rage, rage against the dying of the legacy

My friend Karen had a way with words, and among her best was a term meaning an ineffectual idiot or a singular douchebag:

g-spot hang glider

No one embodies that term with more gracelessness, denial, ineptitude, dishonesty, egotism, and peevish hubris than our departing preznit.*

INEPTITUDE:

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

Do you believe that the Gaza conflict will have ended by the time you leave office?

Do you approve of the way that Israel has conducted it?

And why were you unable to achieve the peace deal that you had sought?

BUSH: Remind me of the three points, because I’m getting — I’m getting a little older.

What a tool.

BUSH: I’m for a sustainable cease-fire. And a definition of a sustainable cease-fire is that Hamas stops firing rockets into Israel. And there will not be a sustainable cease-fire if they continue firing rockets.

I happen to believe the choice is Hamas’ to make.

Because Israel started it, so Hamas has to finish it? What say you to the question of war crimes committed just this weekend, moron?

How is Hamas responsible for Israelis firing shells into a house they knew held 110 civilians because the IDF told those civilians to take shelter there?

QUESTION: [W]hy haven’t we achieved peace?

BUSH: That’s a good question. It’s been a long time since they’ve had peace in the Middle East.
…
The challenge is to develop — help the Palestinians develop a democracy — I mean — and a vibrant economy in their — that will help lead to democracy.

And the challenge, of course, is always complicated by the fact that people are willing to murder to stop the advance of freedom. And so, the — Hamas or, for that matter, Al Qaida or other extremist groups, are willing to use violence to prevent free states from emerging. And that’s the big challenge.

And so, the answer is, will this ever happen? I think it will. And I know we’ve advanced the process.

How, you idiot? By getting Hamas elected in the first place? By backing every murderous move Israel makes?

DISHONESTY:

QUESTION: In the past, when you’ve been asked to address bad poll numbers or your unpopularity you’ve said that history will judge that you did the right thing — that you thought you did the right thing.
…
What would your closing message be to the American people about the execution of these goals?

BUSH: Well, first of all, hard things don’t happen overnight, Jake….

BUSH: In terms of the economy — look, I inherited a recession, I’m ending on a recession. In the meantime, there were 52 months of uninterrupted job growth.

[T]his problem started before my presidency. It obviously took place during my presidency.

The question facing the president is not when the problem started, but what did you do about it when you recognized the problem?

You throw $700 billion at it?

PEEVISH HUBRIS:

QUESTION: …I’m just wondering, as you look back, why you think you engender such passionate criticism, animosity? And do you have any message specifically to those — to that particular part of the spectrum of your critics?

BUSH:…I don’t know why they get angry. I don’t know why they get hostile.

It’s not the first time, however, in history that people have expressed themselves in sometimes undignified ways. I’ve been reading, you know, a lot about Abraham Lincoln during my presidency and there’s some pretty harsh discord when it came to the 16th president, just like there’s been harsh discord for the 43rd president.

And you’re like Lincoln because he ended slavery and you – what?

EGOTISM/GRACELESSNESS:

QUESTION: Mr. President, in recent days, there’s been a fair amount of discussion in legal circles about whether or not you might give preemptive pardons, pardons in advance, to officials of your administration who engaged in anything from harsh interrogation tactics to, perhaps, dismissing U.S. attorneys. I’d like to know — have you given any consideration to this and are you planning on it?

BUSH: I won’t be discussing — I won’t be discussing pardons here at this press conference. Would you like to ask another question?

QUESTION: Yes, I would, sir, thank you.

BUSH: That’s the spirit, isn’t it?
…
QUESTION: And I’m not trying to play “gotcha,” but I wonder, when you look back over the long arc of your presidency, do you think in retrospect that you have made any mistakes? And, if so, why is the single biggest mistake that you may have made?

BUSH: Gotcha.
…
BUSH: You don’t — you don’t get to have information after you’ve made the decision. That’s not the way it works. And you’re — you stand by your decisions and you do your best to explain why you made the decisions you made.

There have been disappointments.

Abu Ghraib, obviously, was a huge disappointment, during the presidency.

You know, not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment.

He’s disappointed that there weren’t weapons of mass destruction; not infuriated, not embarrassed, not humbled and sorry for all the people he’s killed without cause. He’s disappointed because he didn’t find a pony under all that bullshit.

PEEVISH HUBRIS:

QUESTION: One of the major objectives that the incoming administration has talked frequently about is restoring America’s moral standing in the world. And many of the allies of the new president — I believe the president-elect, himself, has talked about how damaged — that Gitmo, that harsh interrogation tactics that they consider torture, how going to war in Iraq without a U.N. mandate have damaged America’s moral standing in the world.

BUSH: Yes.

QUESTION: I’m wondering, basically, what is your reaction to that? You think that is something that America — that the next president needs to work on?

BUSH: I strongly disagree with the assessment that our moral standing has been damaged.

It may be damaged amongst some of the elite. But people still understand America stands for freedom; that America is a country that provides such great hope.

You go to Africa. You ask Africans about American’s generosity and compassion. Go to India and ask about, you know, America’s — their view of America. Go to China and ask.

Let’s see, India loves us because we’re giving them all of our IT jobs, and China loves us because we’re giving them all of our manufacturing jobs and continuing to buy mountains of their crap.

No questions, parts of Europe have said that we shouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq without a mandate, but those are few countries.

Is that why you didn’t go back to the U.N. for a vote on whether to invade (as you promised you would), because so few countries were against it?
…

BUSH: Because all these debates will matter naught if there’s another attack on the homeland. The question won’t be, you know, “Were you critical of this plan or not?” The question’s going to be, “Why didn’t you do something?”

Do you remember what it was like right after September the 11th around here? In press conferences, in opinion pieces and in stories that sometimes were news stories and sometimes opinion pieces, people were saying, “How come they didn’t see it? How come they didn’t connect the dots?”

Do you remember what the environment was like in Washington — I do — when people were hauled in front of Congress and members of Congress were asking questions about, “How come you didn’t know this that or the other?”

And then we start putting, you know, policy in place — legal policy in place to connect the dots, and all the sudden, people were saying, “How come you’re connecting the dots?”

No, you ass, the question was How come you’re shredding the Constitution?

DENIAL:

QUESTION: …So it was never the loneliest office in the world?

BUSH: No, not for me.

We had — you know, people — I had a fabulous team around me of highly dedicated, smart, capable people. And we had fun.

I tell people that, you know, some days happy, some days not so happy; every day has been joyous.

CHANNELING RUMSFELD:

QUESTION: Mr. President, on New Orleans, you basically talked about — a moment ago about the photo opportunity. But let’s talk about what you could have done to change the situation for the city of New Orleans to be further along in reconstruction than where it is now.
…
BUSH: …

And has the reconstruction been perfect? No.

Have things happened fairly quickly? Absolutely.

And is there more to be done, you bet there is.

Did you turn NOLA into a Friedmanist’s wet dream? You bet you did.

QUESTION: … You arrived here wanting to be a uniter, not a divider. Do you think Barack Obama can be a uniter, not a divider, or is — with the challenges for any president and the unpopular decisions, is it impossible for any president to be a uniter, not a divider?

BUSH: I hope the tone is different for him than it has been for me. I am disappointed by the tone in Washington, D.C. I’ve — I try to do my part by not engaging in the name-calling and — and by the way, needless name-calling. I have worked to be respectful of my opponents on different issues.
…
There have been areas where we were able to work together. It’s just the rhetoric got out of control at times.

QUESTION: Why?

BUSH: I don’t know why. You need to ask those who — those who used the words they used.

Like these words?

Instead of playing politics, Democrats should fund the troops with a bill that does not force retreat, handcuff our commanders, or contain billions of dollars in pork spending. – White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino, 3/30/07

Democrats are at it again. They want to fatten the upcoming Federal budget by $22 billion, saying it will have ‘virtually no difference on the deficit.’ No difference except $205 billion in additional spending over the next five years. No difference except the largest tax increase in history. No difference other than taking more of your earnings, so you’ll have to work longer to pay the bills. – White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, 7/9/07

The NSA’s terrorist surveillance program is targeted at al Qaeda communications coming into or going out of the United States. It is a limited, hot pursuit effort by our intelligence community to detect and prevent attacks. Senate Democrats continue to engage in misleading and outlandish charges about this vital tool… Such irresponsible accusations will not keep us from acting to stay a step ahead of a deadly enemy that is determined to strike America again. – Scott McClellan, White House Press Secretary, 1/22/06

If the Democrats take control, America’s families would face an immense tax increase, and the economy would sustain a major hit. – Dick Cheney, 11/1/06

I am disappointed that the Senate has yet again failed to pass real medical liability reform legislation. Unwilling to take on their trial lawyer supporters, the Democrats led this effort to block these much-needed reforms. - GWB, 5/8/06

I do believe that a significant portion of the Democrats, including, I think, Nancy Pelosi, are adamantly opposed to the war and prepared to pack it in and come home in defeat, rather than put in place or support a policy that will lead to victory. That’s a fundamental difference. – Dick Cheney, 4/5/07

Eight more days….

*sorry for the lack of a link, but Fox is the only one with a transcript up this morning, and I refuse to give them linkage.