State Of Denial

I have a copy of Bob Woodward's State of Denial on my coffee table at home, but I don't think that I can bring myself to open it. I watched him on Chris Matthew's this weekend, and he came across like a doddering old nitwit. Maybe I've become completely inured to the dinosaurs of the print media, but this comment just rubs me the wrong way:

One of the things that we forget as we’re caught in the heat of the current debate: this is a legal war. The Congress three to one in 2002 said, gave Bush the right to go to war. He decided to do it. So, you know what really amazes me is that Bush, and Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid don’t get together and say, “We’ve got to come up with a bipartisan strategy and consensus on this.” We’re all in to a certain extent in this war. And we owe it to the troops.

Leave aside the fact that the "evidence" that was presented to that Congress was by and large exaggerated and fabricated. Leave aside the fact that Congress typically gives the benefit of the doubt to the executive branch on matters of national security, and that a naive presumption of honesty on the part of the executive branch undoubtedly colored Congress' approach to the debate in 2002.

What you cannot leave aside is the fact that this administration has said, time and again, that they do not need Congress' approval, counsel, or advice in the prosecution of this war. Further, that any criticism of the administration's prosecution of the war, from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, to illegal warrantless wiretapping, to troop levels and body armor is in fact unpatriotic and tantamount to giving aid and comfort to the enemy, whomever that may be. Woodward's absurd response to this is to seek some sort of kumbaya moment, where Nancy Pelosi and George Bush hold hands and work together on a bright plan for defeating the brown terra.

Woodward, like David Broder and Richard Cohen are have become irrelevant. They pine for a time when they could dictate the conversation from their lofty perches at the Washington Post. They've been scooped by the great unwashed horde of bloggers that bring the power of community to the analysis of real time information. Further, the blogosphere is populated by political scientists, lawyers, economics professors and historians who bring something that Woodward and his ilk cannot bring to the conversation, namely expertise. At this point, the unfortunate truth is that columnists like Broder and Bernstein can only bring damage to our discourse.

Broder's contribution to the discussion came in his column this weekend:

Like President Bill Clinton after the Democrats lost control of Congress in 1994, Bush has gone through a period of wrenching adjustment to his reduced status. But just as Clinton did in the winter of 1995, Bush now shows signs of renewed energy and is regaining the initiative on several fronts.

More important, he is demonstrating political smarts that even his critics have to acknowledge.

Broder, too close to the Beltway to have any perspective at all, continues to apologize for the failed presidency of the boy king, and most importantly, cannot understand the true loathing that the majority of Americans have for this president, this administration, and the war that they have dragged us into.