Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The George W. Bush Legacy, Part I

A Thread Dedicated to One of My Favorite Bloggers: ContraTimes!

Contratimes believes that Bill Clinton was the worst president of all times:
I am guilty, very guilty. I did vote for the worst president in history. Didn't anyone else? You mean, I am the only person here who voted for Bill Clinton?
By that standard, on Contratimes's scales, George W. Bush must be the best, or at the very least, among the best. Others are thinking along these same lines, or speculating on Bush's legacy and place in history.

As luck would have it, morning's email brought this in - most unexpectedly - from a close and treasured relative of mine, who happens to chair a brand new non-profit. I attach his email below:
Dear friends and relatives:

I have the distinguished honor of being on the committee to raise $5,000,000 for a monument to George W. Bush.

We originally wanted to put him on Mt. Rushmore until we discovered there was not enough room for two more faces. We then decided to erect a statue of George in the Washington , DC Hall of Fame. We were in a quandary as to where the statue should be placed. It was not proper to place it beside the statue of George Washington, who never told a lie, or beside Richard Nixon, who never told the truth, since George could never tell the difference.

We finally decided to place it beside Christopher Columbus, the greatest Republican of them all. He left not knowing where he was going, and when he got there he did not know where he was. He returned not knowing where he had been, decimated the well-being of the majority of the population while he was there, and did it all on someone else's money.

Thank you,

George W. Bush Monument Committee

P.S.: We have raised $1.35 so far.
Contratimes, if you leave your email in the comments below, I'll see that my cousin adds it to his mailing list. In the meantime, allow me to conclude with observations from Garrison Keillor:
What's worse is the likely fate of the Current Occupant, who is contending with Pierce, Buchanan and Warren G. Harding for the title of All-Time Worst President. He's got a good shot at the title if only because he's had so much more to be worst with. (Any young persons who have been inspired by Mr. Bush to take up public service should be watched very closely.)

I propose that we change Columbus Day to Bush Day, a cautionary holiday, like Halloween, a day to meditate on the hazards of ambition. We could observe it by going through the basement and garage and throwing out stuff we don't want or need. Also, by not mortgaging the house to pay for a vacation, and not yelling at the neighbors, and not assuming that the law is for other people.
Graphic embellishments were added to the email.

9 Moderated Comments:

Blogger Beach Bum said...

My cover is blown. I was just discovered surfing the net by my boss because I laughed far too loudly while trying to look like I was doing work orders. Its cool though he read your post and agreed. Funny, just a few months ago he might have ben upset because he still liked the Shrub.

10/31/2006 12:06:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Vigilante,

I am thrilled with this high award! Perhaps someday you and I shall have our own monuments, our great sculpted faces hewn from the granite of New Hampshire's White Mountains or some glacial erratic in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Who knows? Surely there will be a day when bloggers are feted for their tremendous contributions to the world. Perhaps you will be up there with the best of them (and I shall be in crumbles in the valley below, like the Old Man of the Mountain).

Of course, I must admit that I was trying to be funny when I made my quip. Oops! Busted! Oh, well. But I don't see -- if Bill Clinton is deemed by me to be the worst president in history -- how logic compels me to conclude that George W. Bush is the best. There were other great presidents; there were many bad ones. I understand your inversion, but I can't buy it. For it implies that you believe that Bill Clinton was the best President in history vis-a-vis the worst, George W. Bush. But no one really thinks Clinton was the best president, right? Personally, I think the worst president in history, if I were pressed to offer my views, has to be the only chief executive who hailed from my home state: Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. And I am almost sure that a few of the readers here, after making my acquaintance, believe that Mr. Pierce is not the only horrid thing to crawl out of the Granite State.

Anyhow, I enjoy your wit, your feistiness, and, yes, your sarcasm. But you have at least been a fun host.

Blessings to you, and have a wonderful life.

Bill Gnade
Contratimes

10/31/2006 12:29:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

BTW, I love your 'graphic embellishments'. In fact, they make me sick with jealousy.

Peace,

Gnade

10/31/2006 12:31:00 PM  
Blogger Kentucky Rain said...

I think I might even be a little jealous Vigilante, but then again I will get over it:-) Glad to see you are up and running.

10/31/2006 02:17:00 PM  
Blogger Messenger said...

Beach Bum, we need to adopt a couple of acronyms to categorize blogging topics.

I suggest USFO =" unsafe for office" and SFO = "safe for office".

That's always in the subject line of my non-business email when it lands in my business email box.

10/31/2006 09:43:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If we judge President Bush according to his style of delivering diplomacy with armed forces, one historical empire builder pops up to my mind - Attila the Hun, aka the Scourge of God. Eh...strike that, after all Attila was successful during his lifetime!

11/01/2006 01:02:00 AM  
Blogger Vigilante said...

Pekka, I am confident you will urge some restraint on me when, in this context, I post an elegy to P.W. Botha given to BBC by Dennis Goldberg, ANC activist imprisoned during the apartheid era:

"They called him the Great Crocodile I will not weep tears for this crocodile. It would be hypocritical. He promised to make a land fit for all its citizens. He put them in prison. He let loose his torturers. He used his army of occupation in the townships. Children were shot down in 1976 when he was in the cabinet as minister of defence. He attacked Angola. He occupied Namibia. He destabilized Mozambique. He bombed Zimbabwe. He bombed Zambia.

He was ruthless. He claimed to uphold human rights. He denied human rights. I will not mourn for him."

11/01/2006 05:26:00 AM  
Blogger J.C. said...

All the more reason to get rid of Bush now before he kills another 600.000 or maybe hundreds of millions of people next. He is a lunatic out of control.
Impeaching may prove to slow a process. Maybe he could be convinced to quit.
Thanks for the funny expose` of Contra`s annoying passive/aggressive , anal/retentive posts. I really hate his , peace be with you brothers , capstones on these backbiting tidbits of hate-mongering quips.

Hey Pekka , I like Attila , at least he was honest. Bush is more like the three stooges , combined.

11/01/2006 08:26:00 AM  
Blogger LittleBill said...

Thanks for the comedy hour, you guys. Maybe I should try to lighten up.

11/02/2006 05:51:00 PM  

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