Deep Thoughts

Yesterday, President Bush sat down for 40 minutes with correspondents from The New York Times for a wide-ranging interview.

He had a few interesting things to say.

"I think two of the great ironies of history will be that there will be a Palestinian state and a democratic Iraq showing the way forward for people who desperately want to be free."

Does he know what an irony is? Did he mean to add, "despite the fact that I made a huge blunder out of Iraq where I did absolutely everything wrong and that in Palestine, where I could have played an effective role, I stayed on the sidelines"?

I'm just not accustomed to hearing people speak of accomplishing their long- and oft-stated goals as "ironies of history."

He said he was not aware of the recent controversy in Florida -- where his brother is the Governor -- over a law barring homosexuals from adopting children. Sure, he makes banning same-sex marriage in the Constitution a national priority, but he doesn't have time to pay attention to all the little related legal details.

He did add that while "children can receive love from gay couples, studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman."

Receive "love" from gay couples? Reminds me of the time he expressed his concern that "too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

Some studies have shown that children raised in same-sex households don't grow up significantly different than their peers. And you know, if they do grow up messed up, it's because they live in a world full of bigots who torment them for being different.

I don't think that anyone is arguing that two biological parents in a stable, committed relationship raising their children isn't a good situation, generally speaking. But there's still no guarantee of that. Just because someone is married and heterosexual doesn't mean they aren't cruel or abusive or neglectful or unfit in some other way. The one thing you can say about same-sex couples is that they have to want children to get them; they don't get saddled with them accidentally. Isn't that worth anything?

The Times says, "He laughed when asked about his admission on Wednesday, during a news conference, that he had not read the article in the periodical Foreign Affairs written in 2000 by Condoleezza Rice, his new secretary of state, laying out his foreign policy."

"I don't know what you think the world is like, but a lot of people don't just sit around reading Foreign Affairs," he said, chuckling. "I know this is shocking to you."

No, but apparently he sits around reading studies on children in same-sex households? And, no, but generally people whose job consists of working with international policy keep abreast of what experts in the field are saying.

He could have said, "Look. I've known Condi for years. I meet with her every day, and virtually the only thing we discuss is foreign policy. I don't need to read a journal article to tell me what her views are."

But no, he made it sound like reading journals is something only out-of-touch eggheads do on rainy afternoons. When did "intellectual" become perjorative in this country?

"The president declined to talk in any detail about his plans for Social Security."

Gee, do you think that might be because a) he doesn't know enough about it to say anything without totally screwing it up or b) there aren't any details or c) all of the above?

"I can't think of any examples where I said, 'Gosh, I wish I had more power,' I felt like I had plenty to do the job."

July 30, 2001: "A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it."

"Torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture."

Ummm...

"I'm aware of exactly the dangers inherent of the democracy movement testing the will of tyrants who were never held to account. And that's why it sometimes takes a while to erode the power and the tyranny."

Good. Then the inevitable collapse of the neocon wing of the GOP and his eventual imprisonment for fraud, treason and war crimes won't come as a surprise to him. It will be one of the great ironies of history.