Bush Hypmotizes Zombie Audience

The new kid on the block has been busy doing actual work Thursday and Friday but is now easing back into the saddle. So what has been happening for the last couple of days? Our Preznit convened and adjourned a Conference on the Economy where he could trot out one of his "regular folks". We now know his brand of "regular folk" was nothing more than a shill for the administration. Well, ok, a zombie.

But Ms. Jaques is not any random single mother. She is the Iowa state director of a conservative advocacy group, FreedomWorks, whose founders are Jack F. Kemp, the former vice-presidential nominee, and Dick Armey, the former House Republican leader.

Ms. Jaques also spent much of the past two years as a spokeswoman in Iowa for a group called For Our Grandchildren, which is mounting a nationwide campaign for private savings accounts.

But we shouldn't assume that just because the administration isn't beyond misleading us with one of its regular folks, that King George wouldn't have something meaningful to say, should we?

"What I'm saying is we're going to submit a tough budget," Mr. Bush said, setting the stage for a new budget that holds down the growth of domestic spending. "And I look forward to working with Congress on the tough budget."

Well, I guess we should. Man, he has this down.

Zombie response: "yes master you submit tough budget...you look forward to work with Congress..."

Mr. Bush said his administration would "send a message not only to the American people that we're here for the right reason, but we'll send a message to the financial markets that we recognize we have an issue with both short-term deficits and the long-term deficits of unfunded liabilities to the entitlement programs."

Zombie response: "you are here for right reason...fiancial markets will listen...entitlement programs bad..."

Has one person ever said so much and so little at the same time? The man has no idea why he is proposing privatizing Social Security, other than that there are actuarial problems in paying full benefits out in the future. For him it is an opportunity to ruin Social Security because it is a government program. He is a slave to private enterprise though he knows nothing more of it than he had the incredible good luck to have wealthy benefactors bail his sorry ass out of some tight spots when he was in "private enterprise".

The chimp doesn't drive the debate, he takes what Rove gives him and spouts a few lines. He couldn't give us more than a few parroted talking points that Rove and Bartlett have drilled into his pea brain so that when he goes out on stage he can look like he is in charge. Off script is a dangerous place to be for this schlemiel, as some of these quotes show, and beg the question: what is a "tough budget"?