From Paul Kiel:
Q Does the President ever get tired of having to express his full confidence in the people around him these days?
MS. PERINO: When you’re President of the United States and you have this many folks that you are employing, it’s a pretty small number that he’s had to express full confidence in. All of us who serve at the pleasure of the President, if the moment he doesn’t have full confidence in you, you no longer work for him. And we all take that very seriously.
Why can’t we talk about the Bush officials who haven’t provoked a public outcry?
RSA
I love the euphemism for being a total fuckup–forcing the President to “express full confidence” in you. I’ll have to try it myself: “If you don’t straighten yourself out, I’m going to have to express full confidence in you.”
Bubblegum Tate
Man, they really love to say the phrase “at the pleasure of the president.” I know they’ve taken adherence to talking points to a completely ridiculous level, but criminy.
Dreggas
But wait at least with bush they serve AT the pleasure of the president rather than those in the Clinton Whitehouse who served FOR the pleasure of the president!!
Zifnab
Hehe. “We’ve had so many, many, many incompetent people working in this administration. I mean, really, this whole ‘expressing full confidence’ thing hasn’t been nearly the issue it appears to be. Just look at all the fuck-ups Gonzales hired who have been dragging him down. I don’t feel the need to express confidence in any of those sorry saps in the least.”
Tom Hilton
Satire is impossible. I had to click all the way through to whitehouse.gov just to make sure this wasn’t a very clever (and fairly subtle) bit of political humor.
Sam Hutcheson
Man, they really love to say the phrase “at the pleasure of the president.” I know they’ve taken adherence to talking points to a completely ridiculous level, but criminy.
We should all at least note in passing the monarchical underpinnings of that turn of phrase, too. “At the pleasuer of the President” is directly descended from “At the pleasure of the King.”
tBone
It goes both ways. 28% of the population also expresses full confidence in the President.
Rome Again
Gee, I thought it was the people of the United States who were employing these people, not the President himself. Well, well, when she puts it that way, perhaps HE should pay their fucking salaries.
The Kid
Dregass
You chumps still harping on Monica Lewinsky? Is that all you have left? Oh, wait…yeah, it is.
In the future, name yourself Drag Ass if you’re gonna keep posting lame talking points like that.
Pb
Because if we did that, we might provoke a public outcry…
Pb
You’re doin’ a heckuva job, RSA!
Dreggas
You’re new here aren’t you?
geez it should have been clear it was snark without a forewarning.
tBone
Oval Office fellatio and intern-humidors helped destroy the moral fabric of this country, moonbat. 9-11, Katrina, Dick Cheney shooting a guy in the face . . . every bad thing that’s happened in the last 7 years can be laid directly at the feet of William Jefferson Clinton.
Thank goodness the American people wised up and chose not to elect him to another term.
Pb
Don’t worry, there’s still enough to go around…
tBone
Are you kidding? You can’t throw a rock in the blogosphere without hitting a wingnut who says stuff exactly like that. They’re approaching the point of being completely parody-proof.
It’s hard out here for a spoof.
srv
Let it be a permanent stain on his persona.
Dreggas
When he tryin to get this laugh for the rant
Pb
Cue White ‘n’ Nerdy video…
Dug Jay
There is great news for those who like their talk radio tough and to the far right. MSNBC has announced that they will start telecasting Philly-area talk jock, Mike Smerconish in the old Don Imus time slot. He’s sort of like an angry but funny Michael Savage. Set your TIVO’s and start watching.
Punchy
Smerconish doesn’t last 6 months. The guy’s a washed-up blowhard, who fills in for O’Rielly on occasion. About zero chance that Imus’ old audience tunes into this cracker.
p.lukasiak
I think you need to aim higher
p.lukasiak
the people of Philadelphia would prefer if you would refer to him as “nationally syndicated” rather than “Philly-area”.
thank you
tBone
A show for people who don’t think Michael Savage is angry enough? Funny, I didn’t think advertisers were that interested in the purple-stretch-pants-wearing, gamma-irradiated scientist demographic.
Dreggas
I’m pretty fly for a white guy :P
edmund dantes
It really is a shame when the Onion, the Daily Show, and Colbert are no longer satire. I don’t know how you spoofs do it. These guys are making themselves almost spoof proof.
Pb
We live in an age where The Onion is prophecy, The Daily Show is cutting-edge journalism, and The Colbert Report is prescient social commentary.
Dreggas
It’s not hard really. It’s kind of like how Jeff Foxworthy can make up so many redneck jokes, intimate knowledge of the subject matter. For instance growing up in a small town dominated principally by those who attended a baptist church and those who attended a fundie church (along with the tokens aka Catholics, Methodists and Presbyterians) it’s not hard to sound like any of them.
Couple that with the past 6 years of near constant exposure to the subject matter via the intertubes it becomes even easier.
Dreggas
and even the Purgegate can be tied to Clinton, how much ya wanna bet that “Goodling” isn’t Monica’s last name…
tBone
What else would you expect from the greatest living American?
jake
Statements like this make me understand why some people call it The Bush Crime Family. “I’m very sorry my friend, but you have lost the trust of Mr. President.”
Next stop, a prolonged vacation on the bottom of Potomac.
On an entirely different note, has Perrino always been this incoherent or is she cracking up?
Rome Again
I only watched her once, and she appeared to be out of her league. I’m hoping she’ll be the open galley window below deck that sinks this ship.
Slugger
Can we talk seriously about this ” pleasure of the President ” business? When people take an important job in the government doesn’t their oath of office pledge fidelty to the constitution and the people of the United States? Is not G. Bush a temporary office holder? Is this fealty to him more like a monarchy or more like a mafia family?
Rome Again
Finally someone else picked up on this… only took about 5 hours.
merlallen
Dragass, that was kind of funny. Now go serve at bush’s pleasure. I’m sure you’d like that.
jake
I’m sticking to the mafia family analogy, although there seems to be some conflation of leader and country going on (as with many monarchs) so it may well be that to this lot there is no difference between upholding and defending the president and doing the same for the Constitution except the pResident is just one person and the Constitution is a whole lotta really hard words and concepts.
I find it interesting that Perino implies that no one in this Administration expects to stick around after the next election. But that’s assuming she knows what she’s talking about and isn’t just letting her mouth run. She does not sound a well puppy.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
Are there any, at this point?
Well, maybe if you count Bush I, or some of the people who quit after 2004, maybe you could find some. Maybe.
Gus
I never thought I’d say this, but I miss Tony Snow. Of course I never thought I’d say I miss Ari Fleischer either until Scotty Flopsweat took over.
nytexan
I think that’s the only thing Bush can remember without screwing up.