation.

...history's judgement come down in Bush's favor.

Posted by: egbert on March 31, 2007 at 6:45 PM | PERMALINK

About what? This is the worst administration I've ever seen. It's ignorant, arrogant, corrupt and incompetent, and that's a destructive, not to say lethal -- unfortunately literally -- combination.

Dowd obviously doesn't even notice what a turd he looks like at this time. So his detachment from reality and his political survival reflex continue to delude him.

He doesn't actually say anything about the lauching of the war but, as he was a war supporter, he obviously approved the costly, most dangerous and dumb-ass decision ever. That alone requires a real, sincere apology. And that's not what I read there.

It's still too little too late.

To be objective shouldn't the NYT publish a piece on someone who opposed Bush but now thinks he's the cat's meow.

Mr. Dowd might as well stay with Bush, he fits him well. Are we all fools? Did Bush not show his entire hand long before being selected in 2000? Fool me once Dowd but not this time. This guy is a coward that wants off the train he has been engineering right before the crash. Screw this piece of crap.

To be objective shouldn't the NYT publish a piece on someone who opposed Bush but now thinks he's the cat's meow. Posted by: Carl

Well, of course. How about 1990 Vice Presidential candidate and 1994 Democratic primary hopeful Joseph Lieberman?

Out, out, damned spot, to mangle a Macbeth quote. That for me sums up the essence of this in terms of Dowd himself for me.

In terms of the greater political implications of someone this close in Bushco coming out with this level criticism implies, if nothing else it shows the fear of retribution has greatly diminished. Which since that was in the post 9/11/01 world the essence of the control Bushco had over its people is something significant IMHO. Dowd is well aware of exactly how far these people will go to take out their "enemies" (after all he helped them and was a critical component to their 2004 run) aka anyone that challenges them with any credibility to be taken seriously by media/American people. Yet he has written this and put in on the so called bastion of the liberal media bias/conspiracy against the GOP the NYT where one would expect it to get the maximum impact/play. I don't see this as being by the design/will of Bushco, I simply can't see how they could make something like this work for them, even with the twisted mindset they have shown they have where politics is concerned and approached.

This seems more to be speaking to just how much wider the leaks are going to become from Bushco and those that best know what kind of nastiness is about to be exposed (as Dowd certainly was positioned to know thanks to his first term work up to the "reelection" of Bush in 2004) getting out to save themselves as best they can, and perhaps hoping they can save enough of the GOP in the process to have them go to bat for them. Rats and sinking ships I don't think will be enough to accurately describe what we will have seen by the time Bush is gone from office if we are seeing this already with nearly 22 months to go until the end of the second term. Bush I suspect will go down in history also for starting the lame duck status of a second term President faster than anyone else along with all the other milestone he has managed to be the worst example of in a President. Dowd is simply a precursor of the internal firing squad that is coming, and while I would rather not have seen it by way of the situation never having happened in the first place (as in no Bush Presidency) since it did happen I am going to take a great deal of delight and satisfaction in watching it happen. Indeed, I will be more than willing to throw fuel on that particular fire if the opportunity arises. What Bushco have done to America, the Western world, indeed the entire bloody planet is a great evil when all is said and done, and those that were at the heart of such an evil must be made to wear the responsibility of that which they created and protected all this time. Watching them desperately assigning more culpability to others while trying to limit their own is going to aid in that, and will be particularly satisfying to watch for those that actually believe in ethics, goods government, responsible leadership, integrity, honesty, and above all else honour!!!

What goes around comes around usually with momentum, and what those like Dowd and Bushco have coming back at them I would not wish on my worst enemy. That though is because I actually am a caring decent human being, unlike those that are looking to be about to receive their just desserts. I am not so virtuous though that I do not take some pleasure in seeing proper karmic balancing happening to those that clearly have it coming, especially when they have been responsible for as much pain, fear, anger, hatred and death as Bushco have been and the America people made accomplicies to.

One correction:
Third paragraph just past halfway through "...internal firing squad that is coming," should have read "internal circular firing squad that is coming,".

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,”

Doesn't this pretty much establish that Dowd is merely a poor judge of character? It wasn't until the facts were so overwhelming that his bad character judgment was finally overcome by reality.

That should give you an idea about how clueless those who still support Bush are.

Hey Dowd? What's it like having no crediblity left. Huh?

Nothings more despicable than a turncoat.

Tomorrow, Sunday - when that article on Dowd will actually be published - is April Fool's Day.

Any chance this thing's a joke?

To be sure, I didn't find it funny... but what I learned from the Corresponds Dinner is that the press' sense of humor is very different from mine...

Nothings more despicable than a turncoat.

He turned on Clinton to hitch his wagon to Bush's train. He's simply a guy who's a poor judge of character until the force of reality was too much for him to bear.

J'ever notice how egbert and al often post early in a topic, often within 10 minutes of each other? Sometimes American Hawk will be in there too. Often they "talk" to each other, agreeing with and supporting each other's comments.

Kinda makes you wonder...

Wow, he hit all the liberal talking points. Hasn't someone told him, though, that even the left admit Cindy Sheehan is a loon now?

We live amongst Bush voters, supporters and his war enablers. Almost half of America's adults are these people. I do not know what can be done to persuade them of their error, to repent, and be reborn as humanists. Many are now disillusioned with Bush and the events in Iraq, but I do not think anyone, Republican or Democrat, is attempting to break the institutions and change the platitudes that allowed Bush to start a war of aggression.

America's military's great strength is a great contributor to its belligerence. The attitude the US can and should act with impunity to police the world because we know what democracy is and what is in the best interests of the world is nothing more than a national hubris. Maybe after WW II the US was a benevolent force for good, but that ended a very long time ago. Still, this attitude is held by almost every American, right, moderate, liberal and independent. It will take a very great leader to make the kind of institutional changes I think are required to save America from itself and save the victims of our military. We probably will not have one anytime soon.

Frank J., as I said, if Dowd, who was such a bad judge of character that he thought Bush was likable and a good person, now realizes that the facts are so overwhelming that he can't stand Bush anymore, what does that so about how clueless you are?

The guy sounds psychologically screwed up to me. Wouldn’t hire him myself. He worked with Rove? Couldn’t see through Rove?

Nope. Don’t by all that. Don’t trust Mr. Dowd.

I appreciate the man's attempt at honesty, but surely someone who saw things up close and was genuinely a person of conscience should have bailed before six years? It looks to me like he swilled from the Bush trough for six years, got his fill, and thenided the source of the slop was tainted. As much as I'd like to, I just can't let it go. The guy's years, years too late here. It's kind of like Lee Atwater's deathbed apology. It was nice and all, but the damage Atwaterism did was permanent (The present Bush is largely a result of it), while his apology did nothing at all except make him feel better about what he had done.

"Bob Somerby" asks,"How do you go from being a top stragegist for Texas Democrats to ...the Bush braintrust in the same year?" Here in Texas, it's easy. There are any number of Texas Democrats who love to whore around with the Texas Republicans because the R's are in power and they have the money. It happened again this year in the Texas lege, when a bunch of "bipartisan" D's rolled over to reelect Tom Craddick Speaker of the House, only to get screwed over in the first round of legislative activity. (To be sure, some of those "bipartisan" D's got choice committee appointments; that's about it.) My take on Dowd: as the political winds in Texas slowly change, he's out shopping for clients. What better way to advertise than in the NYT?

" . . . even the left admit Cindy Sheehan is a loon now?"

Oh. please. Compared to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Gonzales, Michael Brown, Harriet Miers, et al., Cindy Sheehan is a paragon of logic and sobriety.

Let me tell you a little story.

Once knew a guy named Cribbs. Cribbs and I were with the College Republicans back in '99-01.

Then Cribbs got mixed up with drugs: dope, marijuana, cocaine. Suddenly, I didn't know him any more. THat old look was gone. He started having doubts about the cause. He began boning girls from the art class and professed to not knowing what was so bad about bisexuality.

I lost touch with Cribbs back in '02. I heard from his parents that he cut ties and joined up with pro-abortion groups and such. Basically out of control.

The moral of the stroy is, once you turn coat, you can never turn back.

Here is Dowd rationalizing the Swift Boat thing:

I think the Swift Boat ads were part of that dialogue, but it was more important in that they pointed out something about John Kerry, which is, all this guy's talking about is his Vietnam record. What does that have to do with the war on terror? What does that have to do with my job getting lost? What does that have to do with the price of health care? I think voters at some point in time got sick of all the talk about Vietnam, and they centered that on John Kerry, because he was the one standing up with veterans behind him, saying, "Elect me because I served in Vietnam." That, I think, was the importance of the Swift Boat, not the allegations they raised, but the fact that they raised an issue that John Kerry was raising himself. And ultimately, whether you were for the Swift Boats or for John Kerry, it was like, why are we talking about this issue? This is 30 years ago. Let's talk about what matters today.

Yeah, this guy is a piece of shit. He's a cautious, soft spoken piece of shit, but he stinks just the same.

The moral of the stroy is, once you turn coat, you can never turn back.

Dude, this must make great stories at the College Republican meetings to tell people why they need to "keep the faith." Like any cult, the Republicans want to scare people out of leaving.

Can't we cut Dowd some slack? Granted, it would have been a lot better if Dowd had turned against Bush a couple of years ago and maybe he's speaking out against the war for selfish personal reasons. But this isn't like McNamara admitting he was wrong about the Vietnam decades after the war ended and his mea culpa only counted for the historians. Dowd is speaking out against the war at a time when his actions can still have an impact against the war. Moreover, he is doing this at some professional risk, I would guess that his career with the GOP is over. Progressives don't need to be like their Republican counterparts, and eat their young. Rather than attacking Dowd for what he did in the past as many posters seem to be doing, it makes more sense to welcome his change of mind. After all, if we're going to attack people who defect from the Bush camp as much as the Bushies do, what incentive will future Dowds have for turning against the war?

I knew this guy named Bloods. ...never liked Cripps. Had some sort of point to this antidote. ..something homophobic. ..maybe comparable to Hitler. ..smuggled bananas out of Mexico two at a time.. ..rambles.... ..drank dope by the furlong... ..world going to hell.... ..gotta save us all.. ..end is neigh...

A mother whose son was killed for no reason other than for a spoiled, petulant would-be dictator's ego has every reason to be loony.

"J'ever notice how egbert and al often post early in a topic, often within 10 minutes of each other? Sometimes American Hawk will be in there too. Often they "talk" to each other, agreeing with and supporting each other's comments.

Kinda makes you wonder..."

I noticed the same thing last week when Kevin posted on the subject of universal health care. Both American Hawk and egbert put up posts that began "Ah, Kevin". And both attacked not just the idea of universal health care, but the whole notion of *any* form of health insurance. Even private insurance!

Since when has scorn for private health insurance become a widely held right-wing talking point? I know that the right-wing is supposed to be in love with Health Savings Accounts (which may be good for routine preventive care, but totally inadequate for dealing with real health catastrophes). But these guys were both disdaining private health insurance for any purpose. It sounded like not a right-wing talking point, but one individual's crazy hobby horse.

It made me think that AH, egbert, and probably Al (who also often leads off with "Ah, Kevin") are all sock puppets operated by the same troll. Most of the time he's careful to engineer separate personas for the three -- different writing styles, different kinds of anecdotes. But the different personas bleed over into each other in ways there are hard to account for by just a shared ideology.

"He began boning girls from the art class ..."

Shocking! Isn't that always how it starts? As Thomas de Quincy observed:

"For, if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing, and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begun upon this downward path, you never know where you are to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of at the time."

Orion: "J'ever notice how egbert and al often post early in a topic, often within 10 minutes of each other? Sometimes American Hawk will be in there too. Often they "talk" to each other, agreeing with and supporting each other's comments. Kinda makes you wonder ..."

There's a perfectly logical explanation here. They're probably all vacationing together with former Congressman Mark Foley and Cpl. Matt Sanchez on Fire Island.

Progressives don't need to be like their Republican counterparts

Do not forget Americans for Jobs smear campaign that 'swift boated' Dean.

for the fun of it, a bipartisan blast from the past:

http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=189649&&

Posted by: Guscat on March 31, 2007 at 9:50 PM

Rather than attacking Dowd for what he did in the past as many posters seem to be doing, it makes more sense to welcome his change of mind.

I do welcome his change of mind. I just don't care about it all that much, because it will have no impact on events, as he himself admits.

My problem isn't with Dowd, but Dowdism (Matt Dowdism is seperate from Maureen Dowdism, but both are odious). Dowd rode the Bush train for as long as he could, long after a person of conscience should have gotten off (See DiIulio, John). His criticisms now mean nothing. They won't shape anything, any more than his meandering talk about doing good in Africa will. This is a guy who did his level best to put someone incompetent into the White House and keep him there, and now that that person has fucked everything up, he's trying to clear his own conscience. Like everything else this guy has done, like working for Bush from the start and passing off nonsensical rationalizations for that Swift Boat shit, his "change of heart" is about him, not what's best for the country, although he's claiming otherwise.

OK, I'm not completely naive -- almost everyone is like that. But not everyone is pulling off this soft soap act about going to Africa to do good works like this guy is. The time for him to do good works is long past. He's irrelevant now, and so is his apology, except to the extent it can be used to warn other "people of conscience," but hopefully before they help to fuck everything up this time around.

If this guy does go off and do good works in Africa or anywhere else, maybe I'll change my mind about him. And you know what? It won't matter, either to him or anyone else. The things he and his former master have done, on the other hand, matter to millions. But somehow I think the odds of this guy spending the rest of his days doing good works are about the same as Bush turning over a new leaf because of this guy's "heartfelt" criticisms.

What you skeptics are missing is the arc of this ongoing narrative. It's the apostasy of former Bush loyalists over a six year span. Yeah, DiIulio, O'Neill, and Powell (somewhat) beat him to Epiphanyville, but the more important story is the steadiness of their exodus.

Republican unity is predicated in denial. When someone breaks out of it, the entire edifice is rocked. Cults demand complete loyalty because lunacy cannot bear to be examined. Turning the light on, however briefly, interrupts the spell.

30% of America is still deeply hynotized. Dowd may be late, but why should we be sorry? It's the story we need to pay attention to: former cultist admits the truth. When will the others?

walt: "If this guy does go off and do good works in Africa or anywhere else, maybe I'll change my mind about him."

Matthew Dowd is nothing more than a well-paid whore whose inner conscience finally compelled him to see the light.

() Been there, done that. Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8 and Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential played variations on the same theme -- and frankly, both of those Academy Award-winning performances were far more convincing than that offered by Mr. Dowd.

I bet Dowd did not count on his son actually going to Iraq. Now it's real. And it's partly his fault. Let's hope he doesn't have to deal with the worst. Plenty of people are.

for the fun of it, a bipartisan blast from the past

Shorter Matthew Marler: I got nuttin', but I have to pretend Democrats are worse than the party I carry water for.

Shame on you, Marler.

Dowd's renunciation of Bush is just one more sign that we are effectively entering a post-Bush world.

He can still veto; he can still bluster; maybe, but not at all likely, he could even engage in further warfare. But he's done in terms of doing anything that will continue his influence beyond the last day he's in office. Every idea or policy he pushes henceforth will die or be stained by being associated with him.

The real trick for Democrats is to get past their own internal obsession with him, while simultaneously investigating, recording, and publicizing for the larger world each and every defect he embodies.

Democrats have to envision what it would be like to live a world utterly without Bush, and without a Republican Congress, because that is the reality that now faces them in January 2009, barring something truly extraordinary.

Democrats can remake both foreign policy and domestic policy. They have to find a place in their minds free of Bush and the Republicans to contemplate what that might mean.

I bet Dowd did not count on his son actually going to Iraq. Now it's real. And it's partly his fault. Let's hope he doesn't have to deal with the worst. Plenty of people are.
Posted by: little ole jim from red country on March 31, 2007 at 11:46 PM

Lately I've started checking the Washington Post's "Faces of the Fallen" to see if someone I went to high school with or their kid is listed.

I always appreciate it when a former Bushnik sees the light, comes clean and seeks redemption, as does Mr. Dowd. But anyone who is gullible and and dim enough to have fallen for the Bush schtick in the first place will never have my trust.

The only difference between Mathew Dowd and the other Bush whores is that he is just a wee bit brighter and decided that jumping ship now was in his best interest. It's cynical self-preservation and nothing more.

egbert: "Hey Dowd? What's it like having no crediblity left. Huh?"

Talk about a question you should have no question answering! Hey, fartbreath, look up "irony" in the dictionary.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,� [Dowd] said.

Yeesh. This remark and "his continued personal affection for the president" just demonstrates to me that he's quit mainlining the Kool-Aid and now is taking a less potent capsule form, Nosenseatol. Someone out of denial ought to have better reasons for disappointment than because he "really likes" Bush. But maybe he's soft-pedaling his dissent to protect himself (and his son in Iraq) from the notorious Bushie retaliation.

global yokel: But anyone who is gullible and and dim enough to have fallen for the Bush schtick in the first place will never have my trust.

I second that.

he'll live long enough to see history's judgement come down in Bush's favor."

This actually represents progress on the part of trolls: they have come to the realization that the status quo is simply indefensible, so they're reduced to making silly, lame, unprovable, undemonstrable, unverifiable assertions such as the one above.

But, but, but . . . I thought The Surgeâ„¢ was working. McCain said so, said there were boulevards in Baghdad with young couples holding hands . . .

Why would Dowd jump ship today if The Surgeâ„¢ was working?

No soap.

I am, of course, sorry to hear of the personal heartache this poor man has had to endure, but if he really wants to get right with his God he shouldn't consider ministry work in South America, but, rather, volunteer as a cleaner in an Iraqi morgue.

On his hands and knees and using only his tongue, of course.

While wearing a hair shirt.

Committed to a vow of silence.

PS - I wonder how much he was paid to service Bush.

I am sure I speak for many when I say, in all sincerity,

Go FUCK yourself, you fucking retard Dowd, and your little dog too

I just intensely HATE fucking morons like this fucking asshole who do IMMENSE damage to America, and then beg forgiveness.

What a fucking asshole.

I agree that it certainly took Dowd a long time to achieve his reality-based orientation,
as we say in the business. He is in the amends- making phase of his rehabilitation.
But his defection from the administration is quite significant, especially
since it reflects an insider's disaffection.
I am all for one more disillusioned whistle blower/critic being out and about, being quoted, and remaining in the news cycle as we move toward the 2008 elections.
It has the potential to further damage Karl Rove, and other insiders, don't you think?

Expect more of this. It reminds me of the English butler, in the "Remains of the Day," who denies ever knowing the appeaser Lord he worked for for decades after it became all too clear how wrong the royal was about Germany. Just as Presidents "wonder about their legacy," so do pundits and others. Look for a whole lot more of these people who enabled George W. Bush for six years, deny they knew him over the final next two.

"it's not the person I thought"
Anyone who attended college in the US and didn't recognize exactly what they were getting from a hyper privileged smirking DEK frat boy is living in a fantasy world or cravenly running from the consequences of their craven hope for a share of the spoils.

What's really happening with Dowd is something we can expect for all other "loyal Bushies" over time. This is just one in a long series of exit interviews of rats as they leave the sinking ship.

All of these people have to have careers when the Bush Presidency comes to its sordid end. Where are they going to go if they don't find a way to distance themselves from the disgrace of the Bush name?

Detractors like Dowd will help to correct what historians ultimately depict.
As self-conscious as he is, dubya is concerned with his legacy as he lame ducks through what remains of his hideous, scandal-plagued administration.
His narcissistic personality profile was reflected early on with these tragically provocative words of July, 2003:
"Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice," Bush said. "There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, BRING 'EM ON."

Simply unforgiveable. That was a crime. A high crime.

Dowd simply realized that the fellows in the Committee of Public Safety hall were having a tad more fun than those stepping onto the tumbrels.

Dowd, beware when J'accuse turns upon thee as well. You are not "Home Free" yet.

Well said, by former prosecutor Catherine Crier:

"In the last six years this President has assumed more power than any President in history...
How about the other matters in the King's court...Former WH counsel Harriet Miers would now be a Supreme Court justice. Michael Brown would still be head of FEMA because as you know he did a " heckofajob." Donald Rumsfeld would still be Secretary of Defense because of his marvelous handling of the Iraq war. And former gay prostitute Jeff Gannon, a mysterious member of the White House press corp. might now be sitting in Helen Thomas's seat..."

Thank you, Mr. Dowd, and your son and your family.

N-O-T-H-I-N-G prepares a parent for their child going to war or for your child to die in this or any war -- especially one in which you don't believe in, one that goes against what you believe in and support. It takes mental and emotional and spiritual contortions of the most unimaginable extremes to be able to live with it, and to get through the day. There are hundreds of thousands of us family members -- mothers, fathers, siblings, children, spouses, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and friends going through what Mr. Dowd apparently has been going through -- and will go through. YEAH, 'bout time. None of us have had the power to speak to this as he does and will have. FINALLY. Thank, God.

My son is in Iraq -- he has been in the Army for seven years, since age 17, not "poor and without other options" as the media likes to portray, thank you very much, but he is an intelligent, funny, compassionate man who has wanted since childhood to become an officer to make changes -- Colin Powell style (pre war, anyway). STILL, it was not until it was inevitable that he was going to war that it did hit me. A twelve year old wanting to be an office during the Gulf War and I was still numb to the effects of it all. Ten years of pure denial. Our defences protect us. DENIAL is a great thing while it works. Sometimes it takes a lot to break it. One's own child going to Iraq breaks a lot of denial. It is the most devastating and challening experience of my life. MY child will never be the same. No matter how old one's child is we are still the parent. My child going to war put me into the SAME physiological state as when I stood powerless to save my other child, a toddler, from running from behind a parked car into the path of an oncoming car. My scream brought people out of their homes 1/2 block way (and stopped my child at the curb as the car sped by). I physiologically felt exactly the same way as my son graduated from college and went to officer training in preparation for deployment a few months later. MONTHS of being in that hyper-aroused, powerless-to-protect-my-child state takes it's toll on people. The scream is silent for most of us as we get through the day -- maybe just bawling in the produce aisle because something just triggered it. Unable to sleep. Unable to smile. Unable to have the energy to go to work. A child going to war means a parent one must face who one is and we get to review our life, "let go" of our child to his adult mission in a way so few get to do. Lack of control must be dealt with. What a tortureous gift. I am grateful for Dowd's voice. I am angry at Dowds for his participation at getting Bush re-elected, I am grateful for him speaking out knowing full well that many will criticize his epiphany and it's timing. I am ecstatically hopeful as I tearfully write this --families will finally have a voice! This is a huge step in ending this war.

Perhaps other people higher up will act upon their convictions as the lies and deceit crumble to reveal the truth. Many you average folks will begin to ACT upon your disagreement and pour into the streets to DO something, rather than talk about it and judge those who do develop conscience. Those who made these decisions were neither veterans, nor did they have children in the military. That's been a problem from the beginning -- how did they all get elected anyway? Soldiers get the bad rap, but it is non-soldiers who doing the ordering. Finally, someone who can speak to the experience -- of the consequencs. Of, course, I am shocked to learn that Mr. Dowd also had a son in the military and was numb and dumb enough in his denial to have supported Bush -- in fact, to the point possibily of being the reason Bush won. Oh, my God -- that is so huge. We can always find someone with it worse that we have it. I had nothing to do with the decisions to go to war and keep Bush in office. All I have to deal with is my own short-comings, my mistakes as a mother, and my own grief as a mother of a soldier. Which, by the way, has brought my world to a screeching halt via the deepest grief and existential exploring imaginable. I was surprised at the level of my denial that when it crumbled it felled me like the "tree" that broke the camel's back. Straws trigger something and it's easy to get up and move on -- this, a Tree, pins one to the ground and doesn't allow one to move on. Dowd will never be the same now this his own in involved. Believe me. I will never be the same. My wonderful child will never be the same -- and, our country has the resources and know-how to help our soldiers, but doesn't.

I am extremely compassionate towards Dowd for what he is about to go through. The "depths of the cave" I call it ... the "roller coaster" of emotional turbulance and the gifts of clarity and expansion it allows. (On a good day the horrid loss of control and the powerlessness to protect my son, to see him, to feel him, to smell his stinky work out clothes, to communicate with my child leads to a deeper spiritual, soul connection of acceptance that most of you's won't get to experience ... while you trot around in your gas-guzzlers, on your cell, at happy hour with ne'er a thought of making a sacrifice yourself -- walk, recycle, attend a peace rally. (Oops, the anger is just so there, always on the edge.)

I am thrilled and grateful that FINALLY someone at Dowd's level gets to feel what it is like to have your child in this war. Those who are negative about his change -- that's your right to your opinion, but please consider that today he may be the most powerful ally and voice we have. Someone willing to acknowledge his part and his wrong, and to apologize? Please let him. How could George ever change his mind if he is just going to get blasted for it. Forgiveness. YEP, that's one of the BIGGIE lessons for our society -- forgiveness. Forgiveness for what we have allowed to happen to the innocent Iraqi's, to the children of our soldiers, and to our future generations who will pay for this war. We all participated somehow in getting to this need and thirst for oil and power. We parents and family members of the soldiers doing the deed -- we are blessed with an additional card in our deck to get to deal with. Our family member going to war is profoundly devastating. NO one understands it like a famly member. NO one has a right to judge another for this loss --- ie. Cindy Sheehan. Believe me, you don't want to walk a mile in her shoes (our business with our children -- or you with your parent -- is never really finished) but at least give her and the others some respect for grieving the worst possbile event in their lives. Her reaction is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation. So, is Dowds. All of us lead challenging lives now -- our families are wrought with difficulites and challenges. At any time we can lose a loved one with our business unfinished. Car wrecks are typically the number one killer of men our soldier's ages and people deal with it differently from when their child is killed at war. A child being a casuality of war adds a whole dimension to the grief process. When it is because of this war -- something you personally are so against and your child dies for it, well, hell hath no fury like a mama whose baby is harmed. Give her a break. Give Dowd a break. Leave 'em alone. It's going to take a multidude of people and approaches to break through the denial of this country. WE MILITARY FAMILIES need SOMEONE OF DOWD'S level TO GET IT. He'll find HIS way to contribute to change. Maybe he'll get behind providing services for the soldiers when they come home and for families while they are gone serving.

I want to send my prayers to Soldier Dowd as he prepares to go to war and must be focused as he will live in a life/death situation 24/7 with his new family who must trust and depend upon each other -- all on our behalf, because of Bush et al. I value the role he and his father -- two other souls on this planet in this game we are all playing out here.... it is something huge in the spiritual, cosmic aspects of what this is all about. And, I send my love to his mother and their family. She'll be in my thoughts in those moments when I cry buckets for my child, all of the soldiers, and their families. Maybe you'll be touched to cry a few tears for the family members who FEEL what the soldier is able to.

So, if you drive a hummer -- that could have been me that flipped you off yesterday. A song on the radio made me cry for my son and all of our children there --- and there you were. In my face. The epitomy of the glut, fear, and selfishness that this war is about and that my son was sacrificed for.

And, so goes the roller coaster.

I'll keep your family in my thoughts, baby keeper.

Your personal traumas could be mine, if not for a frank discussion my husband had with our son the day before he was scheduled to take his physical and go into the Marines.

I thank my husband daily for talking to him frankly and as a career officer, not just as his dad.

Congratulations to Dowd Jr. for joining the good fight and here's hoping that by March, 2008, he will be on his way home and not involved in a fight with Iraq's next door neighbor.

I have stated that the elected government in Baghdad could survive an American pull-out next week. They now possess the makings of an army and the makings of a better police force. Both are no doubt riddled with terrorist moles, but the majority of their ranks also no doubt hate the insurgents deeply and with a passionate desire for vengeance. That's what you get when you blow up women, children, and civilian men randomly for four years. The target population doesn't like you.

But better yet, the elected Iraq government has a stable source of income and can reliably pay its forces, which grow better equipped every day.
The insurgency hasn't come close to cutting the oil flow. Iran might be able to do that, with a much bigger act of war. . .

So let's play the children's game of "if". If I could be a Cuban living in Havana or a Kurd living in Mosul, which would I choose? Which would you choose? If your choice was to be a person of Shia heritage living in Basra or a Vietnamese living in Ho Chi Minh city which would you choose, and why? Compare physical security so far this year, local economy,future economic prospects, and civil liberties.

My point, of course, is that comparatively life in much of Iraq is not that bad and it stands to get a whole lot better. By November,2008, that should be fairly obvious to everyone. It may not be so swell to be a Sunni living in some parts of Iraq, but you reap what you sow.

I wondered where Dowd came from and what his change of heart means. He's a pollster and founder of this site. This provides a few clues to his thinking. Faint hearts dropping off. I disagree with a lot that Bush has done but not the Iraq war. It has to be done.

What is this mysterious power the Little Idiot has over the minds of men?

Seems to be very effective in person.

So many smart, smart people were deceived. Frum, Dowd, DeIllio (or however you spell his name)...

How are so many Democrats fooled into believing that there is a place for them among republicans? Democrats understand what it means to lift all boats and we also understand that neither government nor business alone can sove the problems of this world. Democrats have got to wake up and realize that republican thought is not really about ideology but is a mental illness that is taking this great country down the drain.

a great comment by Matthew Yglesias, on his personal website:

Now He Tells Us
Reading Matthew Dowd's tale of lost faith I'm left curious as to what he could have been thinking during Bush's 2004 re-election campaign. Given what he thinks now, what about the situation in 2004 made him feel so differently that he wanted to quite literally dedicate his life to perpetuating Bush's hold on power. Pretty much all the factors Dowd cites were perfectly clear by the time of the election. One can imagine it taking a while for the message to sink into the head of someone as invested in Bush as Dowd was, but shouldn't there be a momment when you're not exactly ready to jump off the bus but aren't comfortable driving the bus either?

Well, well, what goes around comes around. I only wish that every member of the administration and congress had sons and daughters in harm's way. We would see a mass abandoning of the ship, not just by this rat...

Thanks very much, Blue Girl, Red State. I appreciate the kind words.

I signed the papers for my son to do early enlistment at age 17. I don't regret it -- he would have gone anyway. It was a very early decision and clearly a path to where he is. My signing -- against my own beliefs -- was an honoring of his him and his soul's journey, and so is my support now --- even though I was and am very outspoken against this war. He is doing whatever he came here to do. HE and the others in his generation who are there experiencing, no, are DOING the deed (warring) on behalf of Americans and what the MAJORITY of AMERICANS wanted in 2003. They will come home and be LEADERS in recreating America out of what our collective society has created. Will any of you listen to our war-wisened young? We'll see. I believe every American co-created this situation we are in. This experience -- American waging war on Iraq for revenge -- can not but create opportunity for change and higher order and harmony. My son is part of the very, very few in this country who are making the greatest sacrifice most can not comprehend while the majority go about their busy lives and "putting their money where their mouth is" (414 billon dollars now) to do what this country as a majority was hungry for ---- as anti-war as I am, I think those who were for this war in the beginning need to round up and get the friggin' job done. IS ANYONE thinking through a pull-out at this point? The Army is sending troops back who have only been home seven months. I know a man who just deployed to Iraq for FOURTH time and was in Afghanistan before that. HOW MUCH does ONE AMERICAN MAN or woman have to give? How can you repay him for doing what the majority of AMerican's wanted? Those who wanted this war weren't the ones who had to do it. Those who wanted this were most Americans. Most Americans wanted it. Most Americans didn't oppose it. There were twenty-five of us at the first peace rallies in the first months (while my daughter-in-law was there). TEN of us at the vigil for the 1000 fallen soldiers --- in a city of 200,000+. Today, it's still just talk... talk ... talk ...

This guy has is right .........

http://blogs.britannica.com/blog/main/2007/04/iraq-whos-to-blame/

"During the rush to war with Iraq, nearly 70% of the American population believed that there was a direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Nearly as many believed that there were Iraqis amongst the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. President Bush’s approval ratings were higher than any President’s, ever. Americans applauded when we renamed French fries “freedom fries.” These individuals viewed those of us who were protesting the war as unpatriotic, anti-American cowards who did not “support the troops.” They viewed the war the same way they view a Monday night football game: you have to be for one side, the “good guys,” and if you’re not rooting and waving your foam finger from the bleachers, you’re anti-American. After 9/11, American citizens were thirsty for revenge, and they didn’t seem to care whose blood was spilled.

Now that the war has become inconvenient, Americans are opposed to it. They don’t like Bush anymore. They like Cheney even less. They voted the Democrats in to office. But where was the American citizenry when it mattered? The American public had the power to stop this war, but they didn’t; they handed Bush a second term in 2004. I have a deep suspicion that the turn against the war has less to do with any deeply felt, well thought out opposition to the war itself, and far more to do with the boredom and short attention spans of a spoiled American citizenry who inherited the most powerful democracy on earth, and who allowed one village idiot to pillage it. Four years is a long time to pay attention.

Now that we’re in the midst of disaster, we can blame whomever we choose. But when Joe Q. Public wakes up in the morning and ponders who should be blamed for Iraq, he should look in a mirror."

Babykeeper I wish I had the kind of compassion you speak of in regard to Matthew Dowd but I can't look at him and see someone who should be a spokesperson for anything but self-serving cowardice. He was perfectly ok with sending other people's kids into the misbegotten war in Iraq but as soon as it is his son on the line he changes his toon. There is nothing for me to respect there and I don't think we are well served in the long term by giving a voice to someone with such an obvious lack of empathy for the suffering of others.

I served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division. Much of the 82nd has been over in Iraq for 3 or 4 tours of duty. As you said, none of them will ever be the same and neither will thier families. I watched a video of a marine who suprised his young son at school after returning from Iraq. I saw tears flowing from this little kid as he desperately held onto the father he hadn't seen in a year and had to fight back my own. This war is going to have long term effects on this country that I don't think anyone has foreseen and it isn't going to be pretty. This entire war was thought up by a group of people who had no skin in the game and they keep telling other people to "suck it up".

I am sorry Babykeeper, I wish I was more spiritually evolved so that I didn't wish that Matthew Dowd experiences the most profound heartache that he helped to make possible for 3000+ families.