Cynthia Tucker on Bush and Oil

Cynthia Tucker has always been one of those sensible liberals who make conservatives squirm because she doesn't waste time on process like Mark Shields or on ivory tower issues like Michael Kinsley; she just gets right to the heart of the matter. I could be wrong but it seems she's not as syndicated as much as she was before 9/11; the editorial pages around the country made far too much room for the neoconservatives who dragged us into the Iraq fiasco and it seems to me that in the last four years good writers like Cynthia Tucker haven't been circulating as much. I hope that changes.

Neoconservativism, radical conservatism, right wing conservatism, trickle down economics, unilateralism, preemptive strikes and all the other isms of the far right are finished. They have failed America, though their policies, much to our peril, may blunder on some months or even years longer. The damage, of course, will last much longer.

As far as I'm concerned, the debate of America's future is wide open. I see signs on the blogs that the debate is beginning to make its way back and I hope the major media open their pages and studios to anyone to the left of right-wing myopia; and I mean anyone from rational conservatives to moderates to liberals and maybe others who aren't too far off the charts. But it's time for some good sensible people to come back into the American dialogue who have been there all along.

Here's an excerpt from a column Cynthia Tucker wrote on a nation of oiloholics:

You still don't believe oil was a factor in the invasion of Iraq?

Just listen to retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell. In a speech in Washington last year, Wilkerson, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's unilateralism, revealed a plan that was far more ambitious -- and ominous.

"We had a discussion in policy-planning about actually mounting an operation to take the oil fields in the Middle East, internationalize them, put them under some sort of U.N. trusteeship, and administer the revenues and the oil accordingly. That's how serious we thought about it," he said.

(snip)

Bush is right about this much: China's growth has as much to do with rising oil prices as hurricanes, floods or rumors of war with Iran. As long as demand is high for a limited resource, prices will remain high. But even Bush ought to be ashamed to suggest the Chinese should go back to riding bicycles so we can keep driving Hummers -- cheaply.

The president should have told Americans years ago that the days of cheap gas were over. It's too bad he didn't remind us of that when he had our attention -- in the days and weeks after the terrorist strikes of 9/11. Even a nation of oiloholics was prepared to make sacrifices...

We are witnessing the end of a dismal chapter in American history. Bush is a failure. He is a failure because he turned his back on some of our best values, including, I might add, values that come from the better half of Christianity, such as compassion, the humility to admit when we're wrong and a steadfast courage in the face of sorrows. Bush has given us fear-mongering and arrogance, though dressed sometimes in pretty words, words that far too often were insincere. And we have heard the words but seen little compassion from this White House.

How much further down the road of failure Bush takes us will depend on Congress, the media, officials who have sworn an oath to uphold the US Constitution, the good sense of the military, our system of courts, laws and prosecutors, and finally, the American people. The American people are not powerless though there are people on the far right who would have us believe so.

The history of America is not perfect but it's essential to understand that the history of most nations on this Earth has not been perfect. If Americans have an advantage, it's that we have reinvented ourselves several times after making mistakes and then we have moved on. I don't believe we're out of ideas and I don't believe we're out of courage. I have no doubt that we're in for more difficult times but we, the people, are not powerless.