Crocodile Tears Over the Economy

"But Bush was being disingenuous. In fact, a pocket veto was neither necessary nor allowed in this case. In misusing his veto power, Bush was attempting to grab a power for himself and his office that the Constitution's framers emphatically and repeatedly denied to the president: a nearly unlimited, absolute veto."

Unsurpassed Apologist

I wrote in yesterday's column about the immodest claims Bush is making for his presidency.

Who could possibly say nicer things about Bush than Bush himself?

The answer: Unsurpassed Bush apologist Fouad Ajami, who writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: "It was fated, or 'written,' as the Arabs would say, that George W. Bush, reared in Midland, Texas, so far away from the complications of the foreign world, would be the leader to take America so deep into Arab and Islamic affairs. . . .

"Mr. Bush is traveling into the landscape and setting of his own legacy. He is arguably the most consequential leader in the long history of America's encounter with those lands. . . .

"His was the gift of moral and political clarity.

"In America and elsewhere, those given reprieve by that clarity, and single-mindedness, have been taking this protection while complaining all the same of his zeal and solitude. In his stoic acceptance of the burdens after 9/11, we were offered a reminder of how nations shelter behind leaders willing to take on great challenges."

Impeachment Caption Contest

McClatchy is accepting reader-submitted captions for this Jim Morin cartoon.