The New York Times editorial board has a blistering piece this morning. Prior to the blogs, I don’t think columns like this would have appeared in major news outlets…at least, the tone would have been more moderated. There is something seriously wrong with our country when the Grey Lady comes out swinging like this.
We can’t think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can’t think of a president who has deserved that trust less.
If part of our problem is that the MSM will not articulate the degree of criminality in the GOP and White House, then seeing Gail Collins and the rest of the NYT editotial staff write stuff like this indicates progress.
Like many other administrations before it, this one sometimes dissembles clumsily to avoid embarrassment. (We now know, for example, that the White House did not tell the truth about when it learned the levees in New Orleans had failed.) Spin-as-usual is one thing. Striking at the civil liberties, due process and balance of powers that are the heart of American democracy is another.
It’s only one step from this rhetoric to just calling Bush/Cheney tyrants. We’ll see whether this column gets picked up by the cable news people.
