Sensitive Subject  

Amidst the excitement over the Bush administration’s torture memos [in the spirit of TARP let’s call them Legacy Crimes], various former Bush-ists are surfacing with accounts aimed at minimizing their own involvement, or to further their “secret good guy” personal narrative.

9-11 Commission Executive Director and Condi Rice operative Philip Zelikow is out with his own heroic tale of dissent in a dark time.

Zelikow says he learned of the Legacy Crimes while working at State for Condoleezza Rice in May 2005.  He claims he spoke up, but stayed silent, until now:

“In the State Department, Secretary Rice and her Legal Adviser, John Bellinger, were then the only other individuals briefed on these details. In compliance with the security agreements I have signed, I have never discussed or disclosed any substantive details about the program until the classified information has been released.“

Left out of course is Rice’s presence  at pre-2005 White House meetings,  where Legacy Crimes were plotted, down to the slap level.

Zelikow went on to serve the 9-11 Commission, where between meeting with Karl Rove, pushing 9-11 madwoman Laurie Mylroie‘s Saddam-Did-It theories, and endless battles with the White House over classification,  he didn’t find the occasion to inform the Commission of just what “enhanced” entailed.

Zelikow’s recent version says “The Commission wondered how captives were questioned” but is silent on how he might have shed some light at the time. The 9-11 Report burnished the reputation of jolly Tom Kean and soldier of the republic Lee Hamilton, even as it fed questions into the torture chambers.

“We submitted questions for use in the interrogations, but had no control over whether, when, or how questions of particular interest would be asked. Nor were we allowed to talk to the interrogators so that we could better judge the credibility of the detainees and clarify ambiguities in the reporting. We were told that our requests might disrupt the sensitive interrogation process.”

Such acute sensitivity to sensitivity will take this boy far!

The Lives Of Others 

The haunting parallels of Lincoln’s and Kennedy’s lives infest the Internet, but what of Ronald Reagan and the latest New Reagan?

The unlikely Reaganaut is the bad boy of South African politics, Jacob Zuma, and the stories premise is amiable front man for expert staff achieved greatness.

Zuma is expected to be elected South African President Wednesday:

Let’s examine the amazing Reagan/Zuma life coincidences!

                                               

Started as trade unionist                      Started as trade unionist

Challenged sitting president              Challenged sitting president

More than one marriage                      More than one marriage

Arms scandal!                                          Arms scandal!

Others Have Greatness Thrust Upon Them

The Washington Post looks eagerly ahead to the  Frank Gehry’s one hundred million dollar Eisenhower memorial plaza, although somewhat concerned the task is not monumental enough for Frank:

“the new structure “will be a ‘plaza-type’ memorial,” with a canopy and a 2,500-square-foot support building. So it seems they’re hiring Gehry to design a bathroom, bookstore, small office and glorified sunshade.“

But the Post is fully with the program, swallowing the plaza’s rationale whole.

“the Eisenhower Memorial Commission wants to do more to honor the man who not only defeated Hitler, but who also built the Interstate Highway System, created the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and helped pass and enforce critical civil-rights legislation. “

Where to start?

I believe the Soviets played a role in Hitler’s demise.

The Interstates devastated cities and fueled generations of white flight.

Health, Education & Welfare:  what exactly did Ike do for any of the three?

All we got out of the ’57 Civil Rights Act was a commission, a job at the DOJ, and voting rights language so inadequate the real heavy lifting came with Lyndon Johnson’s Voting Rights Act.

Ike’s views are best summed up in his desegregation complaint to Earl Warren:

“All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big overgrown Negroes.”

“Turning Bo, the White House Dog, into a Teachable Moment“

Short of Checkers’ role in Nixon’s career, no.

Gas Goes South 

Not content with sparking America’s new tea-bagging sensation, CNBC Loser Laureate Rick Santelli takes his angry prophecy to Texas next week, speaking at the George H. W. Bush Library’s storied “Economic Leadership Forum.”

The Bush Library has apparently recovered from Chuck Norris’s stirring “McLane Leadership in Business Award” visit.