PRUDEN: Only 26 days left for Bush-bashing

The Washington Times ^ | December 26, 2008 | Wesley Pruden

[rhema]

With only 26 days left to harangue, mock and bash President Bush, some of our colleagues in the media aren't wasting a day. Bashing ex-presidents, except for the ex-presidents with shrill prominent wives, isn't nearly as much fun as bashing while he's still the real thing.

There's method in the gladness at the New York Times, which relieved itself at the beginning of Christmas week with an umpity-thousand word accusation - beginning on Page One and continuing across several acres of newsprint inside - that George W. Bush invented the meltdown of the subprime housing market, which in turn has led to the collapse of Detroit and all kinds of bad things for Atchison, Topeka and maybe even Santa Fe.

The point of the epic was clearly to portray George W. as the new Herbert Hoover, so that when recession becomes Depression (with the capital-D) not a single rabbit will be safe anywhere and everyone will remember who did it and - voila! - the Republicans will be shut out of the White House and control of the Congress for a generation, and maybe more.

It's not quite fair picking on the New York Times, which has had a rough week, having to apologize for printing a fake letter from the mayor of Paris belittling the Senate qualifications of Caroline Kennedy, and then, worse, for printing a recipe for a fennel and citrus salad that omitted instructions for using "the finely grated zest of one lemon." Life is tough on the Upper East Side, for man and fennel alike. The rush to get in a last few licks at a sitting Republican president is a game a lot of bashers play. Some of the bloggers were bitterly disappointed - complaining is the main point of blogging -

[what's up]

to ask them why they don’t cooperate and to ask them to work together, in the 2010 elections.

Uh...you might find that it will be more effective if you don't bash the President who instituted the reforms that kept us safe for the last 7 years.

[PhilCollins]

I agree with you, about Bush’s foreign policy. I never disagreed with Bush’s foreign policy. I was in the navy for 21 years, and I was near Baghdad, Sept. 2004-Mar. ‘05. While I was there, I didn’t complain about American presence, in Iraq, and I rarely heard my co-workers (marines and soldiers) complain about it. I didn’t complain, when Iraqis shot at me.

I disagree with some of Bush’s other views, including large spending increases, allowing illegal aliens to stay in the U.S., No Child Left Behind, the Medicaid prescription drug law, and giving money to Planned Parenthood and WHO, so that they can perform abortions.

[what's up]

Bush has reduced Federal money to Planned Parenthood and has instituted abstinence training, outlawed partial birth abortion, stood fast to block embryonic stem cell research, and nominated 2 pro-life Supreme Court Justices. You can criticize him on life, but few would agree with you.

Medicaid...whatever you might think of what Bush did, he stopped all talk of buying Canadian drugs dead in its tracks (a pet project of Rahm Emmanuel BTW). That would have been atrocious for our drug industry.

[PhilCollins]

Bush signed a few bills that gave money to Planned Parenthood and WHO, so that they could perform abortions. If he was pro-life, he would have vetoed those bills, especially since they violate the 10th Amendment. Although he reduced that funding, $1 is too much.

The prescription drug law that Bush signed in 2003 was the largest entitlement law since 1965. It isn’t conservative, so he should have vetoed it.

[what's up]

The prescription drug law that Bush signed in 2003 was the largest entitlement law since 1965

Like I said, if it closed the door on Canadian drugs it was the far lesser of 2 evils. Canadian drugs would have decimated the entire US drug industry. Perfection's nice, but not possible in this life.

You can also be an ideologue on abortion if you want. But the many, many babies' lives saves through the many measures Bush took is a major accomplishment in the climate in which he took office. The reduction of abortion and the non-apologetic way Bush spoke out again and again promoting a culture of life deserves respect and, in fact, did get respect from major pro-life organizations.