Some flunky for the Bush administration said he thinks Jimmy Carter is "increasingly irrelevant." Typical response from a loyal Bushie. One more time, instead of dealing with the underlying Iraq crisis, the Bush staff attack their enemies. If they put as much time and energy into the policy of Iraq as they do the politics, they might make some progress.
All Carter said what most Americans are thinking:
In the newspaper interview, Carter said Bush had taken a "radical departure from all previous administration policies" with the Iraq war.The Bushies don't want a discussion of the substance of what Carter said. They want to turn this into a political war of words. And, the media dutifully follows suit. CNN's GOP apologist Candy Crowley said this morning that the White House was "emboldened" and "figured, hey, this is a guy we can take on." It would be way too much work for Crowley and her colleagues to discuss the substance of what Carter said. But even if the pundits want to discuss politics, they could look at the polls showing Americans think Bush's main foreign policy initiative, the Iraq war, is a disaster. Crowley could even read CNN's latest poll for some insight.
"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," Carter said.
Also, got an email from a friend who said, "Here's how the gop is still better than the dems: Jimmy Carter is getting blasted for his comments -- and no one from the dems is defending him." That seems true, even though Carter is absolutely right. On this morning's Today Show, Carter, ever the statesman, tried to de-escalate the situation. In any event, we'll defend Carter, because he's right.
