Presidential cocoon

Doesn't this President know more than five people?

I guess the answer to that question has to be a resounding "No." With his promotion of disastrous budget director Josh Bolten to Chief of Staff yesterday, George Bush signaled clearly to the nation that he has no intention whatsoever of soliciting competent advice from his cabinet, preferring instead to maintain the insulated blanket of yes-men and political cronies in which he's wrapped himself for over five years.

What other explanation could there be? If Bush had any real interest in listening to the voice of the American people, and in righting at least some of the wrongs he's perpetrated on the nation, he could have seized this opportunity to bring an informed, intelligent individual into his decision-making process, and looked a bit further than the office "across the hall," as Jon Stewart so succinctly observed last night.

But that would be the act of a man truly concerned with the welfare of the U.S., and not selfishly obsessed with rejecting any possibility of dissenting thought or competent performance in the White House. Sadly, as many of us have known for a long time, George Bush is not that man.

In an openly sarcastic editorial, the New York Times writes today:

If this is what passes for a shake-up in this administration, the next two and a half years are going to be grim indeed. This is a meaningless change, and it simply sends the message that Mr. Bush lacks the gumption to trade in anyone in the comforting, friendly cast of characters who have kept him cocooned since his first inauguration...

Mr. Bolten has been giving the president advice for years, and the result has been a deficit estimated at $371 billion. Perhaps he'll come up with a better approach in his new job. We've heard that under Mr. Card's watch, aides wound up showing Mr. Bush videos of TV news coverage of Hurricane Katrina to convince their boss that it really was a problem. Maybe Mr. Bolten can start the next budget discussion with some audiovisual aids - like an abacus.

Can there even be any lingering doubt that this Administration must be removed in its entirety before America can begin the long, painful journey toward recovery? The time has come for the people of this nation to crush and discard the Presidential cocoon that brings our society one step closer to ruin with each passing day. There's no butterfly waiting inside - only a vicious parasite that's eaten away at our cherished tree of liberty for over half a decade.