Cheap and sophomoric (and it feels so good)

Bush Is Expected to Address Specifics on Iraq

White House officials acknowledged yesterday that the public's gloomy near-psychotic mood about the Iraq war is starting to forcing President Bush to take a more assertive and public role to reassure nervous Americans and Republican lawmakers about the White House plan for victory freak them out.

Bush had hoped the successful January elections in Iraq would boost the popularity of the conflict and allow him to distance himself from it would allow him to forget all about the war. But his aides have concluded that recent events in Iraq -- bombings, deaths, bombings, deaths, fragging, deaths -- have contributed to an erosion in support for the president and that he needs to shift strategies for God's sake he needs to appear to be doing something. Bush's new approach will be mostly rhetorical bullshit, however, as the White House does not plan any changes. to the policy or time frame for bringing home the 140,000 U.S. troops, as some lawmakers are demanding.



Bush, who had hoped to spend this summer focusing on Social Security peddling his bike and playing with Barney and Miss Beazley at his Crawford ranch, is instead being forced to defend his economic record and war policies in the face of growing uneasiness among the public and Republicans in Congress. everything he has ever done as president. His poll numbers on his handling of Iraq have dropped to all-time lows totally crapped out, as numerous lawmakers, including some Republicans, have accused him of not offering honest assessments about as Americans are figuring out the strength of the insurgency and the slow pace of training battle-ready Iraqi forces.

"The war has gone on longer and more violently than people envisioned," Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said. "Whoddathunkit?"

[With apologies to Jim VandeHei and the Washington Post]