The President's abrupt dismissal of CIA Directory George Tenet Wednesday night is, aides say, an example of how he works.
"Tenet wanted to quit last year but the President got his back up and�wouldn't hear of it," says an aide.�"That would have been the opportune time to make a change, not in the middle of an election campaign but when the director challenged the President during the meeting Wednesday, the President cut him off by saying 'that's it George. I cannot abide disloyalty. I want your resignation and I want it now."
Tenet was allowed to resign "voluntarily" and Bush informed his shocked staff of the decision Thursday morning. One aide says the President actually described the decision as "God's will."
God may also be the reason Attorney General John Ashcroft, the administration�s lightning rod because of his questionable actions that critics argue threatens freedoms granted by the Constitution, remains part of the power elite. West Wing staffers call Bush and Ashcroft �the Blues Brothers� because �they�re on a mission from God.�
�The Attorney General is tight with the President because of religion,� says one aide. �They both believe any action is justifiable in the name of God.�
But the President who says he rules at the behest of God can also tongue-lash those he perceives as disloyal, calling them �fucking assholes� in front of other staff, berating one cabinet official in front of others and labeling anyone who disagrees with him �unpatriotic� or �anti-American.�
�The mood here is that we�re under siege, there�s no doubt about it,� says one troubled aide who admits he is looking for work elsewhere. �In this administration, you don�t have to wear a turban or speak Farsi to be an enemy of the United States. All you have to do is disagree with the President.�
I can't picture George W. Bush putting the words "I cannot abide disloyalty" together. That's just not the way he talks. Plus, the reliance on anonymous sources puts a nasty, David Brock-esque taint on the whole thing. Still, it's pretty juicy, ain't it?
(Never mind that other headline on the Web page: Prominent DC Shrink Diagnoses Bush to be a Paranoid, Sadistic Meglomaniac.)
1 comment:
I'm still not sure whether I trust it. It does have elements of truth in it — judging from articles in well-respected publications, Colin Powell has definitely been shut out of the loop; I've read reports of Bush castigating people who displease him and calling them "assholes" as far back as his 2000 campaign; he is reported to have said, "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East."
As to calling Democrats "enemies of the state", I certainly hope that's not true. Given the abysmal acrimony between political parties these days, though, I can't quite dismiss it out of hand.
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