Bush is a genius? Maybe.

The common consensus is that George W. Bush is dumb, and for all I know the common consensus is correct. I doubt it, but frankly, I don’t have enough evidence. What I do believe is that W is not a curious person.

If you are not curious, it really doesn’t much matter if you’re quick on the up-take. You won’t be exposed to things that will expand your fund of knowledge, so you might as well be a dolt.

On the other hand, there are different types of intelligence. One type of intelligence is called “interpersonal” intelligence. I have heard it said that W is an off-the-charts genius in this area, but it’s hard for me to pick it up. I see his joshing with the press corps as just plain mean-spirited, and not the least bit endearing. He looked into Putin’s soul and saw that he was a good man, who he could call, Putey-poo. If this is interpersonal intelligence, then it is a confusing concept, to say the least.

But Bush has Karl Rove, and there’s a good reason that he is called “Bush’s Brain.” With Rove, Bush is a genius in controlling and manipulating the public.

You may be surprised to hear me say this, given that his approval rating is in the low 30’s (or worse). But think about it: he retains the support of 30% of the people, in spite of the fact that everything he has touched has turned to poop. He fouled up the intelligence, leading to the most disastrous attack on America since Pearl Harbor. He chose to lead us into a war for no good reason, and then, if I may employ a term I learned while serving in the US Army, he turned it into a $281,750,000 cluster-fuck with 20,000 American casualties. The deficit (f/k/a the surplus) is out of control, people are earning less, and the country is more divided than at any time in the last 30 years (at least). Corruption is rampant from top to bottom of the Republican Party, but it is not as egregious as the cronyism and incompetence most conspicuously on display during last year’s hurricane season. Hey, don’t get me started.

The effect was not what one would expect, namely, that people would storm the White House with pitchforks and torches, demanding W’s head on a pike. Instead, the Congress, which is controlled by his party, continued to go along with harebrained schemes, the most recent of which is a new tax cut for the wealthiest among us. Why? Because, they are the wealthiest among us. Bush may be a disaster for the country, but he is a godsend for people like him, born with a silver teat in his mouth.

Notwithstanding all of the above, Congress came to understand that there might be a revolt among the voters, and it might cost them their jobs. (Read: license to steal.) It became obvious that Congress had to distance itself from the president, as his polling was running neck-and-neck with stomach flu. They tried the usual stuff, such as reporting a “Defense of Marriage” Constitutional Amendment out of committee but they were still sweating. Gay bashing is getting old, and besides, the majority of American’s do not believe that gays should be prohibited from entering into civil unions.

Here’s where Bush’s incredible intelligence for preserving power comes into play. He decided to address the nation with a bold, comprehensive program to confront the problem of illegal immigration.

Personally, I didn’t much care for the program he announced, but Ted Kennedy and others spoke highly of it. Meanwhile, House Republicans ran from the President’s program like it was a new variant of the Black Plague, namely, the Brown Plague.

Here’s an AP story, that is typical:

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, who has pushed a tough border security bill through the House, accused President Bush on Wednesday of abandoning the legislation after asking for many of its provisions.

“He basically turned his back on provisions of the House-passed bill, a lot of which we were requested to put in the bill by the White House,” Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., angrily told reporters in a conference call. “That was last fall when we were drafting the bill, and now the president appears not to be interested in it at all.”

So what’s up with that?

Sensenbreener is wrong to say that W is not interested. After all, it was the first time in five years that he went on TV when he didn’t have to explain some national embarrassment. And King George is not a guy who changes his positions on important matters very quickly, even when it is obvious that they are wrong. So, what made him change up on what looks to be the biggest emerging issue of the next election?

If you give Bush and Turd-blossom credit for being the evil geniuses that I half-way suspect that they are, I have a theory for you.

Rove and Bush figured out that immigrants are the new gays. By this, I mean, that bashing immigrants will do for the Republicans exactly what gay-bashing has done for them in the past. Largely meaningless gestures, designed to drive wedges between Americans, will energize the Republican base, and maybe even get them to forget how totally screwed up everything else is going.

Here’s the beauty part: Republicans in Congress can run against Ted Kennedy and the President on this issue. What does Bush care? He's the guy who put new levels of lame into lame duck.

Is it too Machiavellian for the guys in the White House? Probably. More likely, Turd-blossom is distracted because his baby-face is going to the Big House, and he's going to find out why they call it "the pokey."

“… and tell ’em Big Mitch sent ya!”