Saxifrage: Arrogant To The End

It would be nice to think that today is the last day we'll ever need to think about George W. Bush or his disastrous administration. Unfortunately, we know from sad experience that that's not the case--that we'll be trying to erase the stains he leaves behind for decades to come. (Many of us believe that the nation never really got past the damage inflicted by Richard Nixon.)

As the final hours of Bush's regime wind down, I find myself specifically disgusted by his behavior in regard to the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at him. As the Times has reported, al-Zaidi has been held incommunicado since December 21, may have been beaten and tortured since his arrest, and faces seven years in prison for his absurd and purely symbolic "crime."

I find it deeply embarrassing that President Bush hasn't publicly spoken up in defense of al-Zaidi or personally intervened with the Iraqi government on his behalf. The fact that this president who has spent the last few weeks eagerly--even desperately--trying to burnish his reputation as a "compassionate conservative" has passed up this obvious opportunity to actually do something compassionate tells us all we need to know about what his real values are.

Evidently Bush finds it appropriate for the Iraqi government to respond to al-Zaidi's insult to Bush in tyrannical fashion. (Deep down, he probably regrets not having had the same kind of powers to use against his critics at home.)

Bush remains what he has always been--a petty, self-absorbed, arrogant man who is apparently incapable of feeling sincere concern for anyone other than himself and his closest friends. Good riddance.