Puppets and failures = Dubya

Let’s play a 2007 version of "Jeopardy." The answers are: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob Smith, George W. Bush and Karl Rove, Kermit the Frog and Jim Henson, George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, and Lambchop and Shari Lewis.

Of course the question is: Who are some of the more famous puppets and their masters in the past 50 years? A puppet, by definition, requires another’s help to accomplish anything. On its own a puppet is doomed to failure by inaction.

Well, George W. Bush has plenty of failures on his resume due to action, inaction, lies, and bone-headed decisions. He invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to overthrow the Taliban yet they are now stronger than ever and we are still there. In March 2003 he invaded Iraq based on weapons of mass destruction being present but no weapons were found, we are still there, and over 3,100 of our family members are dead. Osama Bin Laden is still a free man and thousands of Katrina victims have not gotten the support and aid he promised.

Bush was the CEO of at least 3 oil companies all of which lost money on his watch. Think about that feat! No Child Left Behind has failed and many state legislatures have just said "No" to following its mandates. He wanted to privatize Social Security but couldn’t even with a Senate and House dominated by his cronies. Bill Clinton left a budget surplus and Bush has the USA in the greatest deficit of any county in the history of the world! In 2002 he proposed a Clear Skies Initiative and again failed to win support. He has asked Congress to grant 12 million illegal aliens legal status at our expense. In 2001 he withdrew US support of the Kyoto Protocol the purpose of which was to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and thus impact global warming.

To be fair though Bush has accomplished the following: a DUI conviction, avoidance of Vietnam in 1968, membership in the Skull and Bones at Yale also known as the Brotherhood of Death, and approved the execution of 152 people while the Governor of Texas. "Thou shall not kill" is the 5th commandment that Bush quotes when talking about stem cell research and being against abortion but conveniently ignores when putting people to death.

One other accomplishment we should not forget is Bush’s political shrewdness. He declares himself a Christian but in 1988 he went to Washington with Lee Atwater and Doug Wead. Their purpose was devise strategy to delude and use conservative Christians and evangelicals into believing that only Republicans were good enough to hold elective office. I guess it worked pretty well for too long a time.