Bush "Fox News Sunday" Interview: I Refused To "Bail Out" GOP (VIDEO)

President Bush told Brit Hume on "FOX News Sunday" that he refused to "bail out my political party" by withdrawing troops "during the darkest days of Iraq."

"During the darkest days of Iraq, people came to me and said, 'You're creating incredible political difficulties for us,'" the current president said as his term draws to a close. "And I said, 'Oh, really? What do you suggest I do?' And some suggested retreat, pull out of Iraq. But I had faith that freedom exists in people's souls and therefore, if given a chance, democracy and Iraqi-style democracy could survive and work," the president said. "I didn't compromise that principle for the sake of trying to, you know, bail out my political party."

Former President George H. W. Bush, also interviewed, praised his son for the decision. "You can make a tough decision and stay with it," adding to Hume, "And he's been tested unlike any other president with 9/11. So he passed the test."

Watch:

Comments

[jsgaetano]

George Dubai Bush: "Maverick".

[Chopin]

Emperor Nero of Rome said something eeriely similar 2 millenia ago:-- "I am not going to compromise my lyrical poetry for the sake of preserving this stinking city of Rome. Let it burn for my eternal legacy, and for the principle of preserving the eternal city of Rome in the Heavens, enshrined in the free minds of all Romans."

[Chopin]

Historians agree on Nero --- he's narcissistic and certifiably insane.

[Wiserone]

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Guess GW had to lob that last one because this sounds more like his fellow GOP brethen are not making calls to have him at any future speaking engagements.

[whatsthatsound]

Yeah, it's like that old classic, "You didn't dump me! I dumped YOU!"

[Tom Payned]

Ah, yes, the road to democracy is not letting the country who desires it to rise themselves, but for a foreign government to decide now is the time for you to be free, take out your leader, then say, "look, you're free".

Isn't that the way the 13 colonies did it? And the French?

The Commander in Chimp has never understood that for a people to be truly free, they must seek that freedom on their own. True, other governments helped us financially, but only after we'd already declared independence and engaged the King.

Bush never took into account the thought that we just might be seen as occupiers by the Iraqis and as a meddlesome imperialistic force by it's neighbors.

It would be interesting if the rest of the world decided we shouldn't have a President and Congress, but rather a Parliamentary system, and thus decided it would be acceptable to take out our president and congress, all under the guise that we have an unstable president who controls WMDs.

Nah, nobody could view our system under Bush as being led by an unstable megalomaniac with a strong military.

[greatlardini]

SHUT UP AND LEAVE!!!!!

[realpolitic]

Bush always cast himself as the hero in any situation. I do not get this simplistic conservative understanding of freedom. To conservatives, freedom is the freedom to cooperate with America of die. Freedom to them equates with free elections even when there are no institutions in society orfree press to support the supposedly democratic governance that freedom brings. Freedom to them is the freedom of a cutthroat capitlaistic structure with no safety net. Freedom is the freedom of capitalists to run roughshod over worker's rights or to be free from any corporate responsibilities. Then in terms of our civil liberties, their idea of freedom is to listen to our phone calls without warrants. It is a very strange, scary conception of freedom, one that I would like freedom from.

[hortonhearsawho2]

Consequently, I never thought of the GOP as the GOP.

[StillAmused]

"During the darkest days of Iraq, people came to me and said, 'You're creating incredible political difficulties for us.'... 'course, most of them were Iraqis."

Former President George H. W. Bush said "he's been tested unlike any other president with 9/11. So he passed the test."

Asked what he could possibly mean by that statement, the elder Bush's jaw went slack and his eyes rolled up into his head.

[DrJohnnySkeptic]

The Bush gene pool is diluted.

[hortonhearsawho2]

never refer to a septic tank as a pool...

[tlgeiger62]

That's great ... I always like starting my day with a good chuckle. You rock!

[JohnnyKay]

To paraphrase, George Sr said it best years ago: "If the American people knew what our family has done to this country, they'd lynch us."

We know now, George.

Apparently, you never thought we would.

[whatsthatsound]

He didn't say that. He was talking about the Reagan administration, specifically the guys involved in Iran/Contra; NOT his family. This quote gets sent all over the place and is usually misconstrued as you do here. I'm no fan of the old man, but this goes a little too far into conspiracy theory territory. The man put his life on the line in WWII, don't forget.

[gorgol]

Well, be honest..it fits much better if talking about his "sons" administration. And as far as "conspiracy theories"?...I think soon after Bush leaves office, we're all going to find out the conspiracy theorists were closer to the truth than anyone wanted to believe. And as for Bush 1's "war experience"...does that really make up for anything?? McCain used up his "POW" benefits LONG ago...and to hear "daddy Bush" almost weep about his poor miss understood son, only trying to do his best..as he takes this country to ruin....sorry, I could care less what he did in the war....his real "accomplishment" was unleashing this "monster" on America.

[hortonhearsawho2]

thatsound...of a last defense.

[emily00011]

yeah yeah, my grandfathers did too, as did many, many others. They don't get a free pass for life for it.

[Chopin]

There's a common mistaken mass notion that the personification of tyranny and evil is a man with dark piercing eyes and a tiny pinched narrow moustache under the nostrils. Hannah Arendt, the German-American political theorist and philosopher (1906-1975) studied and wrote about totalitarianism and tyranny. At the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi war criminal and mass murderer, she remarked with amazement at her discovery of the utter banality of evil. Eichmann in the docks at court appeared as a frail bespectacled man, with absolutely no hint of the evils of mass murders of millions, for which crimes he was tried and hanged.

The "utter banality of evil" --- evil can take the familiar ordinary appearance of "a friendly guy that you'd like to have a beer with". Only when people lift the veil of misconception from their minds' eyes, that they can see the true face of evil. After all, this smiling man is just following his own marching orders, no different from the top men in the docks at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials.

[RoonToon]

You are simply, George W, too afraid to admit the resounding tragedies left in your wake.

[Gidster]

He does not admit them because he cannot see them. Part of his delusions.

[payos]

Do we have to suffer through 8 more days of these self-serving interviews? 8 years aren't enough?

[payos]

deathly lethal combination in any human being:

ar rogance
ig no rance
st up id it y
narcissism
self-righteousness

but pure tragedy when an entire country has to bear the brunt of one person's flaws

[Chopin]

The price of democracy is eternal vigilance of well-informed citizenry.

[DCinFrance]

How can any politician be so clueless?

[Chopin]

Better question: --- How can a majority of 300 million people be clueless enough to believe and follow so clueless politician, not once, BUT.... T_W_I_C_E ???