Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?
Let the rewrite begin -- the Bush Legacy Project.
The White House is circulating a memo saying that George W. Bush promised to uphold the honor and the dignity of his office, and has kept that promise.
It's true that, even though Bush's presidency has been marred by one scandal after another (torture, outing a CIA agent, politicizing federal agencies, etc.), he did not get into trouble over an intern's BJ.
But my standard for "honor and dignity" is a little higher than that. Semen stains are better than blood stains any day.
We have Bush giving a lot of chatty prime time TV interviews lately in a blatant attempt to overhaul his legacy. White House press secretary Dana Perino, calls them ‘exit interviews.'
First an interview with Charlie Gibson of ABC...obviously a member of the Legacy Project. He didn't challenge the ridiculous things Bush said -- like how Saddam Hussein "was unwilling to let the inspectors go in."
Next, Bush sat down with "Nightline" co-anchor Cynthia McFadden to talk a little bit about the auto bailout and the economy...and a lot about his relationship with Jesus, the Bible and the fine line between religion and science. (What fine line?) “I think evolution can — you’re getting me way out of my lane here. I’m just a simple president.”
Don't remind us.
Of course, painting a rosier image would certainly help his poor parents, who seem to be suffering. His daddy has been known to break down and cry at public functions and his mother is recovering from an ulcer operation.
Karl Rove has been seen spinning away, in Manhattan he argued in an Oxford-style debate against the proposition that "Bush 43 Is the Worst President of the Last 50 Years."
You can certainly see Rove's handiwork in grooming Bush to come across as more personable and human...even admitting mistakes. Don't know if it's Mission Accomplished, so far his approval rating has gone from 24 percent to 28 percent.
But there's more. Speech writer Peggy Noonan is going around saying, "At Least Bush Kept Us Safe." This talking point has always puzzled me. The dust barely settled after the first World Trade Center bombing when, just six weeks after he took office, Pres. Clinton tracked down, tried and jailed the bombers. There were no further terrorist attacks on US soil until nine months after Bush took office.
Yet you never hear the wingnuts acknowledge that Clinton kept us safe from terrorism.
The reality is that George W. Bush has driven this country over a cliff...we are in more trouble and greater danger than when he came into office. He will be handing President Obama the most unstable world environment we've had in a generation.
So spin spin spin, Karl and Peggy...but you can't make gold out of bullshit. We the people have a very good memory.
We remember the successful terrorist attack on American soil, the anthrax attacks, an unnecessary war, breaking the military, the Katrina debacle, the tanking economy, turning a surplus into a $455 billion deficit, wire-tapping, 800 signing statements, our trampled Constitution, torture, corruption and cronyism, outing a CIA agent, no-bid contracts, international scorn, a polarized country...etc...etc...etc.
Just as the name Hoover is linked to the Depression, Nixon to Watergate, LBJ to either Viet Nam or Civil Rights, Kennedy to Bay of Pigs...in the distant future the name Bush will be remembered for Iraq and the Housing/Bank collapses.
And probably for being the worst president ever.
Wait, I CAN find one good thing that he did -- battling AIDS. Under the Bush administration, more than 2 million people infected with HIV - most of them in Africa - have received lifesaving anti-retroviral treatment. Even Obama praised him for this.
Too bad about his insistence on dangerous abstinence-focused prevention programs over here...
