[Pokey78]

Pinging the Steyn list.

One of the few Steyn columns I disagree with.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

In the end, even Bush's magnificent moral clarity faded away into a Colin Powellite blur. Long after it became clear that 3,000 Americans were killed by Saudi citizens with Saudi money direct from members of the Saudi royal family, Bush was still inviting Saudi princes to the Crawford ranch and insisting that the kingdom was a ''staunch friend'' in the war against terror.

Although I find Steyn's idea of using 9/11 as "political capital" mildly clinton-esque (ie. offensive), I do agree with the above point.

[SlightOfTongue]

I think Mark Steyn is 'light in the loafers' and 'blows it' all the time.

[Ipberg]

Steyn get's it right again. But six weeks from now (or less), Bush will be able to declare all diplomatic options are exhausted and invade Iraq. Polling will jump up to around 70 or 80 in the first week. The sooner Saddam is ousted, the higher Bush's poll approval rating will go.

[Libertina]

Usually love Steyn's articles, this one is a little more hard to swallow because some of it "hurts." I don't understand why President Bush didn't go ahead and make recess judicial appointments, clean out all the Clinton appointees, and not "get along" quite so much. America loves him best when he's strong and straight talkin'. I wonder if his advisors tell him "just wait until after the election." In any case, GW has done LOTS well, and he's a much better politician than I, so I hope it all works out. (For all our sakes.)

[jwalsh07]

The first casualty was his domestic agenda. Even as the USAF was strafing Tora Bora, Vermont's wily Sen. Pat Leahy continued to stall the president's judicial nominations; Ted Kennedy gutted the Bush education bill, and their fellow Democrats obstructed plans for oil-drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At that moment, with his poll numbers in the 80s, it would have been so easy for Bush to do to Leahy what Clinton did to Gingrich.

LOL, Mark must be losing it. A conservative journalist believing that a Republican President can demonize an rat the way the MEDIA, not Klink, demonized Gingrich. What was Bush gonna do, forcibly install Conservatives at ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post and every University in America to head those institutions.

And one other thing Bush doesn't care if he is a one term President, he cares about defanging the radical Islamists. Steyn offers no program to do that, just inane criticism. Bush is on target, Iraq's next and when Iraq falls and the military bases are expanded in Qatar, the House of Saud is going to be in a world of hurt.

[jwalsh07]

You could go with ''C'mon, guys, let's roll!'' the words of Todd Beamer as he and the brave passengers of Flight 93 took on their Islamist hijackers. Or you could go with ''healing'' and ''closure'' and the rest of the awful inert language of emotional narcissism. Had Bush taken it upon himself to talk up the virtues of courage and self-reliance demonstrated on Flight 93, he would have done a service not just to his nation but to his party, for a touchy-feely culture inevitably trends Democratic.

Bush did all of that, was Mark sleeping? Was he also sleeping when the Battle Hymn of the Republic was played instead of funeral parlor music? Did he miss the wanted dead or alive declaration?

I sometimes feel I live in an entirely different universe than the smart people in high places.

[The Great Satan]

Four months ago, I wrote that if war with Iraq isn't under way by the first anniversary of Sept. 11, George W. Bush might as well nickname himself President Juan Term.

Sorry, Mark, that's because you've never understood WRGO (What's Really Going On). You were too busy bloviating over the irrelevant peccadilloes of fat-cat Saudi princes to connect the dots.

WE HAVE THIS ANTHRAX
YOU CAN NOT STOP US

It's called Chicken, and it's the only game in town.

[Cacique]

I think the man has it right on the mark. Though a lot of Bushites will defend their man's inadequacies and go into a state of denial.

It is not an atractive trait of Clintonite sycophants and it is even less atractive a trait in conservatives.

[Polonius]

Despite the flags and the more robust country songs, Bush has allowed the culture to lapse back into its default mode of psychobabbling self-absorption.

After observing the spectacle of 9-11's first anniversary, is there any doubt as to the truth of this statement? I certainly wouldn't place all (or even most) of the blame for this phenomenon at Bush's feet, but I do think Steyn has a point — Bush seems to have an unfortunate tendancy of not pressing the advantage when he should for the sake of being a nice guy.

[billybudd]

Mr. Steym, what make you think that Bush gives a flying f*** about conservative values?

[swheats]

His points have merit, but Steyn's not sitting with the weight of the world on his shoulders and wanting above everything else to not make mistakes with other people's children sent to war.

We get impatient and want things to happen now, I'll trust Bush will move in the right time with the right intelligence. There might be a few more cells to shut down on our on soil that is capable of retaliation.

[Aric2000]

He has made some pretty good points, Bush SHOULD have used the Bully Pulpit more often and the speak softly less.

But I am not President Bush, he Probably knows a lot more of what's going on then I do.

So, I will sit tight and trust this great man to do what is right for the country. Because I do trust him, and that is a very different feeling then I had 2 short years ago.

[Mr. Mojo]

Yet Australia's John Howard, whose boys fought alongside the United States in Afghanistan, didn't get an invite to Crawford, and the fellows who bankrolled al-Qaida did.

The difference: The House of Saud and the Bush family have been doing business, resulting in enormous finacial benefit to both, for a very long time now. Howard is merely a politician.

[MissAmericanPie]

I have to agree with him on some of it, it was offensive to have a Rhamadan celebration at the "People's House". I guess I am about the only one offended by that.

But this article isn't fair in some areas. Bush was ready to go to war, he was chomping at the bit for it, if it had been up to him Iraq would already be yesterdays news. But the "Perfumed Princes" at the Pentagon, the touchy, feely whimps that Clinton promoted told Bush we were not ready for war, and we were not.

Clinton took the "Peace Dividend" down to the bare bones, he gutted the military, we almost ran out of bombs in Afghanistan, all so Clinton's bottom line could be padded.

Clinton laid land mines from the White House to the Out House for Bush to step on, from the economy to the W's missing from the keyboards that scum sucking devils smell is on every agency.

Yes, Bush has blown some opportunities, he hasn't played his cards the best way they could have been played. He's far, far, to liberal and globalist for me, but he is conducting this war the best he can given the joker's Clinton slipped in his hand. I may not like Bush a whole lot, but fair is fair.

[McGavin999]

The thought that we could invade Iraq by 9-11 sounds nice, but it's not at all practical. First of all it's a desert country with extreme heat. Anyone living in a desert can tell you that you WON'T be fighting a war there in anything other than the fall/winter. Add to it the fact that our troops have to be outfitted with anti-chemical suits and you are increasing the internal temperature of our guys to roughly the temperature of Prime Rib.

I think Bush has flawless timing. A lot is going on behind the scenes that is not publicized in the newspapers.

I love Stein, but this time I think he's off the mark. But then, I've always loved watching chess games ;o)

[jwalsh07]

Saudis will allow troops to stage in Saudi Arabia

Well now we know why the Prince was in Crawford, Texas. It wasn't to give Bush money so it must have been for Bush to read him the riot act and mention Qatar a few dozen times.

[MHT]

The initial criticism about the DWI is wrong. Many psychologists have said that Bush's reason for not bringing it up, i.e., because he didn't want his kids to know, was the RIGHT thing to do. We don't need to let our kids know the details of our previous mistakes because it subconsciously condones their own misbehavior (well, if dad did it and he turned out ok, etc.....). The man showed appropriate emotion at the time, embarassment and shame-- two qualities with which the Clinton's and Gore's (in spite of their own and children's misbehavior) are not familiar.

[witnesstothefall]

This analysis is almost Dowdish in its shallowness. The enterprise that Bush is undertaking is a bit beyond the scope of understanding of quite a few in our soundbite media. Constructing a tortured metaphor of the 2000 election makes it appear Steyn was desperate to fill his 1000-word allotment. Lots of words + little meaning = peanut gallery.

[Lurker]

"In the end, even Bush's magnificent moral clarity faded away into a Colin Powellite blur. Long after it became clear that 3,000 Americans were killed by Saudi citizens with Saudi money direct from members of the Saudi royal family, Bush was still inviting Saudi princes to the Crawford ranch and insisting that the kingdom was a ''staunch friend'' in the war against terror. This is not just ridiculous but offensive."

What exactly do you disagree with?

L