Eugene Robinson: "Fleeting Glory in Albania"

Have you ever read something that is so outrageous that it feels like your head might explode?

If you've read any of Maureen Dowd's columns, you probably know the feeling.

In today's Washington Post, Eugene Robinson writes one of those exasperating, Dowdian columns, "Fleeting Glory in Albania."

He mercilessly attacks President Bush.

Robinson writes:

George W. Bush, Hero of Albania! At least there's one place in the world where they show the Decider some love.

That was a wonderful reverse-Borat moment Sunday, with the joyous townspeople of Fushe Kruje yelling "Bushie! Bushie!" and Albania's prime minister gushing over the "greatest and most distinguished guest we have ever had in all times." The crowd pressed in for autographs, photographs, a presidential peck on the cheek. Years from now, in his dotage, Bushie will feel warm all over when he recalls those magical hours in Albania. How they adored him!

Outside of greater Tirana, however, the president's stock as an apostle of freedom continues to fall -- and rightly so. Even as Albania swooned, the rest of Europe was digesting a blue-ribbon report issued Friday about the abduction, secret detention and abusive interrogation of suspects in Bush's "war on terror."

The report was done for the Council of Europe by Swiss legislator Dick Marty....

Citing "clear and detailed confirmation" from knowledgeable sources, Marty concluded that Poland and Romania, as long suspected, were two countries that hosted secret CIA prisons where "high value" detainees were held and interrogated.

After slamming Bush and ridiculing the Albanian people, Robinson predicts the future with an entirely unearned authority. He declares Bush's place in history.

Naturally, it's not pretty.

This, I am convinced, is how future generations will remember George W. Bush: as the president who abandoned our traditional concepts of justice and human rights, choosing instead a program of state-sponsored kidnapping, arbitrary detention and abusive interrogation techniques such as "waterboarding."

We will remember him for the Iraq war, of course. But I hope and believe we will give at least as much weight to his erosion of our nation's fundamental values and basic character.

We will remember him as the president who established a prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, complete with kangaroo-court military tribunals in which detainees were not allowed to see the alleged evidence against them. We will remember that long after it was clear that Guantanamo was doing serious harm to our nation's reputation in the world -- on Sunday, Bush's former secretary of state, Colin Powell, called for the place to be shut down "this afternoon" -- Bush stubbornly kept it open.

We will remember Dick Cheney not for accidentally shooting a fellow hunter but for apparently being the loudest and most strident voice inside the administration against honoring the concepts of due process and habeas corpus that define justice in civilized societies. We will remember the negligible regard he holds for the Geneva Conventions.

We will remember Alberto Gonzales not for his hapless stewardship of the Justice Department or the firings of those U.S. attorneys-- well, actually, we will remember him for those things -- but we'll also remember that when he was White House counsel he dutifully provided legalistic justification for subjecting prisoners to treatment that international agreements clearly define as torture.

We will remember this whole misguided administration for deciding to wage the fight against terrorism in a manner that not only mocks our nation's values but also draws new recruits to the anti-American cause. We will remember this White House for unwittingly helping the terrorist cause perpetuate itself.

Robinson's charge that Bush "abandoned our traditional concepts of justice and human rights" is absurd.

It's typical Left-wing babble.

It's so extreme that the content is easily dismissed as little more than the trash routinely thrown around by deranged, blinded by hatred liberals.

It's Democratic Underground, MoveOn, Daily Kos stuff.

Although it can be dismissed as rubbish, it's still troubling that The Washington Post would print something so meritless.

PRESIDENT BUSH IS NOT THE ENEMY.

HE HAS NOT DESTROYED THE COUNTRY.

HE HAS NOT ERODED "OUR NATION'S FUNDAMENTAL VALUES AND BASIC CHARACTER."

Truly, Robinson and his like-minded cohorts are so far off the deep end in the way they view the President that their behavior and their ramblings can be deemed pathological.

Robinson concludes:

Nineteen months from now, a new president will begin trying to repair some of the damage this administration leaves behind. Bushie, meanwhile, will be back on the ranch, spending his days clearing brush and perhaps daydreaming of his Albanian glory.

Do you want to talk about an administration leaving damage behind?
OK.

Let's talk about Lyndon Johnson and his disastrous handling of Vietnam.

Let's talk about Jimmy Carter and his almost unbelievable incompetence in managing both domestic and foreign affairs.

Let's talk about Bill Clinton and what happened under his watch -- the rise of a nuclear North Korea, the flourishing of radical Islam, and the repeated terrorist attacks on America and American interests. Let's talk about the policies that led to 9/11.

Speaking of 9/11, what specifically did Sandy Berger steal and destroy from the National Archives?

But I digress.

It is disgraceful that Robinson would be so ugly in mocking the President of the United States -- "Bushie" clearing brush and daydreaming of his glory days in Albania. What a weird fantasy scenario for Robinson to dream up!

I think I know what his problem is. I really think that Robinson just couldn't handle the positive reception that Bush received in Albania.

The fact that the libs feel the need to thoroughly discredit anyone who shows an ounce of approval for our President is sick.

Robinson and the libs desperately need to get a grip. It speaks to their derangement that they can't bear to see Bush be welcomed warmly by the people of a foreign country.


The Albanians are waving our flag, not stepping on it or spitting on it or burning it.
Apparently, Robinson couldn't handle thst.