i'd love to learn who the "adviser" was, because anyone who didn't resign on the spot should never, ever be listened to again about anything.

The White House, sure. When people look back at the Bush administration, though, they're going to find that it had a great deal of "stoopit" vigor.

And when the president does it, that means it's not illegal.

The fact that working class Americans voted for Bush in 2004 remains an enigma. The desire for revenge perhaps, is what caused them to vote for the embodiment of Their Worst Boss.

This time we'll see if racism will motivate them to bring in Their Worst Boss's Designated Heir.

Gotta love that Nixonian political theory. If the President does it, it's good by definition, just like it's legal by definition. Forget laws and common sense.

Seriously, he really must think himself a dictator.

Well, of course all of Bush's ideas are great.

That is---if you can measure "greatness" with a yardstick called "horribly, terribly, ridiculously, pathetically bad."

On a somewhat-related-to-Bushylvanianism-madness note, the DOW is a-goin' down. Pass the popcorn....

As in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" when God says, "Of course it's a good idea!" (as if God would ever have a bad idea)

I find these snippets fascinating.

Well fascinating in a train-wreck sort of way.

Did anything that Tony Snow ever said turn out to be true? I'm thinking, but so far it's a blank.

What does it mean, "dismissed"? Dismissed from the meeting or fired?

The desire for revenge perhaps, is what caused them to vote for the embodiment of Their Worst Boss.

There's a Stockholm Syndrome factor at work. They hate their boss, but they also want to be him.

"If I decide to do it, by definition it's good policy. I thought you got that."

Just another sixteen words, from the world's most ignorant man, spelling doom for a great many people.

The jawbone of an ass strikes again.

You quote: President Bush said. "If I decide to do it, by definition it's good policy. I thought you got that."

OMFG. Even Nixon didn't go this far. He just said anything he did was legal, not that it was good.

I'm guessing it was Glenn Hubbard, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. It sounds like an academic, which means it was most likely a CEA member - Bush sure didn't have many academics in other posts in his white House. The other two CEA members from 2001 dealt with different issues: Mark McClellan (healthcare issues) and Randy Kroszner (macro/monetary policy).

I remember thinking that Hubbard, while a strong supporter of the Bush tax cuts, & esp of his own idea of removing income tax on dividends, seemed like kind of a lukewarm Bushie, esp after leaving office. Now I think I know why.

Well, this confirms Little Georgie's publicly-stated preference for being a dictator. Those words are, by defnition, the words of a totalitarian.

Totalitarian, h*ll -- try megalomaniac! If this anecdote is true I'm seriously worried about his sanity. We already knew he was incompetent, but now I wonder if he's certifiably manic-depressive.

Well, you're right of course. But oddly, I can feel a little sympathy for Bush in this, because I can imagine what my reaction would be to being told I was doing something "bad." So if Bush had instead said the term "bad policy" pushes his buttons, and that it should be avoided in favor of the phrase "I disagree with the value of this policy and here's why..." --- well, that would be a much better approach for me, too, if I was in an executive position, instead of the direct challenge to the boss's authority. But, saying that his decisions were, by definition, good policy --- that, of course, is not acceptable.

"When people look back at this White House, they're gonna find its one that had a lot of intellectual vigor."

An obvious misinterpretation. I believe the (hack hack) aid was actually using the yiddish term "vigorish" Intellectual or otherwise, the Bush administration is based pretty much on the concept.

From Wikipedia: Vigorish: "Yiddish slang originating from the Russian word for winnings, vyigrysh. Bookmakers use this concept to make money on their wagers regardless of the outcome."

" The president's odd combination of ignorance and arrogance..."

...is totally typical of someone who's faking it, and knows it, and knows that everyone around knows it too.

And yet, and yet and yet Suskind goes on to write this a few paragraphs later:

a George Walker Bush is not a stupid or a bad man. But in his conduct as president, he behaved stupidly and badly.

No, Ron, Bush is both Stupid and Evil.

For those of you wondering about the state of our Dear Leader's sanity, let me remind you that he has been talking to God for a long time now. What is it we say about people who hear voices? And as far as megalomania goes, what does it say about someone who tells God what to do?

That precise combination of arrogance and stupidity is exactly what the base is finding so wonderful about Palin.

Interesting that this same illogic is what's being used against Obama in the new Afghanistan ad mentioned a few posts below ("air-raiding villages and killing civilians"). Obama's quote, in context, is pretty true, so what's objectionable? Seems to be that he's criticizing the administration's handling of the war in Afghanistan....

As much as the Bush administration and the McCain campaign seem to support bringing democracy to other countries, they don't seem overly fond of the part that says it's OK (and encouraged) to criticize government (or its leaders).

I think Wikipedia's wrong about the vig. Maybe it's from Russian, maybe it means winnings, but the vig is the interest you pay the shark on the loan. It has nothing to do with a wager.

maybe he thought he had been elected Pope.

The advisor should've said, "Well, okay, it may be good policy, but it's a bad idea."

History has the last laugh: Mr. Good Policy will be seen as the worst President this country has ever had. The name "Bush" will epitomize bad policy.