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Pat Buchanan.
Never in a kazillion years I thought I'd see this, or be writing this.
Nixon speech writer, Reagan-loving, Pat Buchanan was on The Daily Show (my number one fake news source) promoting his new book, Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency.
My mouth was agape, when he basically said (I'm paraphrasing) that the president was misled by his key advisors. These--preemptive striking, world dominating, guided by the bottom dollar--neocons. Which, of course, means the entire hissing crew of Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Rove, et al. We can exclude the Secretary of State Colin Powell, who, as America's foreign policy representative to the world (sort of), has not been in a good position to whisper in the president's ear (not that he would). So, in short, Buchanan claims Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency.
I didn't find a transcript of the Daily Show, but here's one from something called MSNBC.
MR. RUSSERT: Pat Buchanan, in your book, "Where the Right Went Wrong," you write the following: "In 2003, the United States invaded a country that did not threaten us, did not attack us and did not want war with us to disarm it of weapons we have since discovered it did not have. ... Now our nation is tied down, our Army is being daily bled in a war to create democracy in a country where it has never before existed. ... With the guerrilla war, U.S. prestige has plummeted."
Then later.
MR. BUCHANAN: Who promised us, Tim, a cakewalk? Who promised the president a rose garden? Who failed to prepare for what would happen after we took Baghdad and Iraq? Who are the men responsible for this and why has the president of the United States not removed any of them? Most of them over in the Pentagon are the neoconservative war hawks who planned, prepared and propagandized for a war in Iraq as far back as 1996. This was their class project. I believe they imposed it upon the president. The president bears full responsibility for accepting it. But why he has not removed these people from office, I cannot for the life of me understand.
It seems Al Gore and Pat Buchanan agree on something.
As long as we're all standing up and being counted, let me say I've never been interested in politics. (I, too, dislike it.) For all the political talk of our core values, etc., politics in general makes my core values generally want to retch. There are many perfectly legal and aboveboard aspects of the political system (lobbyists, cronyism, etc.), that go entirely against the small-town values I was raised with. I also was taught personal success should come from your own merit and hard work, don't be a bully, don't take pleasure from the suffering of others, do unto others, etc.
I don't hate Bush, or those around him. In general, I think most people are doing the best the can. Sure, some are corrupt, a few inept, and most can rationalize just about anything, which is why, thankfully, we have a Constitution. I don't think anyone is evil, but there are opportunists aplenty. Bush strikes me as a decent guy, surrounded by monsters. This has been my impression for some time. Odd that such disparate figures as Gore and Buchanan echo the same.
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