Let it go, peopleThe New York Times reported this morning that the White House has provided documentary evidence that President Bush completed his National Guard service during the Vietnam War. But the Times reports that some Democrats, including Terry McAuliffe (shock!) just won’t let it go.
The issue came up in 2000, and nearly half of voters voted for Dubya anyway. The issue came up again during this campaign, appropriately, because Bush was trading on his manufactured image as a soldier and a hero. But the issue has run its course.
There appears to be no question that Bush traded on his father’s position and influence to get the National Guard assignment in the first place, and then to be re-assigned to Red Blount’s Alabama campaign. Bush himself has admitted it: “I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes." Bush didn’t want to go to Vietnam. Few did, so why try to crucify him?
Because it shows his hypocrisy and duplicity, of course. How could this man, who not only avoided any potentially dangerous service to his country, but did it in arguably the most passive way possible, have the gall to put on a flight suit and play “Commander-in-Chief”? to attack Kerry’s anti-war stance? I admit that I do find that galling—but the point has been made. Indeed, we have over and over again seen that Bush and Rumsfeld are the worst kind of chickenhawks. They want war, but for political reasons, and they are more than happy to share in the spoils, but not the risks, not the price. Bush’s military service, or lack thereof, is the least of it.
There are so many examples of Bush’s hypocrisy and duplicity—examples of actions that have and will continue to affect our lives in significant ways—that we needn’t be reaching back to the 1970’s when an understandably frightened and coddled Bush sought to take the easiest way out. If we’re going to go back that far, let’s talk about Bush’s cocaine use, or his criminal record. But we don’t need to go back that far.
Bush’s foreign policy has been foolhardy and ill-advised. Under his presidency, the U.S. has lost enormous credibility both abroad and at home. He and his advisors have repeatedly been caught lying, and had the gall to keep on lying. When investigations are called for, the administration has carefully controlled who is running the investigation and what they can see. Let’s talk about Plame, about Iraq, about the Saudis, about Halliburton, about yellowcake and clean air and clean water and children left behind the Energy Task Force and the 9/11 investigation and the Patriot Act and the deficit and joblessness and all of the things that matter, that need to be addressed and changed and brought into the light.
Even as our nation begins to crumble around us, even as we cry out, “Anyone But Bush!”, the Democrats display a remarkable shortsightedness, playing for perceived political points, and missing the big picture. There is no question in my mind that the Republicans are better than the Democrats at politics and dirty tricks. It is their focus on those that is corrupting our government and our country. We can’t win on that basis, and we shouldn’t be trying.
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