NYT editorial: The Deluder in Chief

[ProSense]

Editorial

The Deluder in Chief

Published: December 7, 2008

We long ago gave up hope that President Bush would acknowledge his many mistakes, or show he had learned anything from them. Even then we were unprepared for the epic denial that Mr. Bush displayed in his interview with ABC News’s Charles Gibson the other day, which he presumably considered an important valedictory chat with the American public as well.

It was bad enough when Mr. Bush piously declared that he hopes Americans believe he is a guy who “didn’t sell his soul for politics.” (We suppose we should not bother remembering how his team drove Senator John McCain out of the 2000 primaries with racist attacks or falsified Senator John Kerry’s war record in 2004.)

It was skin crawling to hear him tell Mr. Gibson that the thing he will really miss when he leaves office is no longer going to see the families of slain soldiers, because they make him feel better about the war. But Mr. Bush’s comments about his decision to invade Iraq were a “mistakes were made” rewriting of history and a refusal to accept responsibility to rival that of Richard Nixon.

At one point, Mr. Bush was asked if he wanted any do-overs. “The biggest regret of the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq,” he said. “A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction” were cause for war.

After everything the American public and the world have learned about how Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney manipulated Congress, public opinion and anyone else they could bully or lie to, Mr. Bush is still acting as though he decided to invade Iraq after suddenly being handed life and death information on Saddam Hussein’s arsenal.

The truth is that Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had been chafing to attack Iraq before Sept. 11, 2001. They justified that unnecessary war using intelligence reports that they knew or should have known to be faulty. And it was pressure from the White House and a highly politicized Pentagon that compelled people like Secretary of State Colin Powell and George Tenet, the Central Intelligence director, to ignore the counter-evidence and squander their good names on hyped claims of weapons of mass destruction.

Despite it all, Mr. Bush said he will “leave the presidency with my head held high.” And, presumably, with his eyes closed to all the disasters he is dumping on the American people and his successor.

[firedupdem]

1. Good Article! n/t

[MadMaddie]

2. I hope that he along with the other morans keep speaking

publicly, because they are not protected from the Hague!

<snip>
Despite it all, Mr. Bush said he will “leave the presidency with my head held high.” And, presumably, with his eyes closed to all the disasters he is dumping on the American people and his successor.
<snip>

[Submariner]

3. That made my evening

A 5-Star smack down of the LIAR-in-chief. It's just amazing the damage left behind by a couple of supreme court appointed draft-dodging cowards. Just amazing.

[spooky3]

4. A normal human being would be incredibly depressed and sorrowful to see what a mess s/he had made of

things, and would apologize, then spend the rest of his/her life trying to do better.

[firedupdem]

5. Yep...that fucker is by no means "normal"...what an ass! n/t

[WinkyDink]

6. Two words for the NYT: Judith. Miller.

[boppers]

8. Guess where her byline is at now?

Just guess.

:evilgrin:

[w4rma]

11. Miller now works for a "conservative" think-tank.

On September 7, 2007, she was hired as an adjunct fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative free-market think tank. Her duties will also include being a contributing editor for the organization's publication, City Journal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_(journalist)#Prison_release

[boppers]

16. Didn't know about that one.

She's been flogging a blog at faux as well.

It's pretty pathetic, partisan, stuff.

[hulka38]

9. That's right winkydink. The NYT was a mjor player in the campaign to invade Iraq.

[indie_voter]

17. exactly. NYT acts as if they were just innocent bystanders in this mess. They helped sell war. n/t

[eridani]

7. Gee, did they apologize for enabling the war? Not to mention

--not publishing that story about Bush cheating in the 2004 debates.

[unblock]

10. he did NOT sell his soul for politics.

his soul was always dark and ugly and very well suited for gutter politics.

only people who start out with principles like decency and integrity can sell their souls.

[glitch]

12. Actually, the sale of his "soul" for politics was another typical Bush scam.

Since he didn't really have a soul to sell, technically he was correct.

What he did sell for politics was the illusion of his non-existant soul, not quite the same thing. If this seems convoluted, it should. Convolution is another Bush scam trademark.

[bleever]

15. Just another bill of goods

sold, with eminent success, by the people who've been intent for more than 70 years on co-opting the American "brand" for their own purposes, by strangling every watchdog, and corrupting the very idea of checks and balances.

Product delivered, but I don't expect repeat business anytime soon.

[ProSense]

18. Exactly. n/t

[rasputin1952]

13. bush's legacy, death, destruction and failure...

who of us did not see this coming?

His entire life has been extraordinary, only because of the incredible failures this "man" has left in his wake, whether as a businessman, a governor or as president. His "legacy", a lesson on how not to become a failure, just do precisely the opposite of what this knuckle-dragging moron has done.

In short, he is not human, even though he wears a skinsuit that makes him appear as if he might be. Look into those beady eyes, there is no soul there, never has been, never will be. If there is a hell, he ran gleefully into it, and dragged a great nation into the abyss with him.

[bleever]

14. Historic repudiation of a president's view of his own legacy.

I thought it would be up to bloggers and great folks in national media to call them on this revisionist "I am not a torturing Constitution-fucking traitor to America and her promise to the world" crap.

A positive step.

[opihimoimoi]

19. Head Held High my ASS....he is projecting....he is a picture of Failure and head is as low as whale

shit....

Bush is a POS and he noes we noes

[No Elephants]

20. Condi was out there this weekend selling this "It was the intelligence" excuse. Can you say "Bush

Legacy Project?" How very convenient to blame it on the intelligence, after you have told the intelligence community to give you reasons to invade, cherry picked the intelligence, pooh poohed the ability the inspection process to give you reliable info AND aborted the intelligence process. These people have no integrity and no shame, yet they are shameful. (My paradox of the morning.)

[ProSense]

21. White House disputes NYT editorial

White House disputes NYT editorial

Andy Barr – Mon Dec 8

White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley disputed the accuracy Monday morning of an editorial that ran in the Sunday New York Times.

“Sunday’s New York Times contains an editorial expressing inaccurate and incomplete statements on pre-war intelligence and the war in Iraq,” Hadley said in a statement provided by the White House.

In the editorial, the Times takes Bush to task over an interview he gave to ABC’s Charles Gibson last week in which he admitted that the biggest regret of his presidency was the “intelligence failure in Iraq.”

<...>

Hadley disputed the Times claim that political pressure, more than faulty intelligence, was responsible for the invasion of Iraq.

“While the president has repeatedly acknowledged the mistakes in the pre-war intelligence, there is no support for the Times’ claim that the president and his national security team ‘knew or should have known to be faulty’ or that ‘pressure from the White House’ led to particular conclusions,” Hadley wrote.

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