May 23, 2005
Newsweek's Koran Story? Blame
Bush First
"Republicans close to the White House said that although President Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney were genuinely angered by the Newsweek article, West Wing
officials were also exploiting it in an effort to put a check on the press.Some
news media commentators said that the White House was blaming the press for
problems of its own making."
- White House reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, May 18.
A "Discredited" Claim that Iraq
Supported Terrorism?
"The White House has always insisted that Mr. Bush did not finally decide to
carry out the invasion of March 2003 until after Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell presented the administration's case to the United Nations Security
Council, in a speech on Feb. 5, 2003, that relied heavily on claims, now
discredited, that Iraq had illicit weapons and was supporting terrorism."
- Douglas Jehl, May 20.
Reality Check:
"Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein provided bases, training camps, and other
support to terrorist groups fighting the governments of neighboring Turkey and
Iran, as well as to Palestinian terror groups." - From a backgrounder from The
Council on Foreign Relations.
Another Wacky Comparison
"Sitcoms are the television equivalent of the ozone layer: almost all indicators
suggest that both are imperiled, yet there is just enough evidence to allow
stubborn contrarians to hold out hope." - Alessandra Stanley, May 18.
Bush on Yalta: A Political Gaffe
Straight from the McCarthy Era
"When President Bush declared on May 7 in Latvia that the 1945 Yalta agreement
led to 'one of the greatest wrongs of history,' he reignited an ideological
debate from the era of Joseph McCarthy.Mr. Bush has criticized Yalta at least
six other times publicly, usually in Eastern Europe, but never so harshly. In
the dust kicked up by the quarreling, the central questions for White House
watchers are these: How did the unexpected attack on Yalta get in the
president's speech? What drove his thinking? Did the White House expect the
fallout?"
- Elisabeth Bumiller, May 16.
Starring George Bush as Darth
Vader
"[Star Wars creator George] Lucas is clearly jabbing his light saber in the
direction of some real-world political leaders. At one point, Darth Vader,
already deep in the thrall of the dark side and echoing the words of George W.
Bush, hisses at Obi-Wan, 'If you're not with me, you're my enemy.' Obi-Wan's
response is likely to surface as a bumper sticker during the next election
campaign: 'Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.' You may applaud this
editorializing, or you may find it overwrought, but give Mr. Lucas his due. For
decades he has been blamed (unjustly) for helping to lead American movies away
from their early-70's engagement with political matters, and he deserves credit
for trying to bring them back."
- Movie critic A.O. Scott on "Revenge of the Sith," May 16.
Bush Wiping Out Watergate Reforms
"The question that has yet to be answered is whether he has fundamentally
altered the presidency in ways that will outlast his tenure and wipe out the
remaining legacies of Vietnam and Watergate, which were taken as object lessons
in the dangers of a too powerful, too secret executive."
- White House correspondent Richard Stevenson on Bush and the presidency,
May 15 Week in Review.
Conservatives Disrespecting Max,
Again
It is hard to remember a time when politicians tried to hide handicaps and
hardship. Nowadays, even struggles that were once viewed as shameful are
flaunted as a sign of character.In fact, wheelchairs are now so accepted in
public life that many conservatives feel free to treat Max Cleland, a former
senator from Georgia who lost two legs and an arm in Vietnam, as disrespectfully
as any other Democrat.
- Alessandra Stanley, April 29.
