The Night of the Moderate-Length Knives
I think the one thing we’ve learned from Republicans in the past three months is that political advisers and career staffers are pretty much self-aggrandizing jerks who feel loyalty only to themselves and don’t have a problem shirking any responsibility whatever for their own dismal failures.
Matthew Dowd buys into the popular MSM narrative of Hurricane Katrina that put all of the blame on George Bush. The truth is that it wasn’t George Bush who refused to order New Orleans evacuated after George Bush practically begged for it to happen nor did he ignore most of the long-estblished procedures for dealing with a hurricane. It wasn’t George Bush who left dozens of buses idle to get ruined by the flood instead of using them to get people away from the most dangerous areas and it sure as hell wasn’t George Bush whose brain locked at the moment of crisis and broke down in tears on television.
President Bush has taken far more blame for what happened in New Orleans than he ever should have and he doesn’t need more from some preening Smithers.
As for Wilkerson’s comments, I’m not interested in hearing the pernicious lie that Colin Powell ever had President Bush’s back. Not even a month after 9/11, and while the President was saying in no uncertain terms that the Taliban had to go, Powell was running his mouth about letting “moderate Taliban” get spots in any new Afghan government. Powell spent most of his time in Washington undercutting the President, including scolding us to remember Iran’s “democracy” that “tapped into the desires of the people” at the very time that the people were taking to the streets to demand freedom from the Mullah’s oppressive regime and while Iranians were killing our soldiers in Iraq. Let’s also not forget that it was Powell’s BFF Richard Armitage who let the adminsitration twist in the wind during the Valerie Plame inquisition even though he damned-well knew that he was the one who “outed” her. Powell has been about as worthy an ally to George Bush as Iago was to Othello.
Dowd and Wilkerson are weasels trying to cash in on George Bush’s unpopularity (which Wilkerson, at least, helped to cause). They hope, by putting as much distance as they can between his administration and them, they’ll be in a good place when other politicians, who might remember their names from their Bush-bashing, need to hire some well-paid toadies. I certainly will think long and hard before I ever support a candidate who hires either one of them. It wouldn’t be bad at all if you did, too.
Other Posts of Interest:
- “Total Failure”? Hardly.
- Friedman: Iraq’s Triumphs are Obama’s Triumphs
- Thank You, Mr. President, for Holding Fast to Your Values
Category: President George Bush
Bravo for this piece! I'm so weary of the Bush bashing that has gone on for nearly a DECADE, I want to index-finger-thunk a lib in the forehead. Great imagery, Jimmie – "preening Smithers" is a keeper! Also must give kudos to "Powell has been about as worthy an ally to George Bush as Iago was to Othello." Bush has been flawed and made mistakes, but good gravy, is there nothing on Earth he won't be blamed for?… wait, I've got a hangnail… it's Bush's fault, dont'cha know. But, I digress. It's difficult to prove a negative, and since there has not been a repeat of 9/11 on American soil, it's so churlishly easy for Bush-haters to say he's ruined this country and totally ignore or dismiss his protection of America. Preventing another catastrophic bombing or other attack isn't as juicy as having it. Blaming Bush for all the ball-dropping that happened after Katrina is ridiculous and nasty scape-goating, pure and simple. Toadie Dowd and Toadie Wilkerson should be sent to the corner without any supper for their bashing.
Keep up the good work, sir!