Politicizing, Purging, and De-Professionalizing

First of all, I would like to give a shout out to Dan Froomkin and his currently titled "White House Watch" for his stellar reporting on Washingtonpost.com; his extensive fact-checking sets the standard for research and piecing together the minuscule amount of information coming out of the Bush White House into something of an insider's look. Lauding him with the highest of praise may seem out of character, but I'm always excited when someone mentions the dreaded 'I' word in relation to a high-placed Bush Administration official.

Secondly, it is a pretty sure sign of things going horribly wrong when your former front man, in this case Scott McClellan, starts talking to the public about how you should come clean about some random (one of many, I'm sure) skeletons in ones closet. But of course, one's enemies already know that. Hopefully.

Tertiarily, it would appear that Bush's taste of a traditional Uruguayan asado has come with a few, I would to so far as to say morally, challenging questions in foreign policy. For those of a "left-leaning" persuasion whom Bush is seeking to reach out to, there is the difficult question of whether to deal with someone who would seem to embody the Christian mythology embodiment of evil. Or, whether such a high-profile visit is worth the collateral political damage. But, things such as this and this would tend to lead such considerations. If you can't speak Spanish, the pictures are pretty telling in their content. It would seem that the biggest question that arose from this whole affair for Bush was how good was the lamb in Uruguay?

On the subject of lancing boils, and to provide a little context to the discussion that makes up the most of Dan Froomkin's column, let this humble blogger kindly direct the curious read to this, or for a lighter bit of reading. It may seem strange to put Bush in such laudable company as Stalin, Hitler, or Mao, but so rarely in the course of American history has a president gone so far as boldly launch wars of global proportions.