LEAVE PRESIDENT BUSH ALOOOOOONE!

This time, brother Jeb is the whiner. Here, from Sean Hannity's Fox News blog, is an excerpt from a two-part interview:



JEB BUSH: If I had one humble criticism of President Obama, it would be to stop this notion of somehow framing everything in the context of "Everything was bad before I got here" and focus on his duties, which we all want him to succeed. But constantly pushing down the previous president to make yourself look good I think is a bad thing.

"Humble criticism" is a lovely velvet glove, Jeb -- perfect for concealing a shiv. Nice false politeness there -- your mother would be proud. And "Everything was bad before I got here"? Well, everything was bad before he got there. And he is focusing on his duties -- when your ideological soul mates aren't accusing him of taking his eye off the ball, they're accusing him of doing too much. Which is it? And you don't all want him to succeed -- go have a chat with your fellow Floridian Mr. Limbaugh. And he's not "pushing down the president" to make himself look good. He doesn't need to. The public already thinks he looks good. He's just making it clear that he didn't crash the global economy and screw up every aspect of U.S. foreign policy himself -- but they sure were in dire straits in the third week in January. Care to suggest a different culprit?

After this, of course, we'll still hear the Karl Roves and Mike Gersons of the world telling us what a high-minded soul George W. Bush is because he never speaks ill of his political opponents. And that's true -- now as in his presidency, like a Mafia don who doesn't actually kill people himself, George W. Bush has others in his retinue to do the dirty work.

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By the way, I notice that Hannity's Fox blog is called "The Great American Blog."* A Fox article on the tea parties is called "Tea Parties: A Great Part of American History --And America’s Future."

Is Fox trying to brand itself with the words "great" and "American"? Is this a preview of a new Fox slogan?

And what is it they say about refuges of a scoundrel?

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UPDATE: Uh-oh -- I'm obviously one of those effete, out-of-touch liberals. Cautious Man informs me in comments:

You've never treated yourself to Hannity's radio show? Callers salute him with "You're a great American", and he responds in kind. He's turned "Great American" into a verbal tic.

But I still wonder if this slogan is being bumped up to brand level for Fox. (It's obviously being carried over from his radio show to his TV show.)