Bush Fatigue

I think there comes a point for me when I get exhausted trying to keep up with all the misadventures of King Karl and Our Boy George. Call it Bush Fatigue.

The pattern of the story continues over and over: Some intrepid reporter gets the scoop on some absurdity or questionable move or outright scandal coming out of this White House. The press secretary denies it, the talking points are passed out among administration officials and members of Congress, the blogs go wild, the press is made out to be the enemy, the commander in chief regurgitates some rhetoric about “freedom” and “hard work”, and the general public barely notices.

The next week, or the next day in some cases, the pattern starts all over again.

The press doesn’t seem to have the energy to sustain the discussion, the Democrats seem exhausted by their own futile efforts, and the public is just plain bored.

Turn on the TV news any given day and you’ll be hard pressed to find any follow-up to these stories:

The outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame
Bush taking the country to war under bogus pretenses
The torture of war prisoners
Bush’s missing National Guard records
Paying of Right Wing journalists by the administration
Medicare Reform fraud
Budget fraud
Cheney’s secret Energy Task Force
Enron
Bogus claims about Iraq purchasing Yellowcake Uranium
Bizarre results in 2000 (and 2004) elections
Questionable nominees from Kerik to Gonzales
The Patriot Act
Halliburton and other contractors making big bucks off the Iraq War
The events of 9/11/01

(Imagine, for a moment, if any of this took place under a Clinton Administration…)

No, you won't be hearing much about these unresolved issues on your nightly news, but you’ll be sure to get all the mundane details of the court trial of Michael Jackson.