George W. Bush's invisible nose must have grown yet an inch or two more during his weekly Saturday morning radio address. And FDR, who began the tradition of the radio speeches -- well, I hope his soul is at rest so he doesn't have to hear this lying bilge from the Pretender in Chief.
On the eve of a national day of honor for our military veterans, Bush took the low road, jabbing at Democrats about a veterans programs bill that is still pending in Congress. The Associated Press quoted Bush:
"Congress let the fiscal year end without passing this bill that they know our veterans need. The time to act is running out ... The best way members of Congress can give thanks to our veterans is to give me a clean bill that I can sign into law."
For a refreshing change, AP didn't cover this with a reporter who wrote like a stenographer with amnesia. AP writer Deb Riechmann wrote:
Congress has never delivered to Bush a veterans affairs spending bill by Veterans Day, even when Capitol Hill was run by Republicans. And even veterans groups have been reluctant to criticize this year's Congress for the delay, because they are thankful for the large budget increases already engineered by Democrats since they assumed the majority in January. They added $3.4 billion to the veterans' budget in February and $1.8 billion in May. ...
The veterans' bill adds $3.7 billion over Bush's request for the Veterans Affairs Department's budget. The increase would ease waiting times to claim VA health benefits and add money to treat post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries.
Onward.
The article does explain that Bush and the Democrats in Congress are wrangling over other domestic spending attached to the bill. On Capitol Hill, that's politics as usual. But for Bush to choose this time to snipe at his political opponents over funding for veterans programs, with his administration's record, goes beyond lying hypocrisy and somewhere into the territory of nauseating pond scum.
And on this of all days, it contemptibly dishonors the brave people who have sacrificed lives, limbs and sound minds for a needless, crypto-fascist war that was very likely cooked up over foreign oil.
This is the same administration that has neglected veterans for years and years, allowing Walter Reed Army Hospital to become a fetid scandal, systematically denying returning veterans access to medical and psychiatric treatment, stretching our military to the breaking point, ad infinitum. And now they're beating their chests over Iran, even when it looks like the neo-con adventure in Iraq is basically lost, and even when the Taliban insurgency is coming back in Afghanistan. Been hearing the news from there lately? Doesn't sound like "we" tended to business early on.
This is just more evidence that Bush and his administration are utterly without shame. I get the impression that this may be the lasting lesson that Bush learned from his now-elusive brain, Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove. Something like -- boy, you have to get over this honesty shit. The idea is to win, and to say whatever it takes to get you there.
But perhaps, at long last, their supposed gamesmanship isn't working anymore. The Pretender's disapproval ratings now exceed Nixon's at their worst. They're over 50 percent.
This, of course, is no time for the undeceived to be complacent about next year's elections. But it should be clear by now, even to many conservative types, that this administration is the worst of modern America, branded not only by incompetence but also by serial mendacity and catastrophic hubris. And an antidote is essential.
President James Buchanan (1857-61), wherever you are: You may be only the second worst American commander in chief now.
Crossposted at Manifesto Joe.
