The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrac
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| Thu, 11-06-2008 - 5:20pm |
The time when I have been ashamed of modern America...
Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.
According to recent Gallup polls, the president's average approval rating is below 30% -- down from his 90% approval in the wake of 9/11. Mr. Bush has endured relentless attacks from the left while facing abandonment from the right.
This is the price Mr. Bush is paying for trying to work with both Democrats and Republicans. During his 2004 victory speech, the president reached out to voters who supported his opponent, John Kerry, and said, "Today, I want to speak to every person who voted for my opponent. To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support, and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust."
Those bipartisan efforts have been met with crushing resistance from both political parties.
The president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there.
It seems that no matter what Mr. Bush does, he is blamed for everything. He remains despised by the left while continuously disappointing the right.
Yet it should seem obvious that many of our country's current problems either existed long before Mr. Bush ever came to office, or are beyond his control. Perhaps if Americans stopped being so divisive, and congressional leaders came together to work with the president on some of these problems, he would actually have had a fighting chance of solving them.
Like the president said in his 2004 victory speech, "We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."
To be sure, Mr. Bush is not completely alone. His low approval ratings put him in the good company of former Democratic President Harry S. Truman, whose own approval rating sank to 22% shortly before he left office. Despite Mr. Truman's low numbers, a 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that he was ranked the seventh most popular president in history.
Just as Americans have gained perspective on how challenging Truman's presidency was in the wake of World War II, our country will recognize the hardship President Bush faced these past eight years— and how extraordinary it was that he accomplished what he did in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
The treatment President Bush has received from this country is nothing less than a disgrace. The attacks launched against him have been cruel and slanderous, proving to the world what little character and resolve we have. The president is not to blame for all these problems. He never lost faith in America or her people, and has tried his hardest to continue leading our nation during a very difficult time.
Our failure to stand by the one person who continued to stand by us has not gone unnoticed by our enemies. It has shown to the world how disloyal we can be when our president needed loyalty—a shameful display of arrogance and weakness that will haunt this nation long after Mr. Bush has left the White House.
By JEFFREY SCOTT SHAPIRO
Source:
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL | OPINION
The Treatment of Bush Has Been a Disgrace
What must our enemies be thinking?
Mr. Shapiro is an investigative reporter and lawyer who previously interned with John F. Kerry's legal team during the presidential election in 2004.

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Again I appologize for calling you a liar. You don't have to call me an idiot.
It is not quack crap and most of the people know it.
((((To think we can make other nations like us is childish and weak.)))))
>>> You have posted partisan propaganda from the leading ultra-right-wing editorial page. I would expect it to say nothing less than what it does.
"It" was an opinion...and one that is just as valid as yours...perhaps moreso because he demonstrated more depth and knowledge.
>>> The truth is that the treatment of Bush has been a disgrace.
I agree.
>>> It is a disgrace that Bush and his VP and senior Administration officials have been allowed to operate above the law. Time and time again they have lied, abused their power, and broken the law.
See? A complete lack of depth and knowledge. Your allegations, while ridiculous and partisan, can't even hold up under the most casual of scrutiny...
>>> 1. Valerie Plame. One felony conviction was not enough for outing a CIA agent and blowing up a huge chunk of our sorely missed covert operations against Iran. Libby was clearly the fall guy. And Bush's self-saving partial pardon was a disgrace and conflict of interest topped only by his father when Bush I pardoned Cap Weinberger and 5 others in the Iran-Contra scandal who had begun to testify under oath that Bush I lied through his teeth when he said he was not involved.
Hmmm...maybe I missed Bush getting convicted, or even impeached, for lying and outing Plame. Maybe that was because Novak admitted to it.
>>> 2. The secret spying program. This was an outrageous, covered up violation of our laws against the government secretly wiretapping Americans. That law was passed in the wake of Nixon over the vociferous objections of none other than VP-lawbreaker in Chief Cheney.
Nice bit of propaganda, but the surveillance was perfectly legal and did not tap innocent Americans.
>>> 3. Lying us into the war in Iraq based on trumped up evidence. We went to war for nothing. All the reasons we went to war - Iraq's supposed WMD program and ties to al Qaeda - were 100% false. This was not just a little off. Where was the accountability??
The "evidence" was provided by the CIA, and was based on previous evidence used by the Clinton administration to bomb Iraq. If "accountability" is demanded, then the Clinton administration should be the first to be tried...but trying to make Iraq "Bush's war," in light of the Democrats full-throated support, is simply hypocritical and ignorant.
>>> 4. The torture. The repeated torture, sanctioned over and over on a regular basis at high level meetings with Cheney, Condi and Powell, never have been explained. Nor could they be. They are a blatant disgraceful violation of so many of our laws. In the process of destroying America's integrity, the Bushies destroyed our prestige and amazingly gave al Qaeda the higher ground in the views of hundreds of millions if not billions of people.
And here again, we find a tremendous lack of knowledge. You might ask yourself how these "torture" techniques suddenly, and coincidentally, popped into existence just as Bush took office. LOL! For some light reading, try googling "rendition."
>>> I sincerely hope that this new Obama Administration doesn't just work with reasonable decent Republicans. I hope it doesn't also give a pass to Republicans or Democrats for that matter who broke the law. Our Justice Department has been a disgrace. It's time for Justice to enforce justice again.
Hope...and change. LOL!
>>and most of the people know it<<
You can count me in as one of "most people"!
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