December 12, 2008
Hard To Disguise
The headline on Dan Eggen's Washington Post piece reads "'My Heart and My Values Didn't Change' In Bush, Loyalists See a Good and Steadfast Man Who Has Gotten a Bad Rap". Poor Baby
In a saavy summary of Bush's attempts to tweak history in his favor entitled Lickspittle for a Pig The Poorman says "....and so it is that history’s little insurgent elves are busy at work with hammer and awl."
Yes indeedy, W. and his cohorts are dedicating their efforts to this end. Mitchell Bard on Bush's interview with Charlie Gibson:
For example, in discussing the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Bush claimed: "I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess." He makes it sound as if he was a passive receiver of the reports on the subject, and that the existence of WMDs was the real reason he started the war in Iraq. We know now that neither of those claims are true; that the president cherry-picked intelligence information to make his case for war in Iraq, and that the weapons of mass destruction were merely a pretense for that war..... The Iraq war must be remembered as being a result of Bush's foreign policy objectives, not as an unfortunate byproduct of Bush getting bad intelligence on WMDs.What really bugged me about the Gibson interview was Bush's effort to portray himself as a compassionate advocate for the American people. He said at one point: "One of the things about the presidency is you deal with a lot of tragedy -- whether it be hurricanes, or tornadoes, or fires or death -- and you spend time being the comforter-in-chief." But it was Bush's disdain for government and the people it serves, as evidenced by his policy of appointing unqualified political cronies to run agencies like FEMA, that helped intensify the effects of Hurricane Katrina, the biggest natural disaster his administration faced. People died while Bush and his administration did nothing. That should be the take-away point from the Bush administration's handling of crises, not that he was some kind of "comforter-in-chief."
Similarly, Bush made wholly ludicrous claims to Gibson about trying to change how partisan Washington was. He said he "knew that the president has the responsibility to try to elevate the tone, and, frankly, it just didn't work, much as I'd like to have it work." He would have liked to have it work?
Just what has Bush been doing with his days? Leaks from the transition team tell us that he wasn't simply riding his exercise bike. Turns out, the decider has been playing war games from his virtual battlefield command post.
But several say that their biggest surprise came when they learned more about how President Bush spends his day, and how he gets his information........... they have been surprised to see the degree of tactical detail about two wars and a handful of insurgencies — from the tribal areas of Pakistan to Sudan and the Congo — that surrounds him. Partly this is because the high-tech makeover of the Situation Room, completed about two years ago, makes instantaneous conversation with field commanders easier than ever.
Both the transition officials and some White House insiders say it may make this communication too easy, sucking the commander-in-chief into a situation in which real-time, straight-from-the-battlefield discussions of tactics masquerade as a conversation about strategy.
Mr. Bush himself has talked about how the installation of secure video links has changed his presidency. In addition to the screens in the “Sit Room,” he has links on Air Force One, at Camp David, and in a trailer across the dirt road from his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
It seems as if the guy has substituted his drug and alcohol problem for a video game addiction played with human lives. Makes one wonder how he'll deal with his retirement.
Keith Olbermann, as is his wont, nailed up Bush's true legacy at MSNBC, for all to see, and it isn't pretty.
Photo note: A little hat does not a Santa make - a metaphorophoto - creatio by Alex of www.alexthejester.com
Posted by Dakota at December 12, 2008 04:38 PM