Hey, Hey, Goodbye

Change? A new tone? We Are One?

BS.

From NewsBusters:

Shortly before 1 p.m. as former President George W. Bush left from the Capitol grounds via a U.S. Marine helicopter to head to Andrews Air Force Base for a flight to Midland, Texas.

MSNBC covered the send-off and viewers at home could hear inaugural attendees near the MSNBC location chanting "Hey, Hey, Hey, Good Bye" as they watched Executive One fly over the Mall.

Is this part of what Obama calls the new era of responsibility?

Is being a jerk part of it?

Is Rahm Emanuel out there leading the crowd in song?



I don't get why Obama's supporters have to continue to slam President Bush.

It's absolutely terrible form, showing no respect for the office of the presidency.

Wanting to savor the thrill of that ugliness, Maureen Dowd chose to make her first column of the Obama era to be yet ANOTHER exercise in hate for President Bush.

I hoped Dowd had written her last vile column about President Bush a few days ago. No such luck.

In her Wednesday column, Dowd celebrates the liberals' victory, the dawning of the new day, by trashing President Bush, "Exit the Boy King."

Dowd writes:

It was the Instant the Earth Stood Still.

Not since Klaatu landed in a flying saucer on the Ellipse has Washington been so mesmerized by an object whirring through the sky.

But this one was departing, not arriving.

As W. ceased to be president, he flew off over the Capitol and across the Mall en route to Andrews Air Force Base, and then back to Texas.

I’ve seen many presidents come and go, but I’ve never watched a tableau like the one Tuesday, when four million eyes turned heavenward, following the helicopter’s path out of town. Everyone, it seemed, was waving goodbye, with one or two hands, a wave that moved westward down the Mall toward the Lincoln Memorial, and keeping their eyes fixed unwaveringly on that green bird.

They wanted to make absolutely, positively certain that W. was gone. It was like a physical burden being lifted, like a sigh went up of “Thank God. Has Cheney’s wheelchair left the building, too?”

Could Dowd be any uglier? She mocks Vice President Cheney's injury. How classless!

Naturally, she delights in Obama's inaugural address criticism of President Bush.

After thanking President Bush “for his service to our nation,” Mr. Obama executed a high-level version of Stephen Colbert’s share-the-stage smackdown of W. at the White House correspondents’ dinner in 2006.

With W. looking on, and probably gradually realizing with irritation, as he did with Colbert, who Mr. Obama’s target was — (Is he talking about me? Is 44 saying I messed everything up?) — the newly minted president let him have it:

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” he said to wild applause (and to Bartlett’s), adding: “Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.” He said America is choosing hope over fear, unity over discord, setting aside “false promises” and “childish things.”

The fact is the manner in which Obama expressed such pointed disrespect for his predecessor was childish, plain and simple.

Dowd's enjoyment of Obama's childishness serves to reinforce it. She doesn't seem to realize that she's being incredibly hypocritical.

She writes that Obama's words were met with "wild applause," that America was choosing unity over discord and setting aside childish things.

On Tuesday in Washington, I didn't see that choice play out.

I saw discord and very childish things.

As President Bush left Washington, I know Obama didn't sing along with his supporters, "Hey, Hey, Goodbye." Dowd may have added her voice. I don't know.

I do know that childish things have most definitely not been set aside -- not by the boorish crowd, not by Dowd, and not by Obama.