Let's start with the firing of the US attorneys. Contrary to what the Petulant Playground President would have us believe, at least some of them were obviously fired for political reasons. And in this case the Bush White House is so obviously involved and was so obviously partisan when it should not have been that even the master prevaricators currently running 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are afraid to testify under oath, or even with a transcript, about their activities. You can read all about it at TalkingPointsMemo.com . If they had been caught lying and cheating like this in my elementary school the principal would have given them a good spanking and held a scary come-to-Jesus conference with their parents. And he would have instructed all the staff to watch the whole gang like a hawk. In my elementary school that would have been the last time they tried to blame others for their own obvious wrongdoing.

But it doesn't end there. Contrary to the will of the American people (link ) and contrary to the advice of a commission (link ) many of us (wrongly!) thought that even a president as petulant as this one would not ignore, Mr. Bush refuses to accept any limitations whatsoever on the Iraq War. He seems to think that a win in Iraq would rescue both his political party and his presidential reputation. But whatever his motives might be, his statements about timetables are obviously politically motivated. How do I know this? Because when it was a Democratic President with a war on his hands in 1999, candidate Bush thought timetables were important (link ):

"I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn."

Before I move on, I just want to point out that we did actually get hearts and flowers in Kosovo (link , and doesn't Clark sound presidential here?), we didn't lose a single American soldier (link , again Clark looks good here), and we were in much better shape in that war than we are in Mr. Bush's War. (link ) Clark is being presidential now and trying to stop a war with Iran. You can read about it here .

Now that he has a war on his hands, Mr. Bush thinks otherwise (link )(And Mr. Bush wasn't the only Republican saying different things then than he says now. Here is a PDF with who said what.):

The legislation, Bush said, would undercut the U.S. commander and troops in Iraq just as his new strategy is starting to work. The bills would dictate "arbitrary time lines" and embolden the enemy.

OK, it's time to have the above-mentioned "come-to-Jesus" meeting. First, Mr. President, I'm not sure the strategy is working all that well. The news from Iraq doesn't look good. Second, some of our erstwhile allies in the Arab world are not happy (link ) and third, as suggested here , whatever minor successes the surge achieves, we are doomed to eventual failure because Iraqis don't want US troops there either. Fourth, Mr. President, we have caught you lying about the details of the escalation aka surge in the past, even lying to our troops about it . So why should we believe anything you say about it now?

Finally, Mr. President, it's time to stop talking about who serves at your pleasure and about how you alone are "the Decider" and it's time to start realizing that you serve at the pleasure of the American people. This is not third grade and it's not a game of dodgeball. You're not on the playground anymore. Recess is over and the time for accountability is here.