Former Bush Aides 'Embittered' At Presidency They Helped Build

The White House under the best of circumstances is a pressure cooker that burns out its denizens in short order. Presidential aides arrive at 6 or 6:30 a.m. and do not leave until 8 at night or sometimes later. Even then, they remain tethered to the job through always-buzzing mobile telephones and BlackBerries.

The messages crossing those BlackBerries have been relentlessly negative the last few years. And some have grown embittered at what has become of the presidency they helped build. A key Bush reelection strategist has disavowed him, his former U.N. ambassador has become a vocal critic of key policies, his former defense secretary says he does not miss him, his former speechwriter wrote a harsh takedown of another top aide.

One former senior official said nearly everyone who has left the administration is angry in some way or another -- at the president for making bad decisions, at his staff for misguiding him, at events that have spiraled out of control. Others called that an exaggeration. Either way, interviews with a dozen top aides who left in recent months reveal a profound sense of ambivalence about the ultimate outcome of their work beyond toppling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

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Comments

[GenericBlogger]

My sympathy for the low rank embittered former staff is limited and non-existent for the senior embittered former staff because they knew what was going on or had some idea. Not all of them were in a vacuum.

They served at the pleasure of the President but they should have kept in mind how many of the public were and are affected by their inactions or incorrect actions.

Let them lose sleep, get ulcers or whatever. It's a learning experience for them and those who are still in Dubya's administration.

[thelonegunman]

fuck them. they enabled this fascist in his rise to power and now they're afraid of blowback considering how his "legacy" is shaping up: the worst president ever.

i don't listen to ANY of the bush enablers - and they sit on both sides of the political spectrum. the Dames as well as the Repigs share the blame in their creation of the fascist imperialist corporatocracy they've created.

both should be summarily voted out of office.

we need to start over to undo the damage done to our rights, our constitution, and our country's image.

[avejoe]

The present Bush presidency is simialr to a house built on a shakey foundation; nothing will be "true" or exactly right because it is based on a untrue. He did not receive the most votes the first go around. That feeling must prevail in all roots of his term from the "boy who would be king" to the lowest pawn, they know in their hearts they don't belong and all they do will be looked upon an as scam.

[paixa3]

You would think it does not take much effort to invade countries, spy on a country's citizens, leave children behind and in general, be EVIL.

[tomcat27834]

an aide says "I wish the dreams would end." GWBush has stated that he had know problem sleeping at night: pleasant dreams GW, pleasant dreams....­...

[ProgressiveChange]

Conversely had the Fourth Reich been embraced and successful, the species would all still be there.

Everything they did turned to drek. Everyone they touched was worse for it. It will take generations to repair their damage and some of what they did is irreparable. The lives they destroyed is incalculable.

There are more where they came from ... if Americans remain in the same zone they were when they enabled this gang, humanity as we know it will be destroyed by climate change and/or nuclear war.

[bythePeopleforthePeople]

All these folks bought into the politics of hate and divide. This country is so polarized because of this admin and their cronies...­...I hope they never sleep again.....

[JMorgan]

If it was 1945, they'd be in the bunker with Hitler swallowing cyanide or being held in Nuremberg waiting to be tried for war crimes.

They just don't get it.

[plummaddie]

A day late and a dollar short!

[dax49]

what a shame- they helped to trash this country, and now they are bitter.

[marko77]

Ex-bush aides are embittered? Well, if they possess even half a brain and the tiniest sliver of a heart,they're going to feel awful for helping to ruin our country. What's shocking is all the neo-cons who happily continue on with smiles on their faces.

[acudoc]

Well, at least they have the opportunity now to get real jobs and become productive members of society, earning honest money that will be taxed to support the legion of colleagues they leave behind. They chose partisanship and cronyism over patriotism and they don't even know it. Bozos, all of them!

[neogejo]

As well they should be.
But they should all take part of the blame. They let this administration get out of hand. They allowed Bush to have a free hand at chipping away our Constitutional rights.
When they were all there getting their favors cashed in they sat dumbly on the sidelines. Now they are embittered. Too late, you schmucks.

[dawlishgal]

The gullible suckers who voted for Bush because he pulled their racist, homophobic, crackpot religious and/or selfishness strings ought to be forced to take their share of the blame. Didn't it occur to ANY of them that a guy who burns fraternity pledges with a redhot coathanger, cheats taxpayers and land owners in a rotten stadium deal, and sends his minions out to lie about the parentage of an adopted child is maybe, just maybe, not the best choice to be president of a formerly great country during a time of great crisis?

[loki]

No matter how big of an idiot Bush was, or how many of people who know him, have come to hate him, or how much death and destruction he has caused, I am willing to bet that republicans will hailed George as much as Reagan is amongst them.
Its not so much what the President has done, its how he can be portrayed. Its all about the spin people. And we Americans are gullible and frothing at the mouth to be fed as much shit as they can dish out to us.

[Justinpassing]

I'm pretty sure there will be room at the Hague for each and everyone of them.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

I hope you are right. These people have nerve. They new this guy personally and still helped him maintain this lie. I can forgive people who voted for bush because they really didn't know who this liar was but not those people close to him that are now bitter. As far as am concerned they have dead soldiers blood on their hands along with liar-in-chief, and the vice president.

[factanonverba]

They've undone the Constitution in a scant seven years. hey should be so proud. And it is not every Administration that gets to lose an American city. Madison lost Washington to the British but hey you lost one to a storm.
If these officials are truly upset at the outcome of their efforts, then I would hope that they are feverishly working to undo the legacy of a madman.

[sassafra]

sure th' shrub and the neocons are the prime movers of this constitutional disaster, but it can also at this point be honestly said that the democrats , taken as a whole, could put a stop to the madness but lack the cojones to do it.
impeachment must be put back on the table, and a concerted effort to either resubmit vetoed bills unchanged, or pelosi finding the gumption to stall unpalitable appropriations bills as a means to deny funding for the presidents nightmare agenda.
the democrats simply must get over their fear of playing hardball with a sunk in the polls, lame duck executive.