Dubya Takes A Slap — From Shrub Sr.

Posted on October 23, 2003

This is the sort of story that makes you just shake your head in amazement:

Remember the flap that got stirred up a few weeks ago when Senator Ted Kennedy started arguing that the reasons we went to war in Iraq were basically fiction?

“There was no imminent threat. This was made up in Texas, announced in January to the Republican leadership that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was a fraud,” the Massachusetts Democrat told the AP.

Not the sort of remarks that leave a lot of room for doubt as to where he stands. Predictably, the White House and the GOP leadership went ballistic, with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay saying that “Democrats have spewed more hateful rhetoric at President Bush than they ever did at Saddam Hussein”.

Well, time passed and the furor died down. And then, just now, we get an announcement from the George Bush Foundation that stirs it up again. That’s not the George W. Bush Foundation — nope, it’s the charitable foundation of Poppa Bush, run out of his Presidential Library, and one of its programs is to give the “George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service” to honor “an individual’s or group’s dedication to public service at the local, state, national or international levels.”

Well, guess who the just-announced winner of the George Bush Award for 2003 is?

United States Senator, Edward M. Kennedy, is the third recipient of the award. George Bush, 41st President of the United States, will present the award to Senator Kennedy at an awards ceremony beginning at 5:00 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium on the campus of Texas A&M University.

Yep, that’s right — George Bush Sr. is giving his award for public service to the Member of Congress who’s been most vocal in opposing his son’s decision to invade Iraq. There’s an excellent op-ed in the Boston Globe on the subject, too. Boy, I bet Thanksgiving dinner at the Bush ranch is gonna be downright frosty this year!