To Be A Statesman – Or Not

I want today’s post to be a little different from my usual vociferous protestations. I want to talk about the posture or perhaps a better term would be the attitude of the Bush Whitehouse and administration toward other politicians, statesmen and women, and the American public in general. I have to believe that I am, generally speaking, a typical mainstream American and that any one that reads this blog or follows our government is of average intelligence and a reasonably mature adult. I know, I’m assuming a lot but bear with me here. Having said that I must also say that I don’t believe that the neo-conservative elitist that occupy the Whitehouse believe this premise. Why do I say that you might ask? Well here is why. Yesterday the Whitehouse released a 5,000 word document responding to the critics of the Presidents use of prewar intelligence or lack there of. I give them kudos and a pat on the back for this because I have said all along that they should be responding to criticism in a straight forward honest manner and with relevant, factual information. (Now I am not saying whether anything in the document was either relevant or factual or not but that they produced a paper which they purport to be relevant factual information. You be the judge of its relevance or factualness yourself here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/20051115-1.html ) My point comes later when reporters asked why the Whitehouse felt the need for such a lengthy retort. The Whitehouse’s response was a statement which said, "As parents of young children and dog owners know, it takes longer to clean up a mess than to make one." This to me is the most telling example of the attitude of this administration. Their attitude is exactly that exuded by their leader. It is one of a condescending elitist country boy, who’s your daddy, I can whup any of you’re a - - es, swaggering cowboy. For this administration to use such an analogy is to speak down to the American people and those elected officials who speak for them. Do not misunderstand my message here. I am not talking about the irreverent world of the bloggers and pundits. I’m talking about public pronouncements from the Whitehouse press room and speeches by appointed and elected officials. In the blogger pundit world we sling a lot of, you know, stuff. But when it comes to public discourse in the form of a pronouncement by the Whitehouse Communications Office you expect civil discourse and not nany, nany, boo, boo language. I think this statement alone speaks volumes about this administrations cavalier if not disrespectful attitude toward the American people and the world as a whole and it shines a bright light on why we are not the moral example we should be to the world. How can another country respect our actions when we are constantly conducting ourselves as elitist bullies and not as equal partners in our international intercourse? How can the rest of the world respect America when our own government shows such disdain toward its own citizens? I believe it was Theodore Roosevelt who said “There is a homely old adage which runs: Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.” There is great wisdom in that statement Mr. Bush. For your benefit I will put it another way. Conduct yourself as a statesman with incredible power. Please learn to do that sir before it’s too late for this country.

Those are The Sergeant Majors thoughts on that.