Has George W. Bush ever met an argument he couldn't distort? Has he ever honestly characterized profound disagreements? Has he ever acknowledged the vast shades of grey that lie between his simplistic profferings of black and white?
Prior to the 2006 elections his pet misrepresentation was that he, through grossly illegal surveillance, was determined to ferret out those who would harm us, while Democrats, for reasons left unexplained, were simply uninterested in finding our enemy within.
Mr. Bush also enjoyed informing audiences that should Democrats seize Congress, they would raise taxes. Why? Well, because they just happen to love raising taxes. That's what they do. No particular reason, other than that.
And regarding his defense of staying the -- his -- course in Iraq, we routinely heard, and continue to hear, that things will get worse should we withdraw; not better, as naive antiwar Democrats profess, which of course they don't.
But Mr. Bush now has a fresh script of distortion, misrepresentation and mischaracterization. It's a lollapalooza lulu, and he trotted it out repeatedly in his press conference Thursday -- to absolutely no follow up or subsequent media discussion, from what I've read and heard.
I quote from the transcript:
When we start drawing down our forces in Iraq, it will because [sic] our military commanders say the conditions on the ground are right, not because pollsters say it'll be good politics....If our troops said, "Well, here we are in combat, and we've got a commander in chief who is, you know, running a focus group," in other words, "Politics would be -- is more important to him than our safety and/or our strategy," that would dispirit our troops....
And, therefore, their attitude is, "Get out." My concern with that strategy, something that Mike Hayden also discussed, is that just getting out may sound simple, and it may affect polls, but it would have long-term, serious security consequences for the United States.
And so sometimes you -- you know, you just have to make the decisions based upon what you think is right....
And so, when it's all said and done, if you ever come down and visit the old, tired me down there in Crawford, I will be able to say, I looked in the mirror and made decisions based upon principle, not based upon politics.
Politics. Sniveling politics. Sniveling, self-interested politics. Sniveling, self-interested, disingenuous politics. Sniveling, self-interested, disingenuous, unprincipled politics.
That is all that lies between the dark forces opposed to the Iraq war and the clean, white purity of Mr. Bush's principled determination. Just politics. Nothing else.
So let us rightfully dismiss those in Congress who would claim to genuinely grieve for the needless loss of American lives. Let us dismiss those who lament America's loss of moral authority. Let us dismiss those who note with historical and cultural precision that a thousand-year-old Middle East conflict is never to be resolved by a Yankee Crusade, and that staying only exacerbates it and weakens us further.
For they are imposters. They are simply sniveling, self-interested, disingenuous, unprincipled pols.
They have not the immaculate record of Mr. Bush's guilelessness and probity, his transparency and consistency, his straightforwardness and constant sincerity.
They are not to be believed. They are phonies guided only by focus groups and political opportunism. And we should take Mr. Bush's word for it. Because he has never tried to be anything but open and honest, or to obfuscate any opposing argument, or to pull a bit of deceptive wool over anyone's eyes.