Good Riddance

There is a statement in a recent McClatchy Washington Bureau commentary that holds an essential truth behind the Bush administration.

The article is in response to McClellan's disclosure that he lied about the outing of Plame. He lied on behalf of Bush, Cheney, Card, Rove, and Libby.

Good riddance to them all

McClellan, in a forthcoming book that will tell some, if not all, reveals that his 2003 statements absolving top White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of any involvement in leaking the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame were untrue — and that the orders to make those statements came from President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, Rove and Libby.

Who didn't suspect this all along. I'm sure even Bush supporters also suspected the same thing. Apparently certain special forms of treason are fine.

This is the line that catches my attention:

What we've witnessed and endured during seven long years of the Bush presidency is the inevitable consequence of bringing vicious and unprincipled but successful political campaigners — attack dogs — into top White House jobs.

Yes, unprincipled attack dogs who are successful political campaigners. If you ever listen to someone like Kristol, you will hear policy ideas that are beyond draconian, beyond reprehensible. Yet you will hear an astute observer of electoral politics, actually to the point of being intrigued.

Americans seem to have lost sight that dirty tricks can create a dubious winner but that does not translate into long range harmony and sustainability. It translates into a culture of decay.

This is the meat and potatoes of the neo conservatives and Bush-Cheney-Rove. There is no public policy. There is no social responsibility. There is no need for truth telling and an open transparent government.

Instead it is about war mongering, war profiteering, corporate growth over social and environmental responsibility, unbridled greed, corruption, secrecy, torture, the business of war, and the destruction of democracy. All these things are the real legacy. This is what unprincipled attack dogs steeped in winning at all costs bring.