''Does this picture make me look guilty?''

[MADem]

55. Bush was in "orders-taking" mode; he wasn't calling those shots.

And Lawrence Walsh said nothing of the sort--in fact, he holds Reagan primarily accountable in your very excerpt. Just because someone is cut into the loop doesn't mean they have any say over how the operation is executed.

Had Bush been pulling the strings and running the show, he would have been at more meetings--not fewer-- than Reagan managed to attend. He likely also would have cut that fucking blowhard North out of the herd early on--that pompous ass had few friends for good reason, not the least of which was his poor judgment.


Bush was following orders in that scenario, had he been directing the operation, it probably would have been stealthier, more subtle, less blatant, and odds are we never would have even KNOWN about it. There would have been no ham-handed signed Bibles or cakes, no big-mouthed Marines spending government money on security improvements to their personal residences who hadn't worn their uniforms in years and were operating far above both their level of competency and their paygrades, and probably far fewer misunderstandings as to the nature of the Persian psyche. GHWB may have been a spook, he may have been a damned Republican, but he wasn't stupid.

It's hard to understand how that guy could produce such crappy kids, even with the introduction of the vastly inferior "Pierce" (as in Franklin, the drunkard) line. It's astounding how "low quality" his offspring are, every doggone one of 'em.