There Twice Lived a Man Named Oedipus Rex

David Remnick, "Hell Week", The New Yorker 11/07/2005:

... Part of Bush’s vanity––and his Oedipal drama––is that he has modelled himself on Reagan and not on his father, but it is hard to imagine him cleaning house the way Reagan did in 1987 and moving toward the center. In fact, it is even harder these days to locate a centrist establishment in the Republican Party. The conservative insurgency that took shape in the think tanks, congressional offices, and activist groups of Washington a quarter century ago now inhabits the core of the Party. In his anger, and after all his many failures, the President, quite suddenly, seems unpopular, alone, and adrift. Thirty-nine months — five months more than John F. Kennedy’s entire Presidency — remain in the second term of George W. Bush. (Emphasis added)

Full column...

While we're on the subject, listen to Tom Lehrer's "Oedipus Rex"