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pecuniumThe memos. You know the ones which say all sorts of things about Bush's service, and look pretty damning. The ones which may have some forgeries included. The ones the Bush administration are issuing non-denial denials about
Q: Killian writes and voices an opinion here that he believes that the President was talking to someone upstairs about his transfer.
DAN BARTLETT: Again, that is conjecture on a part of somebody who is no longer with us.
Well I was busy yesterday and today (medical stuff, computer stuff... trying to get the problem with mine sussed out... and discovering the warranty is not quite what it was purported to be... if the machine is borked, they'll fix it [taking 8-12 weeks of my sweet time to boot] but if I'm wrong, or they can't replicate the problem, I get to limp along, and pay them $90 for their time... my two hours today, waiting for them to find the proof of warranty, that's seems to be worth a bucket of warm spit... can you tell they annoyed me?) and so I was going to point out some pithy stuff... but Kevin Drum Washington Monthly said it first (ask the people mentioned in the memos, who are still alive... the higer ups whom they claim were applying pressure).
Rivka Respectful of Otters does a nice job of skewering the problems with that defense too.
None of which is getting people to look at the real problem with Bush's service... not did he fly (which he did, and for all that it was stateside, fighters, even the best of them, are not the safest of toys, so he gets kudos for that) but rather the way in which he has handled himself.
Kerry had supporters who were mean, and perhaps at the line of acceptable. He denounced them. Bush has supporters who are lying, and he doesn't. Bush has supporters who perpetuate that lie by mocking Kerry's medals, at Bush's convention and he doesn't denounce them.
That's cheap. It gives the lie to his claim to be praising Kerry's record. If Kerry's record is praiseworthy, then mocking it is shameful, and deserves to held up to scorn.
Back to why Bush's service matters... Now, today (and yesterday, and four years ago, and before that when he ran for Governor) he is hiding something. Maybe it was all above board, and just looks bad. A man of fibre, with moral fortitude, would have admitted to it.
Bush has tried, again and again, to supress it. He isn't owning up to his mistakes (or to his use of familial pull to get special treatment) and that is the thing which worries me. That lack of ability to say... "I was wrong" well it bothers me.
It seems part and parcel of what bothers me about many on the Religious Right... the act of being saved makes them think they don't have to own up to what they did... it's forgiven, and ought to be forgotten. Annoying when the sins are in the past, but when they recurr, I can't really grant them the pass they seem to claim. Bush seems to be taking the slogan, "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" as a reason to go on making mistakes.
Q: Killian writes and voices an opinion here that he believes that the President was talking to someone upstairs about his transfer.
DAN BARTLETT: Again, that is conjecture on a part of somebody who is no longer with us.
Well I was busy yesterday and today (medical stuff, computer stuff... trying to get the problem with mine sussed out... and discovering the warranty is not quite what it was purported to be... if the machine is borked, they'll fix it [taking 8-12 weeks of my sweet time to boot] but if I'm wrong, or they can't replicate the problem, I get to limp along, and pay them $90 for their time... my two hours today, waiting for them to find the proof of warranty, that's seems to be worth a bucket of warm spit... can you tell they annoyed me?) and so I was going to point out some pithy stuff... but Kevin Drum Washington Monthly said it first (ask the people mentioned in the memos, who are still alive... the higer ups whom they claim were applying pressure).
Rivka Respectful of Otters does a nice job of skewering the problems with that defense too.
None of which is getting people to look at the real problem with Bush's service... not did he fly (which he did, and for all that it was stateside, fighters, even the best of them, are not the safest of toys, so he gets kudos for that) but rather the way in which he has handled himself.
Kerry had supporters who were mean, and perhaps at the line of acceptable. He denounced them. Bush has supporters who are lying, and he doesn't. Bush has supporters who perpetuate that lie by mocking Kerry's medals, at Bush's convention and he doesn't denounce them.
That's cheap. It gives the lie to his claim to be praising Kerry's record. If Kerry's record is praiseworthy, then mocking it is shameful, and deserves to held up to scorn.
Back to why Bush's service matters... Now, today (and yesterday, and four years ago, and before that when he ran for Governor) he is hiding something. Maybe it was all above board, and just looks bad. A man of fibre, with moral fortitude, would have admitted to it.
Bush has tried, again and again, to supress it. He isn't owning up to his mistakes (or to his use of familial pull to get special treatment) and that is the thing which worries me. That lack of ability to say... "I was wrong" well it bothers me.
It seems part and parcel of what bothers me about many on the Religious Right... the act of being saved makes them think they don't have to own up to what they did... it's forgiven, and ought to be forgotten. Annoying when the sins are in the past, but when they recurr, I can't really grant them the pass they seem to claim. Bush seems to be taking the slogan, "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven" as a reason to go on making mistakes.
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Date: 2004-09-12 02:00 pm (UTC)Excellent point.
Sigh -- Those Memos
Date: 2004-09-15 01:47 am (UTC)If they _are_ forgeries, I have no opinion about which side (this is, I think, a polarized situation) the responsible party or parties might be on. Democrats could have done it, hoping the documents would be accepted as genuine, or Republicans could have done it, intending to convince the public that they were falsified (presumably by Democrats).
I have no problem with the idea that George W. Bush was an extremely irresponsible adolescent. (The old-age comfort of forgetting the ridiculously stupid things one once did seems to have been denied me.) I don't have much of a problem with the idea that G. W. and his father pulled strings and used family influence to keep the young man out of Active Service. (The large number of scions of wealthy &/or important families in that Guard outfit leaves no question about this being a common practice at that time.) I do have a major problem with a President of the United States who -- today -- not only doesn't admit to such youthful follies but tries to pretend that he was doing something respectable & even noble, and who does not publicly repudiate and excoriate those of his followers who attempt (apparently dishonestly) to demean his opponent's actual Service Record.
Don Fitch,
with no Military Decorations (or illusions of especial bravery), but with a few combat battle stars on his Korean War ribbon, earned while he was serving (as a Draftee) with the 40th Division.