Clinton De-Hugs Bush

Bill Clinton has been so generous to George Bush that I finally wrote him not one but two letters of reprimand. I have been irritated at his insistence in pointing out that he believed that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Fine, so he was wrong too and simply lucky enough to have been otherwise occupied and therefore incapable of carrying out any what has justly earned George Bush the world's opprobrium. And I also was furious at him providing even barest patch of cover for Dubya over the flood of New Orleans. It's not a question of who is to blame-- the law is very clear that Bush is 100% responsible for whatever happens-- but of forcing political leaders to face the American people. Even as Junius Caesar continues to accept responsibility only for "the federal government," Clinton was assiduously asserting state and local responsibility. Worse, he joined with Bush the elder in raising money for reconstruction even as Louisiana elders were discussing what sounded like the ethnic cleansing of New Orleans. I wanted to tell him, "These are the same people who spent 10 years trying to destroy you, Bill. Being a Christian means forgiving your enemies, not endorsing them." So, I was pleased to see the hug come to an end: Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction." The Iraq war diverted US attention from the war on terrorism "and undermined the support that we might have had," Clinton said in an interview with an ABC's "This Week" program. ...On Hurricane Katrina, Clinton faulted the authorities' failure to evacuate New Orleans ahead of the storm's strike on August 29. People with cars were able to heed the evacuation order, but many of those who were poor, disabled or elderly were left behind. "If we really wanted to do it right, we would have had lots of buses lined up to take them out," Clinton. ...On the US budget, Clinton warned that the federal deficit may be coming untenable, driven by foreign wars, the post-hurricane recovery program and tax cuts that benefited just the richest one percent of the US population...."We depend on Japan, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Korea primarily to basically loan us money every day of the year to cover my tax cut and these conflicts and Katrina. I don't think it makes any sense." And if your newspaper carries Agence France Press, you might even have read about it.