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Who’ll Be Next In Line For Heartache

A relative unknown came to storied New Hampshire, home of America’s crustiest voters, seeking their backing for president. He rode the back roads aboard an iconic vehicle, taking his message to the faded mill towns which spawn our presidents.

No, not that one.

It was George Bush’s “Victory Express,” the motor-coach that carried him throughout New Hampshire in 2000.

Which Bush lost.

Now the bus Bush road to defeat can be yours!

The Politico points to the exciting auction already underway on eBay, where you can own this metallic remnant of a humbler George W. Bush.

And that’s not all! There’s hardly a failed Republican presidential candidate of the last two decades, announced or otherwise, who hasn’t spent time on this doom patrol.

Alexander. Dole. Gingrich. Pataki. Gramm. Frist. Kemp. Romney.

The Loser Express’s final service to America was this year, when it rolled to it’s final disaster as the Rudi Giuliani campaign bus.

Road Worthy?

The Washington Post alerts us to the launch of the Bush Legacy Tour, an anti-Bush propaganda bus sponsored by the thoughtfully named Americans United for Change.

There’s no tour information at their site or in the Post beyond it’s start – down the street from the White House at the AFL-CIO – but the organizers would be advised to avoid a Counter Clinton Library like flame-out.

Offer May Not Apply In Your Area!

The Clinton Administration and it’s fundament were much mocked for their “parsing” of facts. The current administration is more straightforward: they strive to keep facts from intruding on argument altogether.

In service of this noble cause they’ve gotten a federal judge to agree that the White House Office of Administration is not covered by the Freedom Of Information Act. This matters because the OA is at the center of the enduring mystery of the Bush Administration’s missing 5 million emails. Seemingly endless litigation has pried some information on the White House’s sabotage of adequate presidential paper preservation, but if the OA can’t be asked what documents it lost and when it lost them the picture may remain incomplete.

Leaving So Soon?

President Bush’s thanks for the memories European tour came to London Sunday, with exciting news he’s swinging for the fences, trying to kill Osama Ben Laden before his term ends.

History is clearly on Bush’s mind. He’s huffing about his own steadfastness:

“I want it to be said about George W Bush that, when he finished his presidency, he looked in the mirror and [saw] a man who did not compromise his core principles for the sake of politics or the Gallup poll“

…and having historians to dinner.

What wisdom they will impart is questionable. Simon “an absolute fucking catastrophe” Schama is balanced with at least two Churchillian Greatness Sniffers.

Martin Gilbert:

“they may well, with the passage of time and the opening of the archives, join the ranks of Roosevelt and Churchill. Their societies are too divided today to deliver a calm judgment, and many of their achievements may be in the future: when Iraq has a stable democracy, with al-Qaeda neutralised, and when Israel and the Palestinian Authority are independent democracies, living side by side in constructive economic cooperation.”

Andrew Roberts:

“a lone voice told the truth unashamedly again and again until events forced the rest of the nation to listen. This brave politician faced public obloquy and collapsing political popularity, until he was proved right, when he became the most popular prime minister in recent memory. For Churchill, this apotheosis came in 1940; for Tony Blair, it will come when Iraq is successfully invaded and hundreds of weapons of mass destruction are unearthed from where they have been hidden by Saddam’s henchmen.”

Whinnie Ways

Public resource Michael Abramowitz reports in the Washington Post on a little noticed vignette in Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez’s “Wiser in Battle” Iraq memoir.

Sanchez has President Bush rallying the troops via video conferencing, teeing off the illustrious Battle of Fallujah, with what we might call an uncertain trumpet:

“Kick ass!” he quotes the president as saying. “If somebody tries to stop the march to democracy, we will seek them out and kill them! We must be tougher than hell! This Vietnam stuff, this is not even close. It is a mind-set. We can’t send that message. It’s an excuse to prepare us for withdrawal….There is a series of moments and this is one of them. Our will is being tested, but we are resolute. We have a better way. Stay strong! Stay the course! Kill them! Be confident! Prevail! We are going to wipe them out! We are not blinking!”

Churchillian!