A Coup is a Coup is a Coup

I’ve got to get the pot roast on for Sunday dinner and leave for church in a few minutes, but before I head out, I wanted to point you to Frank Rich’s column in today’s NY Times.

Rich explains that Musharraf’s recent coup in Pakistan should come as no surprise to Americans as we’ve been undergoing a coup ever since George W. Bush became president and in fact, Musharraf is simply following Dubya's example:

"More Machiavellian still, Mr. Bush has constantly told the world he’s championing democracy even as he strangles it. Mr. Bush repeated the word “freedom” 27 times in roughly 20 minutes at his 2005 inauguration, and even presided over a “Celebration of Freedom” concert on the Ellipse hosted by Ryan Seacrest. It was an Orwellian exercise in branding, nothing more. The sole point was to give cover to our habitual practice of cozying up to despots (especially those who control the oil spigots) and to our own government’s embrace of warrantless wiretapping and torture, among other policies that invert our values.

"Even if Mr. Bush had the guts to condemn General Musharraf, there is no longer any moral high ground left for him to stand on. Quite the contrary. Rather than set a democratic example, our president has instead served as a model of unconstitutional behavior, eagerly emulated by his Pakistani acolyte."

Yikes! The guy we elected president on a values platform no longer has any moral high ground left to stand on. Let’s think about that as we consider the candidates for 2008, especially those like Rudy Giuliani going through their contortionist’s fits to appeal to Pat Robertson, et al.

Gotta go. Your comments are always appreciated.