Running cover for Bush

EVEN AS we await the few moments left until George Bush renditions himself back to Texas, his friends in the administration are doing their damnedest to give him cover while they think of odd things to say - lies, really - about his legacy.  I was particularly astonished that he was said to have read more books than a Doubleday editor, including in the past year the works of Albert Camus.  As one who once took a study course in, of all things, existentialism, I can tell you that Camus doesn't always come through that clearly on first reading, especially so when you are someone who is supposed to be preoccupied with workaday matters like... oh, rising unemployment and closed retail enterprises across the spectrum.  One wonders why his apologists didn't advance  such books as Treasure Island or Wizard of Oz as his night-table reading staples.   His entire cabinet could relate to them and grade the president accordingly.  Besides, being a defiant Frenchman, Camus never regarded himself as an existentialist, although most other literary people do.   But that's another story.

Meantime, regarding the legacy, we are told to be patient in a waiting  game until the truth is fully known about his historic  accomplishments. That tactic recalls the six-month leaps of faith "until we hear from General Petraeus" - now a shopworn quaint phrase no longer useful for the Bushies' political survival.  Karl Rove, Dana Perino, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney are all huddling on their own two yard line to throw a 98-yard touchdown pass that would still leave the game well out of reach for them.  So what else is new?   This is a team that has been in denial for so long that they don't recognize the benefit of simply cutting and running  while leaving a toppling world to their successors.  Won't happen.  Not with this gang.  Not with the legacy thing.  It's their last remaining false hope.     

Honors for a bell cow

ONE OF the perks of retirement from a  highly visible role as a TV news anchor is that you get to share with the world the praise from profound thinkers who thought that you were swell.  There's no clearer evidence of that than in the VIP accolades for Brit Hume, the baritone bell cow of Fox/Bush News, who is collecting his tidy retirement pay these days.  But first, a word from his sponsors, broadcast to Hume's loving  fans around the world  as aired  in his self serving final encomium:

   "After decades of hard work you've become one of the most respected journalists in the business.  You're a role model for young reporters, and while you leave big shoes to fill, we hope many are inspired to follow in your footsteps."  ...George Bush.

It gets better. Hume got this salute from Dick Cheney: 

    " I've always known you to be  a skilled and fair-minded reporter.  You've lived up to that standard every day of your career, and you've made 'Special Report' one of the finest news programs in the world."

Enjoy it while you can, Brit.  Twenty-seven more days and the George-and-Dick dark comedy hour will be officially  off the air  for good.   I report.  You decide. 

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