Bush deals....and how!

President Bush is rushing to make some kind of terms with the New Order in Washington. He has very little choice...not if he wants to save his hide and retire back in Crawford. And it might not even work, at that.

His press conference yesterday was just the opening salvo. He all but said that he's prepared to go along with the Democrats on just about anything...tax hikes, minimum wage hikes, and especially an amnesty bill for illegal aliens. Ah, the president certainly brightened up on that one! Now that the Republicans in the House are gone, largely because of their loyalty to President Bush in spite of his total mismanagement of what he called his `political capital' there's nothing stopping it.

They may call it "immigration reform" but it will be amnesty.

Rumsfeld is only the first victim Bush is prepared to throw under a bus. Whatever one thinks of Rumsfeld's tenure as Secretary of Defense, he was, above all, someone who carried out the President's policies and wishes. Only a month ago, President Bush was assuring the nation that Rumsfeld would be there until the end of his presidency.

It's obvious that Bush had this planned for some time, perhaps even without Rumsfeld's knowledge. And the fact that Bush had a nominee all ready to announce as soon as the election results were in proves it.

Another thing that's obvious is that this was a sop to the Democrats, a sacrificial offering. If Bush really planned to dump Secretary Rumsfeld prior to the election, he could have done so, and used the occasion to signify a policy change on Iraq. It might just have saved a few House and Senate seats had he done so. To axe Secretary Rumsfeld in this fashion, the day after the election was an extraordinarily selfish and self-serving decision.

Unfortunately for President Bush, this is only going to whet the Left's appetite. They've been baying for the heads of Rumsfeld, Cheney, Condaleeza Rice and yes, George W. Bush for 6 years now. And they're unlikely to be sated with just Rumsfeld. And the votes exist now to go after them.

Will the new Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi do anything to control the deluge of subpoenas, writs and investigations? Will she be able to control the likes of John Conyers and Henry Waxman? Who knows? But keep in mind that the only thing standing between Nancy Pelosi and the presidency is Dick Cheney and George W. Bush.

Aside from the probable embroiling of the government in witch hunting and prosecutions, we can count on a major curtailing of the few things Bush has done right in the War on Jihad, like the NSA surveillance and the Patriot Act.

The committee chairmanships are going to be in the hands of long term old line Lefties who date from the days of Watergate and the anti-Vietnam protests. ..and just today, the new Speaker made a point of saying that anyone who went along with the administration in the slightest, like Jane Harmon,senior Democrat in the House Intelligence Committee was out on their ear when it came to any committee chairmanships.

And what's more, the president is obviously prepared to go along with it.

This is the same George W. Bush who made a point of telling the nation during the campaign that he was convinced that if the Democrats won power, that what he still calls the `war on terror' would suffer a setback. Bush totally reneged on that in his press conference. He said, essentially `Hey, I was just kidding....people say things on campaigns.'

What Bush is after, at this point - and at any price- is to finish out his two years, get out of Dodge and go home to Crawford with an approval rating that is above the thirties. He may just make it if he's lucky, based on the sympathetic noises the MSM was making during his press conference. And, as we know,President Bush is noted for trying to be all things to all people.

When I think back to 2004, when the American people gave President Bush a chance, in spite of the obvious shortcomings to get things right and see how he successfully turned gold into excrement, I can only shake my head in disappointment.

However, as I said yesterday, this is not a time to despair. It's a time to build, to consolidate, to return to first principles and keep our eyes open.

If I see things correctly, the next round is not very far off..nor is the leadership we will need to preserve our Republic and lead America to victory.

Depend on it.