More Baker Commission Leaks

Does it seem to anyone else like Washington has more leaks than the SS Minnow these days? I could have sworn that the president was cracking down on leaks, but apparently he is as impotent as he is incompetent, and that's an accomplishment.

The Baker Commission report is "due on the President's desk" on Wednesday of next week, but everyone with an AM radio has heard parts of the report that have been leaked, including the imminent (within 18 months) pull-out of troops from Iraq.

"It's really about transitioning from a combat to a support role, and basically making very clear that this is no longer an open-ended commitment, and we're going to get this done whether the Iraqis like it or not," one of the sources told the Post. "Everybody understands that we're at the end of the road here."

The question I have is this - why is Baker's commission report leaking like a seive? I'm starting to revise my thinking on this issue (liberals often do that). Here is what I think: I think it's on purpose. I think it is happening with Baker's blessing. He has known young George all his life, probably at some point placed a hand on Babs' belly (sorry for the visual). I believe that Jim Baker is secretly mortified that the little prick is president. I believe he knows enough about aWol's pathologies - and there are many - that he knows how George is going to (want to) react to the recommendations, and he is setting him up for a sacrifice-the-son moment if it comes to that.

George is going to want to lash out (prepare to duck-and-cover, Iran) when he reads that report. He is going to read how bad he screwed up, and he is going to flip right the fuck out. He is not going to take it well. He is going to lose it. I caught the middle-of-the-night press conference with Maliki a couple of nights ago when it was on live. He was shrill and petulant and moreso than usual. He knows that while normally, everyone serves at the pleasure of the president; and the president serves at the pleasure of the people, he is a different color horse. He and his staff all serve at the pleasure of a group of powerful men who are his father's minions, not his own. He is aware of this, accutely. I think he feels the noose tightening. These men are not amused by the antics of the child-king, and he knows it.

These leaks are out there so aWol can't react the way Jim Baker knows he will try to. These leaks are happening not because Jim Baker feels we have a right to know a god-damned thing (he doesn't) but because they are the only way to bring this beast of an administration to heel. The only way he can be stopped is by the people and the new congress. This is certainly not setting well with Jim Baker, who is not a modest individual; but he is at least as shrewd as he is arrogant. the citizenry is a useful tool at some times and an obstacle at others. Right now, he finds us useful.

Fine. I'll gladly fill that role by demanding accountability and making my voice heard about this. Of course, I will be demanding accountability and making my voice heard in the future, too, when these same people who now find me useful will find me once more an obstacle. Two edged sword, ain't it?

Shenanigans!!!

From Sunday's Washington Post, and buried about half way through the article:

While [James] Baker has been testing the waters for some time to determine how much change in Iraq policy will be tolerated by the White House, [former Democratic Rep. Lee] Hamilton perhaps faces the now even-more-difficult challenge of cajoling Democrats such as former Clinton administration chief of staff Leon E. Panetta and power broker Vernon E. Jordan Jr. to sign on to a plan that falls short of a phased troop withdrawal, the position of many congressional Democrats.(emphasis mine)

I smell a trap. This is George Bush's failed adventure, and George Bush's alone. The Iraq Study Group (ISG) is headed up by James Baker III, Bush family consigliere. This looks to me to be a trap to shift some of the title to ownership of this swamp to the Democratic party.

Did anyone else want to scream when they read this line: How much change in policy the White House will tolerate? Excuse me? These clowns have no choice in the matter. They fucked up an entire region of the globe that has significant economic importance to the entire world. They destabilized the entire middle east. They overextended the military and they have broken the National Guard. Had we experienced a hurricane of Katrina magnitude this year, that point would have been illustrated very well. But instead of telling hard truths, the family fixer will tell the closest version of the truth he thinks the pretzlenut can abide. Jesus Christ on a cracker.

No, I say let them come up with their own zany scheme. They own this pig, not us.