The Dwarf Presidency

Astronomers have downgraded Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. Does this mean that the Bush administration is a dwarf presidency?

In fact, the Bush administration has shrunk so much politically that its moons are no longer in orbit. At their height immediately after the 2004 election, President Bush was the center of a sprawling political apparatus that included his political operation, K Street lobbying groups, conservative think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute, right-wing talk radio, and the religious right.

The links between the Bush administration and the conservative apparatus started loosening as a result of Bush's declining popularity. However, with the failure of Israel's attack on Lebanon, the Bush planetary system began to break up. Conservative think tanks and radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham have started talking about the "failure" of the Bush administration and begun to set their own right-wing agendas of bigger, better wars. The FDA decision to allow Plan B contraceptives to be sold over the counter indicates that the Bush administration is no longer master of its own domain as well.

Now, it might be better to think of the Bush administration as part of a right-wing asteroid belt rather than a presidency. Like the James Buchanan and Herbert Hoover administrations, Bush is beginning to look more like Ceres and Pluto than Jupiter or Saturn.