Caught in the Act: The Washington Post Swallows Bush's Latest Spin

The Washington Post is helping George Bush polish his flaccid legacy. Let's hope it's just a sympathetic one-off between ex-lovers.

Last Saturday, they ran a front page article on Bush-in-retirement. Woven into the puff piece was this seemingly bland statement (italics mine):

Now he will try to explain his two terms by writing a book and building a presidential center at Dallas's Southern Methodist University so that history will have the means to judge him fairly.

Do you catch that? The Post's reporter, Eli Saslow, is telling us it's imperative that we have Bush's tome -- and Taj Mahal -- to fully assess the past eight years. Where does this view come from? The sentence isn't attributed; it's presented as fact, not opinion.

Curiously, Saslow's sentiment mirrors something Bush himself declared in Canada three weeks earlier. While discussing his book, he dropped this gem of inanity:

I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened.

Never mind the bizarre use of "authoritarian." If he knows the meaning, he's un-American, and if he doesn't, he's uninformed. A classic pick 'em, as they say in Vegas.

The bottom line is that the Post has bought the con job from the "commander guy." He insists history needs his opus to nail the real story, and the newspaper has turned this shaky proposition into accepted wisdom. It's really his spin, nothing more.

Bush's ghostwritten musings will certainly be of interest, perhaps helpful. But historians and academics have mountains of material to work with. A self-serving memoir is nobody's idea of "the means to judge him fairly."

Abe Lincoln never penned his, you know, yet future generations somehow got the gist.

No doubt Bush acolytes sold reporter Saslow on such a specious notion during interviews. They must have been delighted to see it in print without fingerprints, reminiscent of their time in power. They're still covering for the boss, even though this isn't quite so heady as pimping the Iraq war with lies and outing a covert CIA officer to slime her husband.

It's too late, however. Bush's testimony about "exactly what happened" on his watch is hardly exculpatory at this point, much less necessary.

A confession for deceit or incompetence would be one thing. If he's offering more cubic zirconia and rust, we've already overpaid.

Comments

[makarovowner]

I would enjoy takeing my children to his library one day. There is no legitimate reason he should not have one.

[lisakaz2]

So he says. We're all judging him pretty fairly right now. He's one of the few who cannot accept it.

[Bluesue]

Proof of the Post's demise is George Will's column today railing against scourge of denim.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/15/AR2009041502861.html

[mendelcrosses]

I dont always agree with the post in terms of views and opinions,but i do admire their principle 'Sticking with their pal,for better or for worst.'

[Bluesue]

Do you believe that's the role of journalism? Sounds more like advocacy than reporting.

[violettefemme]

Right, like "staying the course".

Didn't work for a war, doesn't work for a newspaper that is supposed to remain neutral...

[raker]

The Post is an accomplice, before, during and after the fact.

[IllinoisTexan43]

There's not going to be a library until SMU gets their eminent domain snafu sorted out. Heh. SMU overstepped their bounds on this one.

[Bluesue]

I'm not surprised. The Post's best days are long gone. They have been moving further and further Right for sometime. From the way they phrase headlines to the content of stories to the editorial page.

[Bush-Rolled]

Google had it about right: W = Abject Failure.

[weslenforever]

Well it will be a VERY short book if it's meant to explain anything he did or said as president, since it's ALL "classified". It won't take more than a minute to write it. The bulk of it will be left to right, top to bottom black lines and "redacted" printed at the bottom of all the pages.

[dwedge]

So when Bush writes the "Authoritarian" version of his administration, who are you going to believe, GWB ,or your lying eyes?

[not one of the sheep]

Couldn't care less!! Bush is not president, Clinton is not president, Sr. Bush is not president, Regan and Carter are not president! Obama is president. It's about time to get off the crybaby, hate Bush wagon and concentrate on working to fix the problems that BOTH parties put us in.

[springsm]

Oh you are one of the sheep alright. We need to care, bush should not be allowed to change the history so that he appears honest and forthcoming. He isn't, he wasn't and we and many others are suffering from it. But in many aspects the other party is not totally home free. But you should care.

[lungfish]

Yes, there needs to be an accounting... we can't have war criminals living among us who can't travel the world for fear of being held accountable..... I think he should write his book and pen his excuses and nonsense.... and then we should have him saying the same thing in front of a jury and see if there is reasonable doubt...

[lungfish]

George W Bush and his band of Compassionate Conservatives is an abject failure. I doubt that he can write a book by himself. I doubt that he can even spell. I can imagine what such a book would be like. The readable parts will demonstrate a nonsensical lack of understanding about the state of the world when he came to power and a complete lack of personal accountability for torture, etc....
What could he say about the fact that the majority of people caught up in his kidnapping and torture program are not accounted for, can not be found, and that many that survived were innocent people caught up in bad intelligence gleaned from torture sessions? Gore told us two years ago that the estimate is that over 100 people died during CIA rendition/­interrogat­ions..... What will Dubya say about that?
What will he say about the uptick in terrorism on his watch, the hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded noncombatants, his abuses of power with his secret legal opinion that amounted to treason? What will he say about his refusal to keep his promise and fire the person that leaked Valerie Plames name, a treasonous act also, and his reasons for not pardoning Scooter Libby when it the FBI interviewd Cheney and he ADMITTED that he leaked her name "inadvertantly"?

[nomoneynoworries]

Wow.What a nasty article.I read articles like this and wonder about the supporters of such venom.This from an adult?Great example for the kids.

[Rastageneral]

I thought the tone of the article was appropriate for addressing the tone of the previous administration. Other than tribunals, I don't see any other way in which they should be dealt with.

[WmC]

If Bush is lucky, later generations will mistake him for Will Ferrell and compliment him for his performance in Talladega Nights.

[sasidechick]

My question is how does he know what happened the last eight years? Did he talk to Cheney?

[TardisJockey]

LOL!! Brilliant.