a shameful 4th

from Hunter @ Daily Kos:

On this Fourth of July, I have to say- my mind is mostly preoccupied with the character of the men chosen to lead this country. I thought Reagan a foolish but surprisingly effective figurehead; I knew George Bush 41 was neither. Nixon himself, for all his paranoia and viciousness, did occasional good. For all their faults, as much as I disagreed with them on much of substance and principle, I could begrudgingly respect each of them.

But for George W. Bush, there seems no agenda other than personal aggrandizement, and there seems no behavior that is unacceptable, so long as it treads defensibly just barely on the right side of technically probably not illegal. He is not a man in whom I can see the slightest hint of contemplation or cleverness. He is divisive for the sheer sake of division; he is vindictive, and petty, and from his public appearances a coward.

Helen Thomas caused a stir- and provoked child-like retaliations- when she opined George W. Bush to be the worst of modern Presidents. I can think of no counterexamples to prove her wrong.

It is important to remember, in all of this; Joseph Wilson, and his wife, were attacked simply because Wilson was right. The link between Iraq and Niger has been disproven; even the White House has confirmed that. Wilson's wife was attacked for the simple reason that the White House itself found her husband important to attack. And to attack this one family, this one act of factual dissent, the Bush Administration engaged the attentions of numerous government officials, a variety of Republican political entities, and all the press contacts they could muster.

Our country is better than these men. Felony or no, I am ashamed of them. And that shame represents a deeper patriotism than a hundred tattered flags waving from car antennae.