George Will, Looking for a New Reservation While his little acolyte was playing the Nazi Card, Will calls Bush out on his patently stupid remarks (patently stupid -- Bush is becoming the Thomas Edison of malaprops). Will points out that Bush made this absurd statement, already much discussed amongst us "libruls". "There's a lot of people in the world who don't believe that people whose skin color may not be the same as ours can be free and self-govern. I reject that. I reject that strongly. I believe that people who practice the Muslim faith can self-govern. I believe that people whose skins aren't necessarily -- are a different color than white can self-govern." As Will, and others previously noted, considering that a substantial portion of our population isn't "white" and many are also Muslim and the democracy survives (in spite of the machinations of white guys Bush, Cheney and Ashcroft) the statement in and of itself is ridiculous. It should be noted that Bush has said similar statements several times not just at the Rose Garden last week. Now as much as I dislike Bush I don't think he personally is the second coming of Theodore Bilbo (the most racist hobbit of them all, well maybe not as much as Ted Sandyman [is my nerdiness showing?]). However, the statement is still stupid and Will postulates that despite its stupidity it does contain an ironic stalking horse for the wingnut right, although he cannot help himself by making a not well-veiled and putrid attack on the Democrats (I trust you can spot it): ...what he suggested was: Some persons -- perhaps many persons; no names being named, the smear remained tantalizingly vague -- doubt his nation-building project because they are racists. That is one way to respond to questions about the wisdom of thinking America can transform the entire Middle East by constructing a liberal democracy in Iraq. But if any Americans want to be governed by politicians who short-circuit complex discussions by recklessly imputing racism to those who differ with them, such Americans do not usually turn to the Republican choice in our two-party system. But finally, the condemning kicker... This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts. Thinking is not the reiteration of bromides about how "all people yearn to live in freedom" (McClellan). And about how it is "cultural condescension" to doubt that some cultures have the requisite aptitudes for democracy (Bush). And about how it is a "myth" that "our attachment to freedom is a product of our culture" because "ours are not Western values; they are the universal values of the human spirit" (Tony Blair). I'd say Will has had enough of the Neo-Cons.