Bush Going Downhill Fast

Paging Rosemary Woods

Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal features an 18 1/2 minute gap in a crucial secretly-made White House tape recording. Nixon aides tried to pin the wiped out conversation on a "transcription error" by his secretary of 20 years, Rose Mary Woods. Evidence showed that eight separate erasures were made to the pivotal tape. Congressional investigations intothe Watergate break-in and cover-up created a crescendo of public disapproval that resulted in GOP leaders forcing Nixon out the door--the first person ever to resign the presidency.

Now, Bush has his own version of the Rosemary Woods incident: the dog ate my email.

Officials' e-mail may be missing, White House says

By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON -- The White House said today that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.

The e-mails were considered potentially critical evidence in congressional inquiries launched by Democrats into the role partisan politics may have played in such policy decisions as the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

The White House said an effort was underway to see whether the messages could be recovered from the computer system, which was operated and paid for by the Republican National Committee as part of an effort to separate political communications from those dealing with official business.

If that's not bad enough, even the generals don't want to run Bush's wars.

3 Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'

Bush Seeks Overseer For Iraq, Afghanistan

By Peter Baker and Thomas Ricks, Washington Post

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job.