Jimmy Carter's Cutting Words

The Nation: Former President Has The White House Feeling Defensive

(The Nation)  This column was written by John Nichols.

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How touchy is the Bush administration about criticism?

Very touchy, indeed, especially if the source of that criticism is a certain former president.

When Jimmy Carter, whose approval ratings dwarf those of George Bush these days, gets to talking about what's wrong with the current president, the White House spin machine goes into overdrive.

And Carter has been talking.

He told the conservative Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper Saturday that, "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

Suggesting that the president has presided over an "overt reversal of America's basic values," Carter drew a clear line of distinction between the current Bush policies and those of another Bush who has occupied the Oval Office, former President George Herbert Walker Bush.

With his misguided approach to the war in Iraq, Carter said, Bush made a "radical departure from all previous administration policies," including those of the president's father.

"We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," explained Carter, who has long been a critic of the Bush administration but whose comments in recent days have been particularly pointed.

In another interview late last week, with the BBC, Carter effectively referred to outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair as Bush's poodle.

Carter criticized Blair's "blind" support of Bush's war in Iraq, suggesting that the British prime minister had been "subservient" to the American president. Noting that Blair's "almost undeviating" allegiance to Bush's Middle East dogmas had done much to legitimize them at precisely the time when they should have been challenged, Carter argued that the prime minister's promotion of "the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq had been a major tragedy for the world."

Lest there be any doubt about his assessment of Blair's contribution to global stability, the Nobel Peace Prize winner termed the prime minister's failure to counter Bush's messianic march to war "abominable."

It is difficult to argue with Carter, not just on the basis of his stature but on the basis of his astute read of the current circumstance. And that's what scares the Bush White House. When a well-regarded former president gets specific about the current president's dramatic failures — and about the damage that is done when foreign leaders align with Bush — this embattled White House gets tense.

So the president's aides are hitting back, with all the muscle they can muster, at Carter.

"I think it's sad that President Carter's reckless personal criticism is out there," griped White House spokesman Tony Fratto, as part of an unusually bitter and specific response issued Sunday from Bush's compound in Crawford, Texas.

In what The Associated Press correctly referred to as "a biting rebuke," Fratto said of Carter's observations: "I think it's unfortunate. And I think he is proving to be increasingly irrelevant with these kinds of comments."

The irony is that there is nothing unfortunate about Carter's remarks for the United States. By making it perfectly clear that Americans are unsettled by their president's reckless disregard for the rule of law and common sense at home and abroad, Carter helps to separate Bush from America in the eyes of the world, which is a very, very good thing for the American people.

Of course, then, the Bush White House is not attacking Carter's comments on their merit. Rather, the attack boils down to a suggestion that, even though they represent a rare example of a former president bluntly criticizing a sitting president, Carter's remarks of a little or no consequence.

What is fascinating is that the White House is claiming that Carter is "increasingly irrelevant" by going out of its way to attack him on one of the current president's many days of rest.

It seems that, if Carter really was as "irrelevant" as the Bush White House would have us believe, the president's aides would not be attacking the former president in such immediate and aggressive terms.

The truth is that Carter is relevant, perhaps more so now than ever. Even as Bush's fortunes decline, the need of dissenting voices is great. And Carter's dissents go to the very heart of the darkness that this administration has brought down upon the United States. For a body politic sorely in need of the tonic of truth, Jimmy Carter's comments are not just relevant, they are an essential to the renewal of a country and a planet badly battered by the madness of a 21st-century King George.

[dgwooster]

"You Moron" posted by katg21

There you go again, proving my point. When someone doesn't have truth or logic on their side, they go in for the name-calling.

How is it you feel ZERO empathy for destabilizing a country and forcing millions of people to flee to Syria? Because they're Moslem? Because they live on the other side of the Earth? Bush's war has led to more deaths of innocent Iraqis than Saddm Hussein.

I really think it's reprehensible that people like you try to put a positive spin on a war that has done absolutely no one any good (except Halliburton). You're Unamerican.

[jegibbons]

To: mpmikeb
First off, Jimmy Carter is 83 years old.
He graduated from Annapolis in 1946.
He served as a Naval Officer for 7 years in what was then an emerging nuclear submarine fleet of fewer than six nuclear subs in the post WWII era.

Whatever the Naval Academy of today might offer in the way of advanced scientific academics is a far cry from what could have even been known in 1946.

To state that Jimmy Carter graduated from Annapolis degreed in Atomic Engineering is a GREAT DISTORTION of the TRUTH.

He isn't now, nor has he ever been a taken seriously by the Academic Community in the Nuclear Sciences. To say Mr. Carter presents as a man of science with credentials he does not possess is PATENTLY DISHONEST!

Once Again:
IT IS YOU WHO MUST GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT!

[texmexborderswimmer]

to JEGibbons
== Mabey you should do your home work as Annapolis Grads receive BS degrees in numerous fields of engineering studies.

[jegibbons]

To: mpmikeb
=="(Carter)...graduated from the Naval Acadamy with a degree in Atomic Engeneering,"==

FYI: The Naval Academy offers no such degree!
The degree is a BS in Naval Science, but you folks never let THE FACTS get in the way of a good argument.

I've never inferred that former President Jimmy Carter was a dummy. I just think that he is delusional and perhaps showing signs of the mental breakdown which sometimes comes as a consequence of aging when one consumes too many peanuts during a lifetime.

[texmexborderswimmer]

Gee isn't it funny when you check down the list of Senators Congressmen & radio talk show hosts how few Conservative Republican's ever served this country by being a member of our military services. Then another check and gee how few Democrates you can find who didn't serve in the military. I was sure it would have been the other way the way you Republican bang the war drums. Oh, thats right like everything else you expect the other guy to do your work for you.

[texmexborderswimmer]

Just have to love the Conservatives who just love to blame President Carter for the inflationay conditions President Nixon created by freezing wages and prices during his time in office. Then they also forget it was President Carter who appointed Paul Volker as head of the Federal Reserve, and who Reagan kept in office as it was his policies that stopped the inflation and got our economy going again. Yea that stupid Democrat from Georgia who graduated from the Naval Acadamy with a degree in Atomic Engeneering, seems to me he must have a little upstairs more than most.

[fastrac101-2009]

When all the Bush supporters find 30+% more folks in the USA to go with their position then they got it right!

[fastrac101-2009]

When all the Bush supporters find 30+% more folks in the USA to go with their position then they got it right!

[bobnjersey]

[I am apolitical]
[Posted by JEGibbons at 06:17 PM : May 23, 2007]

in your dreams

you're a clinton hating bush apologist neocon ... it's dripping from your posts.


[I believe George Bush's conundrum in Iraq has much more to do with the bad advice given to the President by VP Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.]

these were his advisors ... and they all think alike ... and they made sure not to allow anyone in that didn't think like them. many of the early admin departures were the weeding out of those that didn't adopt the 'groupthink' (including oneal, powell and armitage). he sticks to his guns even when he's wrong ... he will not tolerate anyone around him who questions ... who second guesses ... who asks 'what if' after they've committed and it's going bad (he calls it 'handwringing'). he had many opportunities to change who advised him and he refused ... as he's doing right now w/ rove, cheney and gonzalez (they should all be out for incompetance or unconstitutional behaviour)

he's responsible for the dsyfunctional cabinet he has ... much like his dysfunctional personality. he's grossly unqualified for the role ... in way over his head ... and he should resign w/ his whole group acknowledging their failures and leave the task to someone who knows what they're doing.

he's a fool ... and doesn't even know it ... and so are you for supporting him.

[bobnjersey]

[How about this, you tell me what you think about the stock and job markets right now. Oh and interest rates too. Then tell me Bush is the worst president ever.]
[Posted by katg21 at 04:15 PM : May 23, 2007]

stock market's boomin ... nice to see that wealth distribution growing daily. good for those that have means to invest and take advantage of the advantages. ever notice how a companies stock goes up when they lay off 10,000 employees or close a dozen plants? what did ya think of that bull market during clinton's run ... probably had nothing to do with him, right?

job market looks good if you pick the stat you need ... real wages are down ... unless you're a ceo (see verbose summary of jobs ... care of quintcareers.com ... probably a bunch of pansie a$$ liberals ... http://www.quintcareers.com/job_market.html).

interest rates ... well ... in 1973, during the nixon administration, OPEC agreed to reduce supplies of oil available to the world market. this sparked an oil crisis and forced oil prices to rise sharply, spurring price inflation throughout the economy, and slowing growth.

significant government borrowing for items such as the Vietnam War and the nuclear weapons stockpile helped keep interest rates high relative to inflation. the second energy crisis (opec embargo) occurred in 1979 (iranian revolution). i'll leave the economic impact of these events to the reader.

[katg21]

HE ATTACKED THE WRONG COUNTRY
Posted by dgwooster at 05:46 PM : May 23, 2007

Oh my gosh there it is again..."He attacked the wrong country". Yeah, we're at war with Iraq...MORON! We attacked and removed one of the most brutal dictators in recent history and now are trying to help the Iraqis establish democracy. These poor people need a helping hand, they've only ever been ruled by a dictator. Explain to me why it was a good thing to remove Saddam but a bad thing to stay behind after the fact and support them? The terrorists are at war with us and have been for decades; that's who's killing innocent Iraqis, not our honorable service men and women. Your words against our president and armed forces do nothing for the moral of our troops. I hope you and your fellow, traitor, posters are proud of yourselves.

[jegibbons]

To: dgwooster
By way of being courteous I should explain to you that.
1) I am a regitered Independent
2) I was a registered Democrat fo all of my voing life.
3) I voted twice for GWB asI voted twice for Clinton.
I am retired US Army and a decorated Vietnam Veteran who voluteered to serve.
My PRIMARY concern is for the TROOPS, I am apolitical, however the Left since CLINTON'S debacle has gone so far over to the fringe that I feel I can no longer in good conscience support any of those views.

I believe George Bush's conundrum in Iraq has much more to do with the bad advice given to the President by VP Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
The President values loyalty abovw all else and I confess to sympathizing with that logic. Unfrtunately, it is why he(GWB) finds himself in this extremely tenuous war.

[jegibbons]

=='Al Qaeda was in Afghanastan, not Iraq"== dgwooster
Thank You for this. You ARE PROBVING MY POINT!
That's CLINTONESE logic!
Yeah! you know where else they are?
Neither do I.
By the way it t'ain't where they wuz' that concerns me it's WHERE THEY ARE GOING.

[dgwooster]

JEGibbons,

I read your last post, then I re-read it and yet I still wasn't able to see where you presented any kind of supporting logic for Iraq, just a lot of name-calling.

Has it occured to you that your party may have lost the moral high ground a long time ago (no WMDs found, payoffs to GOP cronies, the New Orleans disgrace, torture of enemy combatants) and that's why you have to resort to verbal attacks?

As to your questions: Al Qaeda was in Afghanastan, not Iraq. Why do we have to keep reminding you? HE ATTACKED THE WRONG COUNTRY. The victims I refer to are innocent Iraqis who (at last count several million) have either died or had to relocate to places like Syria to be safe.

As for Clinton I'll simply remind you that 9/11 happened on Bush's watch just after he finished the longest presidential vacation in history. Was he looking for OBL at his ranch in Texas?

[jegibbons]

dgwooster
=="the very ones supporting the war"==
=="weary of people who want to put a positive spin on a war"==
==I'm an Independent==
This is the rhetoric of the UNAFFECTED!

If there was an ounce of proof that President Bush was as evil as THE LOONIES are claiming wouldn't that very Democratic Congresss be at work trying to impeach him? Instead they choose to strangle those who need our nation's support the most. That is immoral by even a Radical Muslim's standard of morality.

Your sympathy for those who fight this war is dishonest PC hooey and you know it. It's CLINTONESE logic.

Arkansas Willy was asleep at the switch with his pants down when the planning for the SINGLE WORST ATTACK ON THE UNITED STATES IN HISTORY was still in its planning stages.

And you have the nerve to call President Bush's efforts to free an oppressed people from a tyranical regime an immoral war?

This whole war for you and others like you is largely a theoretical exercise in REGURGITATING political rhetoric which has been fed to you by the secular, biased, and unethical MEDIA.
This is NOT all ABOUT GWB! YOU HATE THE GUY.
I got that. What about Al Quida terrorists?
Tell me about them.

And before you go off, again, on another tirade about The President's illegal war, I would like to hear how you see OBL and his terrorists as victims, here.


It's truly amazing how many war strategists this country has who have never spent a day in the uniform of their country.

[katg21]

JEGibbons,

Oh no, you're in it up to your neck now my friend! Thanks for having my back.

[katg21]

Instead of attacking President Carter, please attack the content of his message. Thanks!
Posted by emekz1 at 10:47 AM : May 23, 2007

I believe we've covered that. How about this, you tell me what you think about the stock and job markets right now. Oh and interest rates too. Then tell me Bush is the worst president ever. Gee, as I recall, interest rates were at 21% when Carter was in office. Those were some great days as compared to today for sure and we're at war! Got to laugh!!!

[bobnjersey]

[You are guilty, in fact, of the very character flaws you accuse GWB of having. ]
[Posted by JEGibbons at 01:13 PM : May 23, 2007]

i hate to be the one to have to break this to you ... but ... it is YOU that suffer from the same distorted perspective as the one you tirelessly support ... which is why you don't see the problem.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/ (for further self awareness training use keywords 'authoritarian follower' ... which is you)

[dgwooster]

"You have no sense of responsibility for the truly patriotic Americans doing the fighting in this war." JEGibbons

Guess that leaves out Bush's kids. People born with silver spoons in their mouths started this war and have profited from it on the piles of the corpses it leaves behind. The really sad thing is it's often the very ones supporting the war that are donating their flesh and blood to fight it.

[dgwooster]

grumpas,

You forgot to mention that WE were the ones who sold Saddam Hussein the chemical weapons he used on his own people. And we've still got the recepits to prove it.

I'm an Independent but I've become weary of people who want to put a postitive spin on a war where innocent people are dying every day.