by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
National Review Online<\/em><\/p>\n President Bush was ridiculed today by critics of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility when he suggested that his administration no longer was incarcerating \u201cunlawful combatants,\u201d but was instead in the process of renaming them as mere \u201cdetainees.\u201d The president also promised to close Guantanamo \u201cwithin the year,\u201d and added that he had assigned a \u201cspecial task force\u201d to look into the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cOrwellian,\u201d the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0fumed in an editorial entitled \u201cJust Close It!\u201d: \u201cIf the President\u2019s Ministry of Truth thinks that his metamorphosing words change reality, then it is going to be a long four years. This latest Doublespeak comes on top of the President\u2019s ignoring his past assertions that \u2018signing statements are unacceptable\u2019 and continuing the policy unchanged from the Clinton administration.\u201d The\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u00a0joined in, adding, \u201cRemember that Bush promise about posting pending legislation on his administration\u2019s website before signing it into law? Well, somehow several days\u2019 notice has evaporated into 24 hours, and now zilch.\u201d<\/p>\n Bush likewise ignored criticism that on the Patriot Act, FISA, and extraordinary rendition his current public positions were at odds with those that he ran on during the campaign. The\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0noted, \u201cHere we go again with Karl Rove\u2019s daily machinations \u2014 it is the same old flip-flopping we saw last summer before the election, when an opportunistic Bush reversed himself on NAFTA, public campaign financing, Iraq, the surge, Iran, offshore oil, nuclear power, coal plants, capital punishment, gun control, and abortion. One would think the dignity of the office might nudge Mr. Bush away from his perpetual campaign trimming. But then we have a President who seems glued to his Teleprompter and the scripted message feeding in from the right-wing attack machine.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bush administration was further embarrassed when it boasted that the fundamentals of the economy were \u201csound\u201d \u2014 although in its prior requests for bailout funds just a few weeks ago, it had ridiculed skeptics who countered that the economy\u2019s fundamentals were, in fact, \u201cstrong.\u201d Meanwhile, columnist Frank Rich complained that \u201cIn times of economic crisis here we go again with greedy and failed AIG execs \u2014 buddies of Bush\u2019s clueless Wall Street\u2013retread treasury secretary \u2014 using federal money to pay themselves bonuses for their rampant failure. But what do you expect from revolving-door administration officials in bed with the very corporations they used to work for? Get used to more $100-a-pound beef at the \u2018let them eat cake\u2019 White House parties, lorded over by this AIG surrogate who took more than $100,000 in their money for who knows what? Maybe Speaker Hastert can let those GM execs on federal welfare piggy-back on his private jet next time they come to Washington to beg for more of our money. These people have no shame.\u201d<\/p>\n President Bush had warned the American people that the present recession could last \u201cfor years,\u201d and that it was analogous to the Great Depression. Yet today, after passage of his new stimulus bill, his team suddenly reversed course, reassuring the nation that we might see an end of the recession by year\u2019s end. Then Bush himself berated the American people, charging that they had become too pessimistic about the economy. Veteran journalist Bill Moyers sniffed, \u201cThese right-wing mythographers seem just to make this stuff up as they go along.\u201d<\/p>\n When critics pointed out that the president had once promised an end to earmarks, and yet had signed more than 8,000 into law, he countered by promising not to do it again in 2010. Yet more trouble ensued when Bush increased the budget\u2019s red ink from $500 billion to $1.7 trillion \u2014 after promising a new age of fiscal sobriety. \u201cWe inherited this recession from the Clinton administration,\u201d Bush countered, \u201cand if we\u2019re going to offer real change, there is going to be some pain in order to get things right again. You have to borrow and spend to save and cut \u2014 anyone knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n Newsweek<\/em>\u00a0magazine offered a dry assessment of the by-now tiresome \u201cClinton did it\u201d excuse: \u201cAt least students who lose term papers can claim the dog ate them; but this administration isn\u2019t even that clever. For them, it is \u2018Clinton did it\u2019 \u2014 yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Expect for the next four years to hear daily the tired refrain of Monica, serial appeasement of terrorists, Whitewater, Travelgate, Paula Jones, and the entire cargo of impeachment \u2014 anything other than Afghanistan, climbing unemployment, a crashing stock market, and soaring deficits.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, another Bush appointee withdrew his name from Cabinet consideration. An administration spokesman denied a \u201cpattern of sleaze\u201d and allegations of a \u201cculture of corruption,\u201d brought about by the facts that Bush\u2019s treasury secretary had failed to pay sizable back federal taxes, that his labor secretary\u2019s husband had tax liens on their property, that his nominee for secretary of health and human services had withdrawn his name after admitting he had failed to pay thousands of dollars in income taxes for free corporate limousine service, and that his nominee for commerce secretary likewise bowed out pending the results of an FBI investigation into supposed \u201cpay-to-play\u201d favoritism. Late-night talk-show host David Letterman summed it up best: \u201cIf Bush nominates enough of his wayward tax-dodging cronies to the Cabinet, we might pay off the deficit yet.\u201d<\/p>\n When reminded by journalists that there were even more Bush appointees who either had withdrawn from consideration or were going to face tough hearings on past ethical violations, a defiant President Bush countered that he had established the \u201chighest standards for public service in presidential history.\u201d Meanwhile, it was disclosed that ten corporate lobbyists had been appointed to administration posts, and that his Cabinet performance overseer herself had bowed out of Senate confirmation hearings because of unpaid tax bills.<\/p>\n An \u201cexhausted\u201d and \u201coverwhelmed\u201d Bush was reportedly \u201ctroubled\u201d on hearing that his newly appointed attorney general had lambasted his fellow Americans as \u201ccowards\u201d for not addressing more forthrightly matters of reverse discrimination. Then\u00a0controversy ensued when the Bush energy czar ridiculed environmentalists for stopping Western water projects, predicting that without more dams and canals, \u201cCalifornia farms will dry up and blow away soon.\u201d Controversy did not end there, however, as Bush\u2019s head of veterans affairs suggested that veterans should start to \u201cprivatize\u201d \u2014 i.e., to use their own private health insurance whenever they could, inasmuch as it would soon be taxed as normal income anyway. \u201cAre these people nuts \u2014 or what?\u201d fumed columnist David Brooks, who collated some of the more amazing assertions of newly appointed Bush officials, before concluding, \u201cI\u2019m really disappointed. I expected a lot better.\u201d<\/p>\n On matters of tax policy, the Bush administration fended off criticism that its change in the federal-income-tax code was not, as once promised, merely a small adjustment. Independent analysts reminded treasury officials that, in fact, Bush was offering radical new legislation, redefining tax policy on charitable deductions, private-healthcare contributions, and income caps on payroll deductions. \u201cWell,\u201d the president fumed, \u201cwe have to go after the 50 percent who pay no taxes and stay home in front of their TVs watching the Super Bowl and swigging beer.\u201d<\/p>\n In the face of such sustained criticism, it was leaked that once more Karl Rove, along with some former Reagan officials and prominent conservative bloggers, had orchestrated a campaign from the West Wing to go after Bill Maher, Michael Moore, Keith Olbermann, and other prominent Bush critics in a strategy supposedly called \u201cThe New Face of the Democratic Party.\u201d Videotape of a recent interview belied Rove\u2019s repeated denial that he had boasted of \u201cnever wasting a good crisis.\u201d That brought a rebuke from veteran political observer David Gergen: \u201cHere we are in Depression-like times, and all the Bushies can think of is how to use the ensuing fear to ram a right-wing social and economic agenda down the terrified throats of the American people. Shame on them!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShould we laugh or cry over this inept Texas bunch?\u201d wrote the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u2019s Bob Herbert. \u201cLet me get this straight: The British prime minister comes to Washington. Bush and his Texas yahoos haven\u2019t got a clue about protocol. They snub him at the airport, humiliate him while at the White House \u2014 and give him some cheap DVDs as a going-away present. So much for Texas hospitality!\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a92009 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a difference an election makes. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online President Bush was ridiculed today by critics of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility when he suggested that his administration no longer was incarcerating \u201cunlawful combatants,\u201d but was instead in the process of renaming them as mere \u201cdetainees.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[723],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Kx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3950,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/scapegoating-guantanamo\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":0},"title":"Scapegoating Guantanamo","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 4, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services When President Bush arrived in Vienna last week, protestors bore \"World's No. 1 Terrorist\" signs while chanting \"We will, we will fight Bush.\" A Harris Poll conducted prior to the president's visit revealed that the European public thinks\u00a0America\u00a0is a greater global threat than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2006"","block_context":{"text":"July 2006","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2006\/july-2006\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3544,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-many-enemies-of-george-bush\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":1},"title":"The Many Enemies of George Bush","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services George Bush is not a very popular fellow. Witness the enraged reaction last week from critics to his suggestion that leaving Iraq now could have the same dire consequences as our withdrawal from Vietnam did. \"It just boggles my mind, the distortions I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2007"","block_context":{"text":"September 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/september-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1903,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bush-did-it-and-really-bush-did-it-and-bush-really-did-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":2},"title":"Bush Did It! And, Really, Bush Did It! And Bush Really Did It!","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 12, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media That Damn Guantanamo! Obama gave a rather incredible press conference about his review of security lapses. When he evoked Guantanamo, the president all at once (\u201cmake no mistake about it\u201d) (a) promised to close it, (b) promised not to send any more detainees home\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2248,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/being-frank\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":3},"title":"Being Frank","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner It Would Have Been Easier Just to Tell the Truth Given the recent arrests of several jihadist plotters, we can be thankful that Obama did not, as once promised in various early manifestations, end renditions, wiretaps, intercepts, and the Patriot Act (\"shoddy and dangerous\").\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1910,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/who-is-the-enemy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":4},"title":"Who Is the Enemy?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner I\u00a0don't think anyone knows quite what this administration's anti-terrorism policy is. Last August, Obama's counterterrorism chief, John Brennan, lambasted the Bush administration, citing \"the inflammatory rhetoric, hyperbole and intellectual narrowness that has often characterized the debate over the president's national security policies\" and criticizing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "January 2010"","block_context":{"text":"January 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/january-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2182,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/guantanamo-laureate\/","url_meta":{"origin":2885,"position":5},"title":"Guantanamo Laureate","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama threw many stones at Bush, and now lives in a glass house. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online Over the last decade Barack Obama \u2014 in campaign mode for various state and federal offices \u2014 repeatedly denounced the Bush-era security protocols as either unlawful or of little utility.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2009"","block_context":{"text":"October 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/october-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2886,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/2886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}