Colin Powell Shows How Low He Can Stoop

One of the things that bugs me the most about the Bubba Bush administration is its Bubba-like swagger -- a pompous, presumptuous, pot-bellied bow-legged swagger. It exudes the kind of mentally that in Texas I think is "quaint", like the Texan who told me that "Texas wines are as good as any in the world." It's sort of a lie, but you can forgive those that say things about Texas, as long as it doesn't really hurt anyone.

But Bubba W and his cohorts take these "liberties with common courtesies" to a whole new dimension, to a very "crooked" dimension, signpost up ahead -- the "bubba zone"!

Today's notes by Colin Powell and Scott McClelland are no exception. The Voice of America headline says "Spanish Support for War on Terror Will Remain Strong, says Powell, but this is where the twilight zone starts. Powell is trying the big lie with this construction: Bush is America, America fights terror, the Iraq invasion fights terror, Spain fights terror with America. But the Spanish know better than to equate Bush with America or America with anti-terror.

So if Powell wants to make you believe that the Bubba Bush administration is chummy with the Zapatero administration, the Guardian gives you a different look:

Zapatero signals move away from US"

He [Mr. Zapatero] has already said he wants George Bush to lose the presidential elections, so he will have no friend there.

Oh, and by the way, Zapatero has announced that he is withdrawing Spanish troops from Iraq, and then some, in this article and this article in the Financial Times:

"The Spanish troops in Iraq will return home." Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's next prime minister, repeated his election pledge in a radio interview on Monday in full knowledge of the impact that his words would have abroad.
...

"This was a decision taken by the Socialist party before the al-Qaeda attack, if it was al-Qaeda. The war in Iraq was a disaster and the occupation continues to be a disaster. You cannot organise a war with lies. [President George W.] Bush and [UK prime minister Tony] Blair should do some self-criticism to avoid repeating what has happened."
...
Questions are also being raised about the Bush administration's overt support for Mr Aznar in the run-up to the polls.

Diplomats On Monday revealed details of how within hours of the Madrid bombings last Thursday, Spain and the US pushed through a UN Security Council resolution that named the Basque separatist group Eta as the perpetrator.

Then as Spaniards were voting on Sunday, senior US officials were unanimous in telling talkshow hosts it was too early to say which group was responsible. "No, I don't have any intelligence that would give clarity," said Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

In an unintended sort of way, I think that Bubba Rummy's lie is the most truthful statement made by a Bush administration official recently.

But back to Scott McClelland. As long as we are still in the twilight zone, we might as well listen to Scottie in ABC News:

Kerry should identify the leaders who purportedly hope he beats President Bush in November, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "Either he is straightforward and states who they are, or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president," the spokesman said.

I would turn the tables on Scottie's request. Find one leader in the world, outside of maybe Silvio Berlusconi, who wants to keep the current regime in the US. I doubt highly that you'll get any takers in the current situation.

The funny thing is to read that:

Three times, McClellan repeated the charge that Kerry was "making it up." And he sought to turn Kerry's assertion to the White House's advantage by using it to raise questions about Kerry's credibility.

Reaching, there, Scotty.