Thank You for Sharing
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 13, 2006; 7:56 AM
I'm well aware that various conservative pundits have bailed on George W. Bush over the past year, but now ( slap forehead here ) he's got a real problem: The funniest one has jumped ship.
It's one thing if a chin-stroking, throat-clearing columnist eruditely explores the geopolitical setbacks of the Bush foreign policy. I mean, wake me when it's over.
But when the sharp-eyed satirist Christopher Buckley turns his quill against the president, boy, alert the zeitgeist police. Buckley is, after all, the author of "Thank You For Smoking," which became a major motion picture. He is also a loyal Republican.
So when Buckley unloads on the president -- and without a lot of cheap gags -- it gets my attention. The piece is in the Washington Monthly:
"I voted for George W. Bush in 2000. In 2004, I could not bring myself to pull the same lever again. Neither could I bring myself to vote for John Kerry, who, for all his strengths, credentials, and talent, seems very much less than the sum of his parts. So, I wrote in a vote for George Herbert Walker Bush, for whom I worked as a speechwriter from 1981 to '83. I wish he'd won. . . .
"Who knew, in 2000, that 'compassionate conservatism' meant bigger government, unrestricted government spending, government intrusion in personal matters, government ineptitude, and cronyism in disaster relief? Who knew, in 2000, that the only bill the president would veto, six years later, would be one on funding stem-cell research? A more accurate term for Mr. Bush's political philosophy might be incontinent conservatism. . . .
"Despite the failures, one had the sense that the party at least knew in its heart of hearts that these were failures, either of principle or execution. Today one has no sense, aside from a slight lowering of the swagger-mometer, that the president or the Republican Congress is in the least bit chastened by their debacles. George Tenet's WMD 'slam-dunk,' Vice President Cheney's 'we will be greeted as liberators,' Don Rumsfeld's avidity to promulgate a minimalist military doctrine, together with the tidy theories of a group who call themselves 'neo-conservative' (not one of whom, to my knowledge, has ever worn a military uniform), have thus far: de-stabilized the Middle East; alienated the world community from the United States; empowered North Korea, Iran, and Syria; unleashed sectarian carnage in Iraq among tribes who have been cutting each others' throats for over a thousand years; cost the lives of 2,600 Americans, and the limbs, eyes, organs, spinal cords of another 15,000 -- with no end in sight. But not to worry: Democracy is on the march in the Middle East. . . .
"What have they done to my party? Where does one go to get it back? One place comes to mind: the back benches. It's time for a time-out. Time to hand over this sorry enchilada to Hillary and Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden and Charlie Rangel and Harry Reid, who has the gift of being able to induce sleep in 30 seconds."
Could a new group be forming: Republicans for Pelosi? |
