Carter Infuriates White House

"In repudiating extremism, we need to recommit ourselves to a few common-sense principles that should transcend partisan differences.

"First, we cannot enhance our own security if we place in jeopardy what is most precious to us, namely the centrality of human rights in our daily lives and in global affairs.

"Second, we cannot maintain our historic self-confidence as a people if we generate public panic.

"Third, we cannot do our duty as citizens and patriots if we pursue an agenda that polarizes and divides our country.

"Next, we cannot be true to ourselves if we mistreat others.

"And finally, in the world at large, we cannot lead if our leaders mislead....

"Ultimately, the basic issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and the integrity of the American people, or whether extremist doctrines, the manipulation of the truth, will define America's role in the world. At stake is nothing less than our nation's soul."

On his publicity tour for his book "Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis," Carter told CNN's Larry King in November 2005: "I tried to define in very accurate terms, the unprecedented, the profound, the traumatic changes that have taken place just in the last five years as compared to all the previous presidents who've ever served in this country.

"And how radical they are. And I would like for every American to understand these changes."

In his NBC interview, Carter described a visit to the Oval Office in early 2005 at which he told Bush about the trip to the Middle East he had just returned from, and discussed his views. But you won't see Carter making any public appearances with the president if the president can avoid it. Bush, who brooks no public dissent, has long been suspected of making it clear to his staff that Carter is not welcome anywhere near him. In fact, Carter's notable absence from the president-filled delegation to the April 2005 funeral of Pope John Paul II has never been fully explained.

But as I wrote in my Feb. 8, 2006, column, Carter was one of several speakers who took advantage of Bush as a captive audience at the widely-watched funeral of civil rights icon Coretta Scott King. With Bush fidgeting in the background, Carter called attention to the "secret government wiretapping" of Rev. King, in what the cheering audience recognized as a reference to the current domestic spying controversy. And he added: "The struggle for equal rights is not over. We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi, those who are most devastated by Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans."

And Gore, Too

Jake Tapper writes for ABC News that former Vice President Al Gore's brand-new book, "The Assault On Reason" is "an assault on President Bush. . . .