I thought I was done blogging for the night, but then I saw this, and it needs a response. Phillip Girardi, in an attempt to make the case that Obama might be a solid choice for conservatives who are unwilling to vote for Hillary but hoping for a retreat from the disastrous Bush policies that McCain will surely continue, states the following:
As a conservative, it is frankly incomprehensible to me that anyone would want to go back to the sleaze, constant political triangulation, sense of aggrieved entitlement, and low life characters like Sandy Berger that characterized the Clinton White House. Nor is it possible to understand why anyone would want to cast a vote that would seem to establish a dynastic principle in American politics in which the White House alternates between people named Bush and Clinton. The American people and the country surely deserve something markedly better than the Bushes and Clintons that we all have experienced. Jeb and Chelsea, step aside please! Find a real job.
Taking aim at the deficiencies of the Clintons is not to exonerate George W. Bush, who has been a far worse, more corrupt, and much more dangerous president than Bill Clinton ever was. But let’s face it, as presidents go, Clinton was an ethical mess, actually making George Bush look good on the personal integrity scale.
What a load of crap. I wish that would suffice for a response, but it will not. So let me state again- what a load of crap.
I am not going to excuse the lamentable personal ethical lapses of Bill Clinton, nor am I going to excuse any other ethical shortcomings that may have occurred during his administrations. At the same time, I am not going to sit by and let someone glibly claim that those ethical lapses mean that Bill Clinton has less personal integrity than George Bush.
George Bush has been, without question, the most ethically handicapped President in my lifetime, and perhaps ever. From the top to the bottom of his administration, we have witnessed rampant and widespread criminality, cronyism, and incompetence of an unparalleled nature, and again, this has been from the top to the bottom of his administration. George Bush is responsible for the smoldering wreckage that is the current DOJ. George Bush is responsible for the disaster in Iraq. George Bush is responsible for the fact that the federal government has served as an affirmative action program for unqualified hacks from Regents University. George Bush is responsible for illegal surveillance of American citizens. And on and on and on.
On the day that the Yoo memo is finally coming to light, detailing how George Bush’s handpicked crew of war criminals orchestrated a regime of torture, and on the day that we learn the Inspector General is investigating whether qualified DOJ lawyers were fired because of their sexual orientation, it is particularly offensive to be told that George Bush, the man responsible for all of this and who knows what else, is a man of higher integrity than Clinton.
While I definitely agree with the premise that Obama will be a better choice than another Clinton administration, with all the luggage they bring, attempting to claim George Bush is a man of personal integrity while Bill Clinton is an ethical piker should be something that offends all conservatives and all Americans. Bill Clinton got a blow-job and lied about it under oath. George Bush, while violating every conservative principle imaginable, also oversaw the brutal rape of this nation’s most cherished principles, all while sneering and bullying those who tried to stop him.
There simply is no comparison.