"They're not a problem"

Inappropriate glee. That’s what comes to mind when reading this Spinsanity piece: Dowd spawns Bush media myth.

My glee at seeing Bush caught in a flush of the media toilet is inappropriate: if it’s not good when silly, sloppy reporting and commentary lead the press to circulate falsehoods about Democrats, then it’s also not good when they circulate falsehoods about Republicans, either.

But the more significant and less appropriate glee here belongs to Bush. Anyone who saw any of the press conferences where he said things like this:

All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way—they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.

knows what I mean. The sidelong glance. The bouncy body-language. The gleam in the eye. The infamous smirk.

Look, I’m just as happy as anyone else who doesn’t want to be blown up or hijacked or forced to live in fear of same forever to see Al-Qaeda operatives killed. But it’s not a gleeful happiness. It is not the kind of happiness that makes a person glitter in the eye and crack jokes. A little sobriety is called for when celebrating the deaths of one’s enemies. If one wishes to appear, at least, to be civilized.

Filed under: politics