Why Oh Why Can't We Have a Better Press Corps? (Mike the Mad Biologist Weighs in)
Mike the Mad Biologist is not mad in the sense of "insane," but mad in the sense of "outraged." He is shrill:
Mike the Mad Biologist: What Was Richard Cohen Thinking?: Richard Cohen's column is... mind boggling:
But if you told me, as some have been implying, that Bush is a racist or that he doesn't care about black people, I would not only say that you're wrong but add, "Not the George Bush I know." Of course, I don't know George Bush personally. But in his first presidential campaign, I traveled with him and tried, as he might say, to look into his heart. Conveniently enough, he sometimes wears it on his sleeve -- never more so, as I discovered, than when he talks about poor kids and racial and ethnic minorities. His feelings for them -- especially for poor kids -- are genuine. This is what I believed then and this -- his incompetent performance regarding Hurricane Katrina notwithstanding -- is what I believe now....
But Bush is not cut from that cloth. He is a contemporary Republican, a person of another generation who, you may have noticed, has a black woman as secretary of state and had a black man before her. Under him, the GOP began an outreach to black Americans, and unless the Democrats wake up it will ultimately succeed. As Karl Rove well knows, all he has to do is pick up a small percentage of the black vote and he ends the current 50-50 electoral split. Bush, who won an impressive 27 percent of the black vote in his reelection bid for Texas governor, could have been the man to do this.
Sounds pretty reasonable, until you start, erm, thinking. Nevermind the 'some of my best Cabinet members are black' crap, has Cohen forgotten what Bush did to win the Republican primary in South Carolina? For those keeping score at home, Bush and his sociopathic minions smeared John McCain by claiming that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi daughter was his illegitimate black child. Then, of course, Bush also made the mandatory Republican pit stop at segregationist Bob Jones University. I would be really interested in hearing a defense of race baiting in the pursuit of political power.
[crickets...silence...sun rises...sun sets]
There is none. The only reason Bush has not used race baiting is because he hasn't had to. Until Katrina, Bush could play the "if you're against repeal of the estate tax, you're for the terrorists" card. Rest assured, if it's politically expedient, he will play the race card.... It's not as if it would be out of character for him. Like all aristocrats who possess a strong sense of personal perogative, Bush will do whatever it takes to maintain power. Does that mean I think he constitutively hates black people? No, he's an equal opportunity sociopath.
