Since conversion porn is pretty much our bread and butter here at Balloon Juice, it seems mandatory to point out that Bush uber supporter Matthew Dowd just had his official come to Jesus moment. Dowd’s complaints run the usual gamut of mismanaged war, hanging on to Rumsfeld after abu Ghraib and other screwups that would offend any red-blooded conservative. The strange part is that Dowd is not a red-blooded conservative but an ostensible Democrat, making his priorities seem somewhat skewed. Backing one of the most ideologically lockstep and nakedly partisan administrations in history barely registered as an issue:
He said that during his work on the 2006 re-election campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, which had a bipartisan appeal, he began to rethink his approach to elections.
“I think we should design campaigns that appeal not to 51 percent of the people,” he said, “but bring the country together as a whole.”
For an administration that governs for and only for its voting “base” that essentially means that for six years Dowd had no problem with the idea of governing for 51% of the people. The other 49% includes Dowd. It would be hard to find a better definition of quisling.
Finally, food for cynics:
In the last several years, as he has gradually broken his ties with the Bush camp, one of Mr. Dowd’s premature twin daughters died, he was divorced, and he watched his oldest son prepare for deployment to Iraq as an Army intelligence specialist fluent in Arabic. Mr. Dowd said he had become so disillusioned with the war that he had considered joining street demonstrations against it, but that his continued personal affection for the president had kept him from joining protests whose anti-Bush fervor is so central.
My ungenerous side wonders about the coincidence between Mr. Dowd watching his son ship to Iraq and his flagrant flip-flop from the Bush position to John Kerry’s. How far do you have to go into the suburbs of the Bush circle before you find people with a real stake in the Iraq war? I’m sure that commenters will name a few, but I doubt that the list will run very long.
No doubt it’s just a coincidence.
***Update***
Ready for another hit? Bush family friend and staunch Republican Vic Gold discusses his new book:
“For all the Rove-built facade of his being a ‘strong’ chief executive, George W. Bush has been, by comparison to even hapless Jimmy Carter, the weakest, most out of touch president in modern times,” Gold writes. “Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots.”
We both know that you’re going to read the whole thing.
***Update 2***
Steve Benen on Vic Gold:
First, it’ll be interesting to see how Bush’s followers manage to smear a long-time GOP insider.
Ha ha. You must be new here.
demimondian
I’m not going to try to judge Dowd’s sincerity yet. Twice-turned agents are notoriously unreliable; it’s hard to know whether such a man believes anything or nothing. Is he just ambitious, or was he confused about what he wanted? Or was he confused about how best to achieve what he wanted?
My guess is some combination of the three. If so, how well he’s learned from his history will only play out over time, and we’ll just need to let events play out.
rachel
Looks like Dowd is getting an inkling that he maybe, kind’ve, could’ve been a dope. Maybe when the full horror of what he’s lent himself to dawns on him, he’ll join a monastery and take a vow of silence. I can think of several so-called pundits who I’d like to see do that.
Punchy
WTF does this mean?
Otto Man
Everything’s fine in Iraq. For God’s sake, McCain and Graham just went for a peaceful stroll to a marketplace! Nobody but them, 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, and 2 Apache gunships. Just like you or I would do on our way to the store.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
So let me see: Dowd was a Democrat strategist when the Democrats were winning, then when Clinton lost popularity and the Republicans were ascendant, he became a Republican strategist, and now that the Democrats won the last election, he’s on the way to becoming a Democrat strategist again.
Wow, it’s almost like (and I’m sure this just escaped the notice of the fawning New York Times “reporter”) his convictions swing to whoever can offer him the best job for the next election! Thanks for the heartwarming PR-cover story of an opportunistic Washington insider painted as a heartrending “Road to Damascus” tale, Times!
Seriously, how gullible and naive do they think
weyou are?Tim F.
Think about that tingly feeling that you get when a Republican renounces his party. Remember Dilulio? For another example, let’s say John Cole. Also known as the most surefire diary recipe at Kos. That’s what I’m talking about.
28 Percent
It is a shame, it is like Rush said there are elections at stake it would be nice to stand on prinicpal but where does that get you? A win for DemonocRats that is where. And with so much at stake it is a shame that people do not understand.
It is so important to watch your opinion and vote right but so many people vote wrong they do not understand what is at stake. Like the people who are voting for Sanjaya. They do not appreciate that freedom isn’t free and that our soldiers are serving over sees for AMERICA and FREEDOM not so that stupid people can vote in whatever they want for whoever they want for any reason they want. Liberals are so irresponsible it just makes me sick.
Face
Wow..only FIVE posts until we got the ubiquitous “Clinton is involved, too” meme.
Rome Again
Which “Road to Damascus” tale? There are two.
Mr Furious
Fuck Dowd and the horse he rode into DC.
(He had to ride it because Bush was afraid.)
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
Of course, you didn’t get the point. Sorry to impose historical context on a blog that caters to the know-nothing set. I’ll try not to do it again.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
The Hope-Crosby one?
Chad N. Freude
Excellent.
Jake
Get thee to some damn Al-Anon meetings. Really, it sounds like the guy hit some sort of bottom and realized Bush43 (TM) was a hassle he didn’t need. All very well and good, but one of the hazards of screwing people over on behalf of your BFF is they tend to spit when you apologize. Dowd’s next steps will tell me a lot more than his inital mea culpa.
Chad N. Freude
So 28 percent gets his Limbaugh quote from ThinkProgress.com. The result of checking to see what the enemy is up to or a slip of the spoof mask?
Re Limbaugh:
The man’s faith in democracy and the wisdom of self-government fills me with awe. Make that Shock and Awe.
This, of course, shows the rationale underlying the Bush implementation of the philosophy of that great Italian political philosopher whose name begins with M (I refer of course to Mussolini): The people are too stupid to understand how to govern themselves, so I’ll do it for them.
Chad N. Freude
Ooops. Should have been ThinkProgress.org.
Tom Hilton
I can’t help being a little cynical about Dowd’s conversion (sure, when his kid is on the line it’s time to end the war), and more than a little bitter about its timing (woulda been nice if you were on the right side when it fricking mattered, buddy), but I suppose I’m still glad whenever anyone sees the light.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
You moonbats love to trash Bush, yet when Clinton relinquished his office to him rather than keeping power indefinitely, you were all for it! Typical of you dishonest leftist scumbags to forget how much you forgave Clinton for the sins you heap upon Bush.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
As long as he doesn’t back some other jackass in 2012 or whenever, I’m okay with him.
Tsulagi
Like Flipper Romney?
We’ll see in the primaries.
bored
Poor guy goes out with a notorious date-rapist, wakes up the day after the date, and finds out he has been raped.
Can you believe it? Isn’t it shocking?
Here’s a Democrat who goes out on a date with the Republican Party, which has made it clear repeatedly, as its official policy, that bipartisanship means date rape. And he wakes up six years later in severe pain.
Meanwhile, for the previous six years he had been enthusiastically raping Democrats himself, helping to run the ugliest, most un-American presidential campaigns in history. Cashing in on the success of one election stolen in Florida, and one probably corrupted in Ohio.
Man, do I feel sorry for him. Yeah, now he’d just like the world to be a more gentle place.
Look, pal–you will never find me saying that a woman who got raped asked for it.
But you, you scum?
You asked for it.
scarshapedstar
–fixed
DougJ
You guys are slipping. Someone should have mentioned that Dowd must have a book to sell within the first ten comments.
I go away for a while and the place falls apart.
Ellison, Ellensburg, Ellers, and Lambchop
He’s being generous. I put over 90% of Americans in the “idiot” category.
Love,
Michael Moore
Tim F.
You go, man. Clutch those pearls.