Ever the loyalist, Second District Rep. Thelma Drake has come up with a remarkably generous assessment of President Bush's tenure.
In an interview with the Daily Press of Newport News on the eve of the State of the Union, Drake was asked to identify the president's accomplishments and failures.
Here's what she said:
"I don't think any president ever wants to be a war president. When President Bush was elected, he had a very specific domestic agenda. When 9/11 happened, the whole focus was national security. He's had a difficult time conveying to the American people what his decisions have been. He's a person of very strong beliefs and principles. But he has the shortcoming of not being able to explain it to the American people and what it means to them personally. That's a very strong shortcoming."
Drake's view, then, is that Bush did nothing wrong but mumble.
As she tends to do whenever she's asked about the president, Drake left out a few things: Seven years of gross misjudgments, the refusal to hold any subordinate accountable, the demonizing of dissenters, the disregard for civil liberties and year after year of plain managerial neglect. We won't even mention crony capitalism, the sanctioning of torture, or the crackpot theories of an omnipotent presidency.
According to the latest polls, 75 percent of Americans, Republicans as well as Democrats, think the president has led the country down the wrong path.
Since Drake believes the primary problem has been the president's inability to communicate, Second District voters might want to consider who, precisely, is having trouble listening.
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Dead Head
The editorial writer made what appears to be an incorrect assumption in assuming that you kept up with the news to some degree. Does the writer need to repeat in detail whats also in the day's headlines for you to grasp the point being made? That'd require a lot of repetition.
Iraq, WhiteHouse attorneys tossing Geneva, endorsing torture, destroying torture tapes, hosptial bed end-runs around the acting atty general, hundreds of signing statements, warrantless wiretapping, replacing your own USAGs with more loyal Bushies, retroactive immunity legislation from the Thelma/GOP faithful, failing to archive emails, using secondary email systems, loyalty oaths, outting CIA agents. All with little or no consequences (excluding Libby to some degree).
What service to the public?
This editorial is not only laughably biased; it does a great service in demonstrating the major flaw in liberal politics: the complete and utter void of any substantial ideas or arguments – just naked distain for all things “not” liberal. Notice the complete absence of any examples or facts when decrying Bush: “seven years of misjudgments” – as if by simply printing it this small-time news editor can simply “deem” the Bush legacy as failed. “Not holding subordinates accountable,” – what does this even mean? Plenty of people were harassed by overzealous investigators and prosecutors during the entire administration – but hey, it sound good, so print it. Vague civil liberty erosions, crackpot theories, and I’m not even sure what “managerial neglect” and “crony capitalism” are referring to. But I think that’s the point – a liberal editorial can’t be bothered with providing examples, or actual facts and statistics – such things simply bog a piece down, muddy up the ebb and flow of the editorial iambic pentameter. It’s just supposed to make you say, “Yeah!” Then you change the channel and forget all about it. This is no philosophy b
And the band (and Thelma) played on
She's running for the Mother-of-all-Enablers title. What a maverick. Party before country every time. Careening from one iceburg to another, taking on water to the tune of 12.5 BILLION a MONTH. Thats comparable to building 2 aircraft carriers a MONTH. Leave it for the next admin to deal with. Nice job TD. Bless those fiscal conservative / strong on defense types. What a farce.