"Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush's leadership.
He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a "my way or the highway" mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides."
As surely as night follows day the right began the smear campaign. Mr. Dowd, you see, is "emotional" and has "personal problems."
Picking up on the White House's cue, conservative weblog Captains Quarter's, in Dowd Bails On Bush, writes,
The man whom I believed so rational turns out to have run on emotion...
... As much as I like Dowd, and he is a very likable man in person ... boo hoo. I can't believe this Dowd is a grown-up.
... So Bush didn't act as a uniter. Neither did the Democrats, who spent most of the first term calling Bush the "Commander-in-Thief", constantly undermining his authority. ...
... Dowd engages in one long, petulant rant, consumed by his disappointment at Bush's failure to change when Dowd changed. I'm sorry for Dowd's disappointment, but this says much more about Dowd's emotionalism than it does about the Bush administration.
One of the reasons the Left-Wing Media pulled so hard for Democrats to win back Congress in 2006 is surely that they were sick of going to meetings that didn't matter. Hard to impress Hill interns with your access when all you know are disgruntled Democrats.
And finally President Bush himself, always one to pursue a carefully-crafted talking point, said Dowd is "emotional."
...noting that Mr. Dowd has a son in the Army who is awaiting deployment, Mr. Bush added, "I understand his anguish over war; I understand this is an emotional issue for Matthew, as it is for a lot of other people in our country."
Of course no one in President Bush's family - or few other conservative leaders' families, for that matter - is at risk of being sent to Iraq. The logic apparently being that not having to personally face the consequences of their decisions qualifies them to be deciding issues of war and peace.
Dave Johnson and James Boyce have spent over a year researching, exposing and trying to stop the Right Wing dual strategy of $ell and $mear. You can read more at www.smokingpolitics.com.
http://seeingtheforest.com
Dave Johnson is a Senior Fellow with the Institute for the Renewal of the California Dream working on progressive messaging, and a Fellow at the Commonweal Institute, where he researches and writes about the activities of the conservative movement's network of foundations and think tanks and the extent of their influence on American society. Dave is on the Boards of Directors of Media Transparency and The People Choose, is an advisor to The Philanthropy Network and is a member of the Netroots Advisory Council of the Drum Major Institute. Dave is the lead blogger at Seeing the Forest. He is a featured contributor at Huffington Post and writes at many other sites including MyDD, AlterNet, Common Dreams, DailyKos and Speak Out California.
Mr. Johnson has over 20 years of technology industry experience and has previously held positions including CEO, and VP of Sales and Marketing. He specialized in grassroots "viral" marketing, direct mail, and Internet applications. His earlier career included technical positions in the technology industry, notably in video game design at companies including Atari and Imagic, and he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently Dave helped co-found Carbon Tracing, Inc., the company developing the desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the US.
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
