omgwtf!

This is my response to Tara Wall’s commentary, posted on CNN. I’ve also cut and pasted her commentary below my response, for posterity (hit “wait, I can explain” at the bottom of the post to read it). CNN’s links break and die. CNN also doesnt always post responses, so that’s why I’m posting mine here.

I’m TIRED of this shit. It’s a new fucking day. These people need to shut the fuck up, get on board, or get out of the way. No more.

My response begins below:

Commentary: Bush will be vindicated – CNN.com

Clearly, your definitions of “safe” are wildly different from the accepted definitions of the word. As a nation, we are many things because of George W. Bush – almost none of them good – but “safe” is not one of them and never has been.

To even try to compare Clinton’s “moral failings” to the egregious offenses Bush and his administration have committed against this country and the American people is simply more of the same partisan blind rhetoric that the GOP perpetuates, and you are yourself seemingly still blind to the fact that it got your party shellacked in this past election.

Clinton was nearly a decade ago, and yet the Evil Clinton Monster is the only thing you still have to throw in the faces of anyone who tells the truth about George W. Bush. You can’t come up with anything different because there is simply nothing tangible, no reasonable, factual argument you can make in Bush’s defense, and so you fall back on old reliable – only nobody believed it then, and nobody’s believing it now, either.

Aren’t you aware of how this kind of thing makes you look when you do it? Dont you understand that the only way we will ever be functional and whole again is for us to come together and that youve GOT TO drop this nonsense and grow up and act like rational human beings so that we can repair the damage that George W. Bush and his cronies have done to this country? How can you be so selfish, so self-centered, so determinedly pigheaded, so flatly unwilling to accept the truth and work to better this country instead of perpetuating the downward spiral?

The failings of George W. Bush are multitudinous and while you may deny them, the facts are still there and unchanged in spite of you. Commentaries like this one make their authors sound like they’re both on drugs and functionally insane. This commentary is factually and ideologically wrong so often and on so many levels that I’d have to refute it on a line-by-line basis to counter them all with the actual facts that are in reality vastly different from the statements you have manufactured here.

George W. Bush did not keep America safe. He has made America more unsafe and gained us more enemies, perpetuated more terrorism and given birth to more terrorists the world over in the past eight years than we have ever had to deal with in our entire history as a nation. That is only one of his many, many failures, and they are all failures on an extraordinarily deep and profound level.

There are very few victories that Bush can claim that actually benefited the country as a whole. To state otherwise and pretend that you have an actual case to make with regards to a positive legacy for this man’s presidency, to try to claim that he was anything even approaching a good leader, a decent man, a “decider,” someone with compassion and who cared about this country, is merely sticking to typical party-line garbage.

The facts are staring us all in the face, and not just us – the world. Nobody believes you anymore, unless they are in the extreme minority of utter fools in this country who think that Bush did a good job. These same people also strongly support Sarah Palin. If that doesnt flat-out terrify you, then you do not have the mental capacity to either hold public office or to vote, to be honest.

George W. Bush has never done a good job of anything except making his corporate buddies more money. He has done this to the detriment of the entire rest of the world. The current economic situation in this country is a DIRECT RESULT of his policies and administration. The astronomical growth of terrorism worldwide is a direct result of his dramatically failed foreign policies. New Orleans is still a ruined shell of a city because of this man, years after the devastation. I could go on and on and on.

Your defense of his record is pathetic and borderline psychotic. You should be ashamed of yourself for vomiting forth such a commentary, and so should everyone who believes as you do or who refuses to see the truth about this man and his administration.

Civility? Dont make me laugh. This is a man who has said time and time again that he doesnt care about what people say or think; that the Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper. His vice president, Dick Cheney, told Senator Patrick Leahy to go f*** himself while they were conversing on the Senate floor regarding the highly questionable and at the very least very unethical sole-source Halliburton contracts in Iraq. This, on the SAME DAY that th Senate passed the Defense of Decency Act.

Cheney shot a man in the face while under the influence of alcohol at a hunting outing and totally got away with it. The Bush administration has repeatedly stated that it is above and beyond the laws of this country.

Civility? Are you kidding me? Methinks you obtained the definition for that word from the same place you got your definition of the word safe.

What is the matter with you? What is the matter with the people who agree with you, who think the same way you do? What is WRONG with you? What is it going to take, how far do we have to fall, what level of devastation do we have to reach before you open your eyes and finally admit the truth?

I speak for many people when I state that the end of the Bush adminstration is one of the best things ever to happen to this country. Barack Obama is not made of gold. He is human and fallible like the rest of us. He has a tremendous burden that is about to be laid upon him, and I hope with all my heart that he has enough time and enough cooperation to at least stop our freefall and set this country back on its feet again.

I have no and never have had any illusions that President Obama will be able to keep every promise he made. Neither does he. Nobody should. But at least Barack Obama cares about what happens to this country and every person in it, and that is more than could have EVER been said about George W. Bush.

George W. Bush couldn’t care less about America or the American people. Never did, never will. Anyone who believes differently is either a fool or an oil company executive. It is because of his administration and his policies that we find ourselves today barely a half-step above a third-world country, and when you visit some areas of the United States, even if it’s not New Orleans, the first thought that comes to your mind is that some so-called third-world countries have it pretty sweet in comparison.

George W. Bush has not made this country safer and has not kept us safe. The best thing about the Obama presidency at this point in time is the fact that it’s finally, at long last, the end of the Bush presidency.

Good riddance to bad rubbish. And you, Ms. Wall, need to either wake up, open your eyes, and screw your head on straight or follow him and leave the rest of us alone as we try to repair the damage and hope that it’s not too late to do so.

Enough is enough.

************************************************

Tara Wall’s original commentary begins:

Editor’s note: Tara Wall is deputy editor for The Washington Times. Before joining the newspaper, she was a senior adviser for the Republican National Committee and was named a public affairs director in the Department of Health and Human Services by President Bush. Read her columns here.
Tara Wall says President Bush will be remembered for keeping America safe.

Tara Wall says President Bush will be remembered for keeping America safe.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In his final radio address as president-elect on the Sunday ahead of his inauguration, Barack Obama said President Bush “extended the hand of cooperation” to him throughout this period of transition. It was a final act of civility, on Mr. Bush’s part.

It is a trait that is not surprising to those who know Bush (or those paying some attention at least half of the time). At least one Democrat has given him credit for it. Unfortunately, that tone of civility has been lost on the Democratic leadership over the past eight years.

Civility aside, how others — more importantly, history — will judge the 43rd president of the United States, is the question that has followed Bush out the door. Lucky for him, it won’t just be up to Democrats to determine.

“I believe President Bush will be vindicated,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in an interview a couple of weeks ago. She may be an ardent defender of Bush, but I believe she’s right. She, like I, have a different vantage point than what has been routinely portrayed.

While sitting in the Oval Office with the 43rd president, for what was his last official week in office last Thursday, I got the sense that he feels he will be vindicated, too.

He won’t say as much, directly, but indirectly points to what matters most in his eyes — protecting the homeland. “History will eventually see … that not only was it necessary to take the steps I took, but [they] led to a better world,” the president told me.
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On a personal level (and for the sake of full disclosure), I must say that I have had the pleasure of working for and knowing Bush from his first campaign for president and throughout his presidency.

I started as a volunteer in 1999, then worked as a spokeswoman during his second campaign and then as an appointee in his administration.

Not only have I counted it an honor and a privilege to serve the 43rd president, but I have always had a deep respect for him as a person of faith, his strident conviction in doing what was right for the country and his commitment to closing the disparities that exist between black and white Americans — no matter the mistakes made and lessons learned. Above all, it is his dignity and civility that stand out to me most.

Yet, for many conservatives (not just liberals), Bush has failed on many fronts. From the miscalculation of the insurgency in Iraq, to failed intelligence gathering and the issues of maintaining fiscal conservatism and delivering real immigration reform — I can’t tell you how many Republicans and conservatives I’ve spoken to over this past year who have told me how “disappointed” they’ve been with Bush. A few among them voted for “change” as a result.

The legacy Bush leaves behind won’t be everything he wanted (particularly as it relates to popularity), but on many fronts, it will be better than that of his predecessor. Bill Clinton may have been popular, but his moral failings brought shame on the office of the presidency and tainted the people’s house.

That will forever be a stain on Clinton’s legacy. Not to mention, there was no such “civility” or “cooperation” when Clinton turned the keys over to Bush. I prefer principle over popularity any day.

On the moral front, President Bush delivered. On the social front, he delivered. On the fiscal front he failed considerably. Yet, on the national security front and on many domestic policies, he succeeded.

Depending on your vantage point, success may mean something wholly different. The details will be debated for decades to come. Among the many uncertainties, one thing is certain — you can’t judge history in the midst of it. Declaring one “the worst” president while he’s still in office is an effort in rhetorical futility. Historians know this all too well.

The best prediction one can make was summed up by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin on “Meet the Press” last year: “If Iraq became the model democracy or even just a democracy, and in doing so changed the whole complexion of the Middle East, then obviously that would be the legacy that would justify what Bush did and what our troops did.” And that’s exactly what Mr. Bush is banking on.

During my Oval Office interview with the president, I asked him to complete the sentence “President Bush was… [fill in the blank].”

He responded (uncharacteristically in third person): “President Bush was the president at a time when our nation was attacked, he clearly saw the dangers, he pursued the enemy, he put tools in place so the professionals could better protect the people, and the homeland was not attacked.”

That is the legacy he wants. Popular or not, he kept America safe. And if nothing else, for that, he will be vindicated.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Tara Wall.

Commentary: Bush will be vindicated – CNN.com