DEJA VUDOO

DÉJÀ VU?

By Peter Fredson

It was instructive to read news items that I had saved from 1998. Here is a typical story, with attributions of 1998, but I changed items referring to Bill Clinton and substituted the name of George W. Bush as political satire.

“In 1998 Republican commentators were asking Bill Clinton to step down. Last week several commentators asked George W. Bush to do the same.”

“Opinion columns and editorials written in the hours that followed his latest comments, concerning his troubles, assailed him as a cheat and a liar.”

“Some of the newspaper comments:

ANCHORAGE TIMES:
"Bush has thrown himself into the trash heap of history. And the nation has reason to mourn the shame he has brought to his office."

SAN JOSE (CALIF.) MERCURY NEWS:
"Bush should be profoundly ashamed, and the shame should haunt him for the rest of his life."

PAUL GREENBERG, COLUMNIST, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE:
"Most of the folks who cover Bush eventually reach a moment of truth. There comes a time—it’s usually definite and memorable—when they stop giving him the benefit of the mounting doubt, when they just give up on him and vow that they’ll never be suckered again. The difference between a Bush critic and a Bush apologist is that the apologist hasn’t had his moment of truth yet."

MODESTO (CALIF.) BEE:
"A new low in national discourse."

THE (COLUMBIA, S.C.) STATE:
"He lied to us—not inadvertently, not as a momentary lapse, but deliberately, insistently and over a long period of time. He should resign."

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH:
"Trust is the glue that binds a leader to the people in a democracy. Mr. Bush has lost that trust."

NEW YORK TIMES:
"Here was a man of compassionate impulse and lofty ambition who went to Washington with virtually every imaginable political skill except one. He seemed to think he was immune from a rule that leaps out from any reading of modern presidencies. Everything comes out sooner or later."

DENVER POST:
"The most honorable course remaining is resignation. After all the other rubbish is cleared away, credibility and integrity are at the ethical core of this fiasco, and the president doesn’t have them. Out of respect for the office, he should step down."

POST-TRIBUNE (NORTHWEST INDIANA):
"The president put the country through an unnecessary tabloid hell that left parents trying to explain to their children what weapons of mass destruction were,, what the notorious yellow cake was and, worse, why it was OK for the president to lie and not them."

CHATTANOOGA (TENN.) TIMES:
"Whatever good things Mr. Bush has accomplished during his presidency will be forever tainted by the brazen recklessness that has undermined the legacy he hoped to leave the nation."

ORLANDO (FLA.) SENTINEL:
"Enough is enough. If Mr. Bush is an honorable man, he will resign and let the country move on."

ST. PETERSBURG TIMES:
"President Bush, who habitually has lied about everything from snorting coke to his AWOL, has been caught in his biggest and broadest lie yet. How can he possibly provide leadership on Social Security, or race relations, or—God forbid—war?"

E. J. DIONNE, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST:
"Bush is right about one thing: This has to end. A substantial majority of Americans would prefer that this matter go away and that Bush serve out his term. But they’d also like to be able to trust him. At the moment, many who feel him no ill will don’t think they can. He owes the nation, and his supporters especially, more than he’s given so far."

WALL STREET JOURNAL:
"Terrorists and other foes of America stand warned that no matter how damaged, a president of the United States still is a force to be reckoned with. Unlike some king or dictator, he is not one isolated personage but the representative of a far broader society and political system, a system that does not depend on the individual on top in responding to crisis or lethal provocation."

Whatever goes around, seemingly comes around. Notice how the name changes seem to fit better than a certain glove.

(Apologies to newspapers listed. The items were really from 1998.)