Business as usual for Bush

The San Francisco Chronicle examines the history of Bush and his "brain" Karl Rove:

Bush's comments from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, were his most extensive yet on Kerry's military record. They...fit a pattern that dates back to Bush's early run for office as well as campaigns run by Karl Rove, his chief political adviser.

"It's amazing how similar this type of attack is to the pattern of attacks I have seen over two decades -- in some cases involving Bush's campaigns, in other cases they involved campaigns in which Karl Rove was a participant,'' said Wayne Slater, senior political writer at the Dallas Morning News, who has covered Bush since his early days in Texas politics and is author of the book "Bush's Brain,'' about Rove.

"In every case, the approach is the same: You have a surrogate group of allies, independent of the Bush campaign, raising questions not about the opponent's weakness but directly about the opponent's strength,'' Slater said...[He goes on to cite examples in which Buch collaborators smeared Ann Richards and John McCain.]

Slater said in each case Bush "was able to basically take the high road and give the same answer: 'I'm not associated with these attacks, and I don't condone these attacks. I'm engaged in a high-road campaign,' while at the same time, his allies are basically doing the dirty work."

For someone who makes so much noise about being "born again," Bush sure does have a tenuous relationship with the truth. Apparently he thinks the ninth commandment doesn't apply to him. (That would be the one about bearing false witness, George.)

To paraphrase some doggerel I found in a union newsletter at my grandparents' home, many years ago:

Not even the devil could stand the smell
Of a red-hot Bush on a griddle in hell.