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Bush has seen a lot of sagging recently. His performance ratings are low, even though his wife denies it. Bush's vitality and vigor just aren't what they used to be, it seems.

On top of all this, Bush has seen a huge dip in his job approval ratings, as you've heard by now, one poll has his overall job approval rating at 29%. Key support among his conservative base is gone, so he's resorting to the tried and true viagra for boosting his numbers back up:

Kicking ass and taking names.

Bush announced a pointless new initiative to deploy the National Guard in unprecedented numbers along the US-Mexico border. Not only would this plan do very little to decrease undocumented immigration (most undocumented immigrants in the country today came in through the airport, not by sneaking across the border), but this plan would further deplete the already stretched National Guard. Many conservatives point to the number of guard boots (some 400,000 people serve in the Guard and only 6,000 would be posted to the border), but the more crucial depletion would be in equipment and recruitment. With much of the Guard already serving a ridiculous deployment to Iraq, and with hurricane season coming up, this is not the time to add a major new operation to the Guard's mission.

Bush's plan already has alarmed the Mexican government, which has stated that it might bring lawsuits and other diplomatic pressure to bear on the Bush Administration. So much for mending fences -- Bush has managed to piss off one of the few remaining friends the US has left in the world today.

There is no military solution to the immigration problem, but it sure sounds nice to the conservatives. With all this bluster about immigration, why talk about the NSA wiretapping scandals, or the Iraq debacle or the Duke Cunningham prostitution ring?

Bush might not be good at governing, but his Republican friends are spectacular at giving poll numbers a boost with a little military viagra.

(Version cross-posted at the Courage Campaign)