WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!

"It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time." - Abraham Lincoln

How ironic that a Republican President should coin a phrase that so completely and undeniably defines an administration that for five years has been running the same old sorry tale up the patriotic flag pole, hoping enough people will salute it. But 2005 was the year that saw the veil of deceit that has plagued this White House come unraveled.

Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Harriet Miers, Scooter Libby, have all contributed to the demise of President Bush's approval rating, which now stands at an all-time low of 37%. Worse for this president, the job-approval rating for Congress has fallen to 29%. Polls show that 68% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country; the most negative assessment in nearly a decade. If the recent elections, in which Democrat Tim Kaine beat Republican Jerry Kilgore in heavily Republican Virginia and Democrats seized power in Suffolk County for the first time since native Americans were the dominant culture, are any indication of a sign of the times than 2006 may well become this president's Waterloo.

As someone once said, "It couldn't happen to a nicer or more deserving fellow." And still, this President persists in using his political shovel to cover up his own inadequacies. At a Veterans Day speech in front of veterans, Bush lashed out at his critics accusing them of trying to rewrite history and charged that they’re undercutting America’s forces on the front lines.

Sad how a president who has done nothing but rewrite history for his own intentions should accuse others of doing so, but finally, at last, his words appear to be falling on deaf ears. Even Republicans who supported him in years past are questioning his judgment. Senator Chuck Hagel (Rep-Nebraska) has, along with leading Democrats, been pressing the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to move forward with an investigation into whether the administration manipulated intelligence. Others within his own party appear to be distancing themselves from Bush, worried about their own necks when they run for reelection in '06.

The nomination of Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court - an obvious choice to mollify the extreme right flank of his party - will no doubt be the subject of much heated debate when Congress reconvenes in January. That Bush did not get the nomination hearings in November, as he originally wanted, was a setback. In deed this president may be in for quite a few setbacks in the remaining years of his term. And all of them his own doing.

Of all the sayings I have come to learn there is one, which in this case couldn't be better indicative of George Bush, "Pride goeth before a fall." The arrogance of this president and his persistence in his own infallibility may well spell the political epitaph of an administration that, to quote a local sports caster, "stole defeat from the jaws of victory."