A Pundit's Folly

In the current issue of Time magazine, conservative pundit Charles Krauthammer attempts (“The Trouble with Apologies”) to defend the Bush regime’s ongoing inability to own up to their growing list of political blunders.

Putting George Dubya on the same ground with the likes of F.D.R., Winston Churchill, and Abraham Lincoln, Kraphammer argues that Bush is justified in his stubborn refusal to admit he fucked up.

Kraphammer does get it right when he said, “any judgment about the President’s judgments requires context.” But not the contexts (The War on Terror, and War in General) that he cites.

The context that is worth considering when it comes to any discussion of George W. Bush is the cold hard fact that he did not win the presidency – he stole it. It is precisely because of this that makes everything Bush does inherently suspect and open to debate.

Those who suggest that what’s done is done and that all the naysayers and malcontents should just get over it and close ranks behind the President are out of their fucking minds.

Had the 2000 election been a hands-down clean sweep for the Fortunate Son, the chances are pretty good that he would be cruising along smoothly right about now the way Bill Clinton was heading into the 1996 election.

But that’s not the way things worked out. Bush and his gang of fixers stole the White House and have left their slimy handprints on everything they have done since then.

As further proof of Kraphammer’s delusional state, he goes on to refer to Pakistan a, “our most significant ally in the war on terror.”

Uhhhhh. Excuse me? Is Kraphammer talking about the same Pakistan whose top nuclear scientist put a virtual garage sale of nuclear technology out on the open market for the highest bidder? The same Pakistan who then turned around and gave the guy what amounted to a slap on the wrist?

Conservatives can bitch about how much of Bill Clinton’s skirt-chasing was forgiven by the left, but it is downright chilling how much bullshit the right is willing to look past in order to keep their favorite boy in power.