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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: calgal who wrote (509879)	12/15/2003 12:52:13 AM
From: calgal	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 769667

The Ace of Spades, I Presume? Jay Bryant (archive) December 15, 2003 \| Print \| Send The capture of Saddam Hussein came as great good news for most of the world, but not for everyone. Among those who, in addition to the mole of Adwar himself, had reason to regret the success of Operation Red Dawn one could list: Osama bin Laden, now alone atop the Most Wanted List, Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin, whose regimes and countries seem sure to be embarrassed by evidence now likely to come out at the Mother of All Crimes Against Humanity Trials, Al Gore, whose blockbuster endorsement of Howard Dean got shoved out of the news faster than you can say "bad timing," and Howard Dean. Dean, with almost Clintonian subtlety, said he would not be criticizing President Bush today. "President Bush deserves a day of celebration," Dean said. "We have our policy differences but we won't be discussing those today." He then proceeded to discuss the policy differences, calling for "a new course and take the American label off the war." He said, "We must do everything possible to bring the UN, NATO, and other members of the international community back into this effort." The other Democratic candidates agreed that Bush should use the moment to change his policy on Iraq. Senator John Kerry called for "a major effort to gain international support," and the others all said pretty much the same thing. Let me make sure I've got this right: Now that we have the most visible evidence in months that the President's policy is succeeding, we should change the policy. Don't you just love these clowns? If they were baseball managers, they'd pinch-hit for a guy who belted one out of the park his last time up. But the truth is that – at least for now – the only Democratic candidate actually hurt by the capture of Saddam is Howard Dean. Each of the others followed up their suggestions that Bush change his demonstrably successful policy by blasting Dean with the political equivalent of an AK-47. Joe Lieberman even used the occasion of an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" to cut a commercial for President Bush to use next fall in the event Dean is his opponent. "If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would be in power today, not in prison," Lieberman said. Right there on tape. Play it again, Sam – sometime around next October. The Bush Committee should slap one of those stupid new disclaimers on it and run it for 10,000 gross rating points. That the capture of Saddam is good news for the world is obvious. That it is good political news for President Bush is equally obvious. But the main reason that second sentence is true has been missed by all the commentators I happened to catch today. The euphoria of the moment will pass. There have been other euphoric moments in the Year of Iraq: Jessica Lynch's rescue, Tipping Day, the demise of Qusay and Uday. But the capture of Saddam is different, not because he is the ace of spades, but because there is follow-up. Now he must go on trial. One supposes the trial will be in Iraq, although it could be at The Hague. From the standpoint of the 2004 US elections, it won't matter all that much. What will matter is that the trial happens, and goes on for many weeks, months even. What will matter is that day after day the point-by-point documentation of this brute's genocidal life will be big news. In this age of reality TV, trials are huge. Americans who avoid the news like it had the flu watch celebrity trials by the millions: O.J., McVey, Muhammad and Malvo. 2004 held the promise of Scott Peterson, and perhaps even Michael Jackson. Now we are to be treated to in the Mother of All Crimes Against Humanity Trials, and every day of it will be a blow to those whose policies would have maintained the monster in power. As Iraq becomes more and more pacified, a process already underway and likely to be accelerated by the capture of Saddam (although there may be some retaliatory strikes in the immediate future), the meaning of the Iraqi war will come to be more and more a function of the images coming from the trial. Stories ignored so far by the media will become impossible to ignore, as they are presented in evidence. In the end, Saddam will be convicted and his fellow travelers here and abroad embarrassed. The War on Terrorism won't be over, but the way to win it will have been conclusively demonstrated. Likewise, the vision, policy and steadfastness of George W. Bush will have been vindicated by both history and the electorate. Veteran GOP media consultant Jay Bryant’s regular columns are available at www.theoptimate.com, and his commentaries may be heard on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” ©2003 Jay Bryant URL:http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/Bryant20031215.shtml