Developing Story - No Slogans or Spin For Bush With New Labeling of Iraq

White House In Quandary Over Calling War On Terror A “Civil War”

WHIG, Lincoln Group Empty; “President Loses All His Slogans, Rhetoric ... Not Enough Time To Ramp Up”

A bitter battle has erupted inside the White House, as major news organizations have begun calling the war in Iraq a “Civil War”, sending President Bush and his aides into a panicked quandary.

Sources tell The Garlic that neither the White House Iraq Group, or the paid public relations firm, the Lincoln Group, are prepared with material, data or slogans for a “civil war”, leaving President Bush stuck with his “Hello, I Must Be Going Policy” - simply denying the policy of “Stay The Course”.

So dark is the mood, one West Wing aide bemoaned that “We can’t use DHS’s Terror Alert System if it’s a civil war ... We completely lose our edge ...”, a reference to the coincidence of terror alerts and bad news related to the Bush Administration.

Within the past few days, news organizations, such as the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek have referred to the Iraq situation as “Civil War”. This morning, on NBC’s Today Program, host Matt Laurer made an announcement on the “change in terminology”

“If the White House were to call it a civil war, they lose the “Either you’re with us, or against us,” said Hildy Johnson, editor of the monthly newsletter “What Did He Say Now?” that tracks and reviews President Bush’s speeches and interviews. “You can’t have the President, now, suddenly shift to saying “You’re with them, or against them” ... Or some such slogan ... It just wouldn’t roll off his tongue the right way.”

There’s also the matter of President Bush, and his administration branding Iraq as “the central front on the war on terror” and that doesn’t mesh with Iraq being ensnared in a violent civil war.”

“They lose the whole ball of wax,” says Holly Martins, Publisher of Axis of Evil Illustrated, a quarterly publication, that is rumored to be a house magazine for the Project for The New American Century.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who is heavily invested in the spinning of the Iraq War, is all but ignoring the civil war flare, concentrating on the Iran Study Group he launched recently.

According to Martins, another issue for the President in labeling Iraq being in a civil war is that the White House Iraq Group, and the Lincoln Group don’t have anything in the way of rhetoric and slogans for a civil war.

“WHIG just can’t do it,” laments Martin. “They can’t stop all the hype they’ve been putting out, turn on a dime and ramp up the President to start spouting out some new garbage that goes against everything they have been saying to date ... And the Lincoln Group ... If this is what we get in Iraq after all their positive, pro-USA stories they’ve been planting ...”

Possibly the Iraq Study Group will give the White House the platform to shift gears.

As The Garlic reported, a leaked report on their first draft calls for a “re-do” in Iraq, with reinstalling Saddam Hussein and reinvading the country. Conceivably, in doing it over, the Bush team could avoid the pitfalls that will lead to civil war the second time around.

“Jimmy Baker is nobody’s fool,” added Martins. “If he sees this as a civil war, it’s ”Goodbye Junior and good luck with your legacy... He’s not going down the tubes with this one...”

There are reports that President Bush becomes "enraged" whenever someone refers to the War In Iraq as a "Civil War", lunging at them and even swinging away with some punches, before Secret Service agents wrestle the person the President attacked to ground and arresting them