Letter: Ironies abound in presidency of George W. Bush

Monday, Nov. 19, 2001 | 8:55 a.m.

Our sudden, unavoidable, irreversible "war on terrorism" has produced several outstanding ironies:

1. George W. Bush's goal of getting the government out of government has been grudgingly put in arrest, if not reversed.

2. We are deploying our supposedly Clinton-depleted armed forces in ways that President Bush's secretary of defense is characterizing as "successful."

3. We're spending treasury surpluses as though we aren't already giving back much of it to those who need it least. And we can only hope that we won't be running on monetary fumes before we get to where we must correct the senior George Bush's mistake of letting Saddam Hussein off the hook.

While such ironies abide, I'll concede that President Bush has the appearance of having risen to the occasion, at least temporarily, and enjoys the highest approval rating of any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War II.

But getting lost in today's turmoil is what has been swept under the rug (and by our supposedly "liberal media" yet) regarding how George W. Bush became president. Five conservative activists on the Supreme Court overwhelmed the rational objections of the four-member minority and filled the position of president of the United States with one of their ideological soul mates. In its own right, this act will surely put Dec. 10, 2000, in history books as another "day of infamy."

DICK BECKLEY