Faustian Bargains & The Bush Family

Sidney Blumenthal, brilliant as ever, explains how its pretty much over for the Bush presidency:

A sharp reversal of policy and turnover in personnel are the only actions that may enable Bush to salvage the shipwreck of his presidency, as they did for Reagan. But bringing in the elders, even if they could be summoned, would be psychologically devastating to Bush, a humiliating admission that his long history of recklessness and failure, from the Texas Air National Guard to Harken Energy, with rescue only through the intervention of his father and his father's friends, has reached its culmination.

Recounting their rise to power, i.e., Bush Sr. as well as Jr. (not to forget Prescott Bush and his affiliation with the Nazis), Blumenthal cites the proverbial Faustian Bargain, defined by Bartleby thusly:

(FOW-stee-uhn) Faust, in the legend, traded his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge. To “strike a Faustian bargain” is to be willing to sacrifice anything to satisfy a limitless desire for knowledge or power.

In Dubya's case, 1 outta 2 ain't bad: Never having achieved "knowledge," he's finding the "power" he did obtain ebbing by the day. Meanwhile the irony of his shovelling Jesus 24/7, while personifying the devil's work in the form of his and his family's obvious misanthropy, I find fascinating as well as repugnant and very very scary.

And a Happy Halloween to you2... !!