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What Bush didn't know: Hugh Hewitt catches elite media asking the wrong question
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, May 22, 2002 | Hugh Hewitt

Posted on 05/22/2002 12:23:23 AM PDT by JohnHuang2

As usual, the elite media is asking the wrong question. Much more interesting than what Bush knew is what Bush didn't know. The list is long.

Bush didn't know that the leadership of the Democratic Party could never be expected to sacrifice its political interest to the national interest, not even after the slaughter of thousands of Americans and the beginning of war.

Bush didn't know that every few weeks a Democratic leader would launch an assault on his conduct of the war in the hopes of nicking the president's huge standing with the public. Whether Biden's "mano-a-mano" laugher, Daschle's "no exit strategy," or Hillary's and Gephardt's bald charges of last week, Bush clearly has been surprised by the McKinney Democrats.

Bush didn't know that, even though the confirmation of his deputy attorney general was stalled by the Senate until May 10, the confirmation of his assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division until June 14, and the confirmation of his commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service until July 31, that he would be blamed for not having cleaned up the mess at Justice in time to prevent 9-11.

Bush didn't know that Robert Mueller, confirmed as director of the FBI on Aug. 2, would get the heat for FBI fumbling instead of Louis Freeh, whose last day as director was June 30.

Bush didn't know that the Beltway punditry, now so eager to label him as inattentive, would collectively forget their fascination with Chandra Levy and Jim Jeffords. Bush didn't know that, even now, when "focus" is so highly valued by the sideline second-guessers, no one is asking whether Jeffords may have been a little too self-absorbed for the country's good. Bush didn't realize that a media that covered for the Gore-Lieberman attempt to strip the votes from the military serving overseas would turn a blind eye to the chaos in the intelligence community created in the locust years of Clinton-Gore.

Bush didn't know that the country's "leading" newspaper would not think twice about headlining a columnist who questioned his courage, as Maureen Dowd did when, in writing about the use of a photo from 9-11 for fundraising she penned: "Fortunately for the Republicans, it's a photo and not a video. Otherwise we might hear the president nervously inquiring of his adult supervisor, 'Hey, Dick, is it safe to come home yet?'" Did the Times, during World War II, wonder aloud about FDR's cloaking his travels to meet with Churchill and Stalin? After Kennedy's assassination, did the Times feature second-guessings about LBJ's every move?

Bush didn't know that Newsweek's Howard Fineman was not only a partisan hack, but also clairvoyant. Fineman's assertions on Hardball on May 16 that the president was not completely surprised by 9-11 because he had been warned by the CIA, and because his jaw did not drop when told of the attack, represent a new low for "journalism" that Bush clearly did not anticipate.

Bush didn't know that his decision to keep George Tenet as head of the CIA in January would not be remembered as an act of continuity and bipartisanship, or that his refusal to fire the Clinton holdover post 9-11 would not be credited as a refusal to scapegoat the previous administration. Bush is clearly surprised at the Democrats' willingness to heap scorn on the FBI and CIA of Clinton's creating even as they try and finger Bush for those agencies' failures.

And Bush is quite obviously taken aback by the Jerry Nadlers of the world, whose own quite obvious internal demons allow them to voice the idea that the country needs to investigate whether a president of the United States would not have acted to prevent the massacre of thousands.

Bush didn't know that Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was not only not around the bend, but that she was an opinion leader of the Democrats. And Bush didn't know that straight-faced Democrats and their buddies in the Beltway media would send up a chorus of demands for a new "commission" to review intelligence failures, even as Democratic staffers leaked the documents the already launched investigation had unfortunately placed in their hands.

Bush didn't know that there are two kinds of conservatives – loyal conservatives and ratings-driven conservatives, and that the former aren't very skilled at combating the Beltway machine and the latter don't want to.

Bush didn't know that many Republicans couldn't tell the difference between a steel tariff and a JDAM, or the difference between a wheat subsidy and the dispatch of special forces to the Philippines and Georgia.

Bush didn't anticipate how quickly a country as spoiled as ours could will 9-11 into the memory hole.

Bush didn't foresee the cravenness of the commenting class, or the capacity of Tom Daschle to be both Iago and Cassius at the same time. Bush couldn't imagine a Patrick Leahy lying or (and forgive him here, no one could see this coming) a Hillary Clinton demanding answers from the White House.

Bush did not know that a Senate that could not understand what the meaning of "is" is, could never understand what the meaning of "war" was.

In short and in summary, President Bush was wholly unprepared for the decadence of D.C. as he found it in 2001.

But then again, so was I, and so apparently are the vast, vast majority of the American people. President Bush has found it prudent to disguise his disgust, but there is no reason why the electorate should. The reckoning is in November, and there is little that Dowd, Fineman et al can do about that.




TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: hughhewitt
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To: JohnHuang2
OUTSTANDING!
41 posted on 05/22/2002 7:10:51 AM PDT by Bobsat
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To: Grampa Dave
At least when we have to deal with Rats, we know what they really stand for. You've nailed it, Gramps.

Better to confront the wolf directly than the one that's dressed like a sheep.

42 posted on 05/22/2002 7:12:55 AM PDT by logician2u
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To: logician2u
Great words here:

Better to confront the wolf directly than the one that's dressed like a sheep.

43 posted on 05/22/2002 7:29:54 AM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: RonDog
It should be that the electorate never understood the evil of the enemy.
44 posted on 05/22/2002 7:34:52 AM PDT by Angelique
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To: RonDog
Thanks for posting that RonDog. That's very good and pertinent information!
I am glad to see the White House calling a spade a spade. The Divisive DIMocRATS
keep getting back in their face the LIES and insinuations in their divisive attacks!
Note the cartoon in post #36!
Election returns should be FUN this November!

45 posted on 05/22/2002 7:38:48 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: RonDog
Thanks.
46 posted on 05/22/2002 7:42:27 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
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To: JohnHuang2
Keep on pingin. I keep readin, every chance I get. Thanks!!!
47 posted on 05/22/2002 7:49:58 AM PDT by SierraWasp
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To: JohnHuang2
Thanks for the heads up!
48 posted on 05/22/2002 7:56:41 AM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: RonDog
A Hugh Hewitt bump. This is probably the best article Hugh has written and I've read every one of them. I suggest that this article continued to be bumped throughout the day and e-mailed off of World Net Daily to everyone we all know. The elite media is asking the wrong questions and this needs to be investigated and questioned by more people than Hugh.
49 posted on 05/22/2002 8:06:44 AM PDT by Lucky2
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To: Landru
Indeed. Let us hope the things that he didn't know then, he does know now!
50 posted on 05/22/2002 9:17:59 AM PDT by sultan88
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To: RonDog
Great piece here, one of his best.I am suprised that some would miss Hewitt's rhetorical thrust and confuse it for how Bush actually thinks; it is Hugh that is suprised at how low the Dems have fallen, and he his expressing his disgust as a proxy for us as well.He can voice those concerns, while Bush, being a President, can't.He has to be the leader for all, even his political enemies.Such are the hallmarks of leadership, and why no Dem has what it takes to be such a leader.
51 posted on 05/22/2002 9:18:38 AM PDT by habs4ever
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To: Lucky2
I think more than anything we need to send a message to the media by cancelling subscriptions to liberal magazines, newspapers, not watching the liberal tv anchors or their networks, etc. Money talks and these organizations that print and mouth their hatred ought to be cut off so that they lose their funding and go out of business!
52 posted on 05/22/2002 9:34:13 AM PDT by princess leah
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To: Landru
"In short & in summary; let us *all* hope Mr. Bush is better prepared now than ever before....so he might get the hell down to business whenever dealing with the lousy, traitorous Leftist-Socialist SOBs."

Bingo, my FRiend, you nailed it. The DemonRATS in Power in the Senate and seeking control in the House are no more the allies of patriotic Americans than Yassir Arafat is a Seeker of Peace!! The RAT Party has become the Anti-America Party of Collectivist Clintonoids, wherein Truth, Character, and Goodness are but traits to exploit in their adversaries. The Right must be prepared to get down in the muck and claw, bite, gouge, and pummel the HateAmericaFirst crowd that is the Leftist DemonRAT Party. Compromise and consensus-building is for LOSERS...the Lib'rals--and Lib'ralism--must be destroyed, demolished, and de-legitimized!!

And take the friggin' Lamestream Medyuh down with them...MUD

53 posted on 05/22/2002 6:35:00 PM PDT by Mudboy Slim
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To: princess leah; PhiKapMom; sultan88; stand watie; Luis Gonzalez; RonDog; JohnHuang2; Snow Bunny...
"...more than anything we need to send a message to the media by cancelling subscriptions to liberal magazines [DONE!], newspapers [DONE!], not watching the liberal tv anchors or their networks [DONE!], etc. Money talks and these organizations that print and mouth their hatred ought to be cut off so that they lose their funding and go out of business!"

Actually, my FRiend, I believe ignoring the Vast, LeftWing Medyuh Whore'd is but the preliminary step in bringing them to their knees. All these organizations base their livelihoods on the advertisement of products that patriotic Americans like you and I buy...boycott those companies next!! I'd like to see an organization monitor who advertises what products on what shows, and focus our efforts on crushing the worst offenders via our unwillingness to purchase their products.

For instance, Dan Rather is by far the most anti-American anchor I've ever witnessed, IMHO, so I never watch the CBS News. Therefore, I have no idea what companies advertise on his show, but if I did, I would refuse to purchase their products and/or services until they refused to support his nonsensical drivel with their advertising dollars. If our boycott is as successful as I would hope, big, bad corporations would eventually see that their advertising on CBS News actually cost them more business than they could ever hope to gain and Rather would be history...then we move onto CNN, or ABC, or whoever else's anti-Americanism is most egregious.

PKM, what was the name of that organization you were involved with that dealt with the Media's Leftist Bias? Do you think Brent Bozell's organization could keep track of the advertisers on these "news" shows at the same time they track outrageous bias?

Princess leah is right, the way to attack the Vast, LeftWing Medyuh Whore'd is via their pocketbooks, and distancing them from their advertisers could prove extremely effective in that endeavor.

FReegards...MUD

54 posted on 05/22/2002 6:54:42 PM PDT by Mudboy Slim
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To: Mudboy Slim; flicker; administrative simplification; goodell70
PING!!!!
55 posted on 05/22/2002 7:17:39 PM PDT by sultan88
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To: sultan88
Howdy, mi amigo...MUD
56 posted on 05/22/2002 7:51:09 PM PDT by Mudboy Slim
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To: Mudboy Slim
Guten Tag, mein FReund!

Are you still going to be an athletics supporter this year? I'm thinking about pulling for the Red Sox for a few days, drag them down to .500 and then root for the A's again.

57 posted on 05/22/2002 8:22:49 PM PDT by sultan88
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To: RonDog
Michael Ramirez; the greatest cartoonist EVER!! What a clever mind this guy has; he is to cartoons what Hugh is to writing columns!!
58 posted on 05/22/2002 10:29:06 PM PDT by DLfromthedesert
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To: DLfromthedesert
Michael Ramirez; the greatest cartoonist EVER!!
What a clever mind this guy has; he is to cartoons what Hugh is to writing columns!!
From http://www.copleynews.com/0Current/editorialcartoons/htmeditorialcartoons/ramirez.htm:

mugramirezAniGif.gif (21021 bytes) bylineramirez.gif (2624 bytes)

     Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Ramirez combines an encyclopedic knowledge of the news with a captivating drawing style to create consistently outstanding editorial cartoons. Ramirez, who studied premed at the University of California, Irvine, originally considered journalism a hobby. But he was hooked when his first cartoon for the college newspaper, lampooning candidates for student office, had the student assembly demanding an apology.
     "If I don't get at least one phone call a day that says I'm a moron, I'm not doing my job," Ramirez says of his penchant for sparking controversy with his cartoons.
     In addition to the 1994 Pulitzer Prize, Michael counts the 1996 Mencken Award for Best Cartoon among his many honors. He is based at the Los Angeles Times, where he moved after seven years at the Memphis Commercial-Appeal. He has been syndicated by Copley News Service since 1988.   

You can E-MAIL your thoughts to Mike at:
michael.ramirez@latimes.com

59 posted on 05/23/2002 12:18:19 AM PDT by RonDog
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To: Mudboy Slim
you HAVE to read "BIAS" by bernie goldberg.

if you, like me, dispised the damnyankee-controlled mainSLIME media before, just you wait!

for a FREE dixie,sw

60 posted on 05/23/2002 10:12:00 AM PDT by stand watie
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