'Just a Comma' Becomes Part of Iraq Debate

With the Republican campaign for the mid-term elections already imploding over the Foley sex scandal, the comments of President Bush regarding the violence in Iraq as being little more than " a comma" have been seized upon by Democrats as a further example that he cares little for the 2,700 US troops who have died in the conflict.

It was an extraordinarily glib remark.

I'm sure he means that, in terms of Iraq's overall history, this will be but a fleeting moment; but one can't help think he could have chosen a more sensitive way to express such a sentiment.

However, in an act of stunning stupidity, he is now choosing to repeat it as he wanders around the country campaigning.

Critics of Bush began e-mailing and blogging about the remark within minutes of the CNN interview. The Carpetbagger Report blog called it stunning "even by Bush's already-low standards" and added: "Everything we're seeing is 'just a comma.' I'm sure that will bring comfort to the families of those who have sacrificed so much for Bush's mistakes."

Then Ian Welsh, on his Agonist blog, postulated a theory about the hidden meaning of the comment, citing the "never put a period" saying and calling it a "dog whistle" comment that only some would understand: "He is constantly littering his speeches with code words and phrases meant for the religious right. Other people don't hear them, but they do, and most of the time it allows Bush both to say what those who aren't evangelical or born again want to hear, while still reassuring the religious right [what it] wants to hear."

However, more disturbing than even "the comma" remarks are Bush's outrageous claims that Democrats voted against the government being able to listen in to terrorists conversations.

"One hundred and seventy-seven of the opposition party said, 'You know, we don't think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists,' " Bush said at a fundraiser for Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) before heading to Colorado for gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.

That is a scandalous thing to claim as the Democrats voted against giving the President too much power and have always argued that the US should be listening in to terrorist's conversations but that it should do so under the law as required by the FISA legislation.

For Bush to make this claim is simply to issue a barefaced partisan lie in public. Nor are his officials even prepared to attempt any defence of a lie of this size and scale:

Asked about the president's statement, White House aides could not name any Democrat who has said that the government should not listen in on terrorists.

It would appear that the Republicans are not able to win this mid-term election by having anything resembling an honest debate and have decided that the best way to advance their cause is to misrepresent the position of their opponents.

Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) called Bush's comment outrageous: "Every member of Congress, from both parties, supports listening in on terrorist communications, but the president still hasn't explained why we have to break the law to do it. It is time for the president to stop exploiting the terrorist threat to justify his power grab."

And that really is what all of this is about. Bush is once again, shamefully, exploiting the war on terror as a way of holding on to power rather as a means of actually protecting the American people.

All the polls seem to suggest that the Republicans, who appear to me to be in freefall at the moment, are heading for a bruising loss in November. If the only way Bush can shore up his support is to engage in a dishonest representation of his opponents position, then it is a loss that he, and his party, richly deserve.

Click title for full article.

tag: Bush, United, States, Democrat, Republican, mid-term, elections, November, electronic, surveillance, FISA, war on terror,