Borrowing the headline from TNR’s Franklin Foer, I think it’s helpful to take a moment, particularly on Fridays, to take stock of the week that was and consider what we’ve learned about the president over the last seven days.
To be sure, the elections in Iraq were the week’s most significant event, and in this respect, the president has to be pleased by the results. Turnout was high, violence was less than the norm, and Sunni participation far exceeded the last Iraqi elections. Everyone, everywhere, has reason to cheer the democratic participation.
But closer to home, it was another illustrative week for the Bush White House. Consider some of the things we learned.
* The administration will resist any and all efforts to combat global climate change, even if it means embarrassing itself on the world stage and acting like children.
* Bush continues to love the benefits of propaganda, particularly overseas, where his administration’s efforts are “extensive, costly, and often hidden.”
* The White House never took pre-war warning very seriously. The French told us that the idea that Saddam Hussein wanted uranium for a nuclear program “didn’t make any sense” because there was no evidence anywhere to support the idea. The Bush gang pursued the tack anyway.
* The Bush Justice Department takes civil rights so seriously, it will no longer allow attorneys in the Civil Rights Division to make recommendations in voting-rights cases.
* The president’s Defense Department seems to have no qualms about spying on law-abiding, anti-war protestors.
* The president personally seems to have no qualms about spying on American citizens, on American soil, without a warrant.
* The principal White House talking point against Senate Dems over Iraq is completely wrong.
* Bush is not exactly striking fear into the hearts of lawmakers at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Members of Congress ignored the president’s demands and voted against his position on the Patriot Act, overseas detention, and torture.
* The president still believes we were welcomed in Iraq as liberators, but it was “not a peaceful welcome.”
* His administration is really bad at diplomacy, particularly when it comes to Canada.
* Bush is willing to talk about Medicare, but only for pre-screened sycophants at gated community, not his own White House Conference on Aging.
Just another typical week in Bush’s America, right?