With revisionists, Dubya was the anti-terrorist hero

Now that all of the celebrated dignitaries  were on their best behavior at the feel-good dedication of the George W. Bush library (somehow I don't associate libraries with Dubya), it was left to the revisionist gallery to slam President Obama for security breakdowns that his predecessor would never have experienced.

For example, Rep. Tom Cotton, a right-wing Arkansas Republican, screeched that "in the seven years after 9/11 how many terrorists reached the United States? NONE!"  Trouble is, on that deadly day 2,977 persons died at the hands of terrorists  and when I went back to check record, turns out that it happened on Bush's watch. Oh, I probably should mention that the young terrorists who staged the Marathon attacks were said to have been living in the U.S. for more than 10 years.  That would mean they arrived on our soil during the Bush years.

Then we encountered  columnist Charles Krauthammer's spin, in which he crowed about his man Bush.  "He did not just keep us safe, he created the entire antiterror infrastructure that continues to keep us safe."  Still, he couldn't resist blaming Obama fore letting it all "fall apart".

Folks, this is textbook revisionism.  You can find post 9/11 reports that said warnings of a possible attack from the air were largely ignored. You can access videos in which Bush later said he didn't know the whereabouts of bin Laden and didn't think it was all that important anyway.

But as it's often been said, Why let the details ruin a good story  - or in this case, awfully distorted history.

At least one positive side to Romney's gaffes?

Growing up in the newspaper business I was occasionally reminded by some older pros that it was bad manners - ungentlemanly, really - to  criticize other members of the press.  Newspapers generally are not comfortable about negative references to their line of work, particularly self-reported negative references to their line of work

So I will qualify today's Grumpy Abe's wisdom by saying it is not intended to be criticism but rather  entry level reporting about views expressed by another columnist.

FACT:  Such conservative stalwarts as Karl Rove and  Charles Krauthammer were stunned by Road Scholar Mitt Romney's widely reported gaffes on his overseas trip.  Rove said Mitt blew it; Krauthammer found the Republican candidate's verbal behavior  "incomprehensible," "unbelievable" and "beyond human comprehension."

But in fairness, I should also tell you that at least one editorial board conservative columnist at the Plain Dealer lauded Romney and blamed  his image problems on the always suspect national media.

So here, without further comment, is the conclusion of Kevin O'Brien, while admitting that one of my bad habits, culturally speaking,  is to occasionally read from the bottom up:

"The national media can't get over Obama, so they'll never be your friends.

"Final scorecard:  "You [Romney] visited allies we've badly neglected these last three years, said things that made sense and offended people who don't like you, anyway.

"Good road trip."

Take that, libs  Krauthammer and Rove!

Oops and Oops

THANKS TO the blog Think Progress for alerting me to the learned malfunction of two of the nation's most visible right-wing commentators.

The first one belongs in the history books for disconnects: Hosting a conference to support English-only language in America, Pat Buchanan again assailed Sonia Sotomayor on her ethnic roots while ridiculing her reading habits as a child that supposedly prepared her for the Ivy League by reading only children's books. Ha, ha! But the conference room featured a large banner that misspelled conference as "conferenece." Some days, Pat, it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

The second misfire was offered by Charles Krauthammer, the always-dyspeptic right-wing columnist and talk show guy who has been hammering President Obama for being too meek in engaging in the Iranian uprising. Krauty even sizzled because Obama referred to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the "supreme leader," which is, after all, the supreme leader's official title over there, whether we like it or not. However, appearing later on Dennis Miller's radio show, Krauty had this to say:

"There's no way he's ( Obama) going to sweet talk, you know, the supreme leader out of his nukes."

Maybe it all depends on how you tell it, right Chuck?