Diminishing Bush

Pandagon, despite his disgusting youth ("I was born in 1984..." blech), has a very smart post on the need for the left to avoid bashing Reagan right now. A better tactic, he writes, is to compare Reagan to Bush, as the latter will come up wanting. True. Reagan was a much more nuanced thinker than often given credit -- by the right as well as the left -- and he somehow managed to obscure his apocalyptic notion of the battle between East and West with a sunny optimism that Bush II certainly lacks.

I was no fan of Reagan and, frankly, I'm sure it's a relief for his family that he's finally gone. But I will say that it's hard for me believe that we would ever have heard "Dutch" voice things like, "Bring 'em on." And, as Constitutional scandals go, Iran-Contra pales beside the extra-constitutional (see below) actions of the current administration.