Cannot make this stuff up

And that has been true for the last 8 years, especially, but today had a few like this.

First, of course, is the unbelievable gall of Elizabeth Dole wanting to name an AIDS Bill after Jesse Helms. Kind of like naming an evolution lab after Jerry Falwell. Or a library after GW Bush.

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After all the years of Republicans complaining about Clinton auctioning access to the Lincoln bedroom, this HS advisor selling access to the Bush people for $600,00+ is kind of funny. I really don't want to hear a lecture from any Republicans in the future. Not about anything moral or ethical.


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Speaking of our Republican friends, Yglesias has an interesting post on the right's love affair with Teddy Roosevelt. An interesting figure in American history, but far too concerned with his masculinity for me.

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I love how Cindy McCain thinks that private plane travel is the only way to get around Arizona. And it is Obama who is the elitist.

Sigh.

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Jane Mayer's new book is getting a lot of press. Seems she thinks that Cheney is responsible for a lot of our torture. Turns out he simply ignored or over-rode any objections by moral or legal critics who said this was not the way to go. And despite our commenter's critique, there is ample evidence that the torture was not only immoral, but also simply unhelpful:

Meanwhile, although President Bush has argued that “enhanced” interrogation had led to numerous breakthroughs he has never publicly acknowledged the false and fabricated intelligence it has yielded, too. One former top CIA official told me, “Ninety percent of what we got was crap.”

I think Cheney is going to have a lot to answer for as his "legacy" is written. At this point, I suspect that Bush will come across as a man in over his head, who delegated the wrong tasks to the wrong people.

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I think some will find Obama disappointing as a Presidential candidate because he is so damn pragmatic, but I, for one, find that option quite compelling. After 8 years of idiot ideologues, I would welcome someone pursuing foreign policy more on the model of the first President Bush.

And I remember when we thought HW Bush was dumb. Turns out, he was quite smart and capable.