Friday, January 21, 2005

Dead Safire Still Yammering Away

Despite being completely sober--not even a cup of coffee since lunch--I managed to get through the latest Bill Safire column with only a minimal amount of gagging.

It takes guts to take on that peace-freedom priority so starkly. Bush, by retaliatory and pre-emptive decisions in his first term - and by his choice of words and his tall stance in this speech, and despite his unmodulated delivery - now drives his critics batty by exuding a buoyant confidence reminiscent of F.D.R. and Truman.

It takes "guts" to come out in favor of freedom? If you ask me, I think it's Bill who's starting to sound a little batty.

I thought we were to be spared the tired drivel of William Safire by now. Wasn't he sort of retiring, at least from the op-ed page, in order to spend his remaining days waiting for a decent funeral demonstrating his utterly useless knowledge of linguistic arcana?

Kevin Drum has a contrasting point of view on Speech Dubya: "I'll bet [Jonah Goldberg] a C-note that six months from now no one will remember a word he said." Drum also takes issue with Fred Barnes idiotic belief that Bush somehow fused idealism and realism in his "call for democracy:"

Saudi Arabia? Pakistan? Whatever else you can say about George Bush, he hasn't done squat to move either of these countries into the ranks of democracy. He treats the theocrats in Saudi Arabia with kid gloves because they can jack up oil prices if they ever get pissed off at us, and he treats the military dictatorship in Pakistan with kid gloves because they provide a bit of help now and then while pretending to hunt down Osama bin Laden.

I guess the right can argue that at least Bush knows now who's the head of government in Pakistan...

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