A Healthy Dose of Reality for Mr. Bush (John Nichols)

[swag]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=57826

Just as they did following the memorial service for Senator Paul Wellstone in 2002, Republican operatives and their acolytes in the media are now claiming that there was something inappropriate about the manner in which those who knew Coretta Scott King best mourned her passing. So great is the determination of the spin doctors for a White House that seeks to protect George Bush from even the mildest expressions of dissent that commentators rushed Tuesday to television studios even before the service for Mrs. King was done to denounce former President Jimmy Carter, the Rev. Joseph Lowery and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin for expressing sentiments not usually heard by this protected president.

But don't think that anything untoward actually took place in the Atlanta suburb where thousands gathered to celebrate the life, the work and the politics of Mrs. King. The service provided the president with a healthy -- if all too rare -- dose of reality. Bush's policies are not popular, particularly with the African-American community, and the president needed a gentle reminder of the fact. Indeed, the president was far more graceful in the receipt of the dissenting messages that were uttered at the service for Mrs. King than were those who rushed to condemn his critics.

What got the Republican spin machine humming Wednesday?

The see no evil, hear no evil, acknowledge no evil crowd was furious that several speakers used their brief portions of the six-hour remembrance service for the widow of the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to pointedly echo the anti-war, anti-poverty and anti-racist themes that were so central to Mrs. King's life and work. The event featured no direct attacks on President Bush, who seated himself prominently on the stage of the vast New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in an Atlanta suburb. Instead, there were the sort of knowing, sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted, prods that often are heard at memorial services of this kind.

Atlanta Mayor Franklin, whose address followed that of the president, made reference to Mrs. King criticism of "the senselessness of war" and recalled, correctly, that the late civil rights activist's voice was heard "from the tin-top roofs of Soweto to the bomb shelters of Baghdad."

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[rodeodance]

1. yeah John. you got it right on!

[Strawman]

2. Interesting comment

"As someone who covered Bush long before he took office in 2001, I have always believed him to be a more gracious and thoughtful man than his presidency has made him out to be. Bush and his presidency suffer from having been placed in the bubble to which his neoconservative handlers have consigned him."

That's kind of hard to believe.

[pberq]

3. That's not the only place I've heard this type of comment.

In any case, it almost doesn't matter. He is complicit in the crimes.

[yurbud]

4. the "bubble boy" image will be used to deflect responsibility when

the shit starts to rain down on him.

Everybody else will go to prison, and he'll move into his parents basement and go back to snorting coke and cruising for male prostitutes.

[MadisonProgressive]

6. I doubt the folks at The Hague will buy that story

[yurbud]

7. great screen capture

[Mr Rabble]

8. Yup. The evolution of Ray-Guns defense.

Bush will pull his version of Reagan's Alzheimer's excuse.

I hope * doesn't get away with it, but I am afraid he will.

[hadrons]

5. sounds like the writer is trying to cover his ass ....

and rationization proir ass-kissing ... I guess he's worry about his kids reading his earlier articles and saying "how could you be so stupid even back then???"