More on Jimmy Carter and Former Presidents

Dan Froomkin of White House Watch has been following the weird tantrum coming out of the White House in response to Carter's comments. Obviously, Carter hit a nerve. Here's more from Froomkin, including relevant comments by Mark Leibovich of The New York Times:

And for the record, Mark Leibovich writes in the New York Times that "there have been several instances of 'when ex-presidents attack' over the years. As recently as a few months ago, former President Gerald R. Ford criticized Mr. Bush's Iraq policy, albeit from the grave. In an article in The Washington Post, Bob Woodward quoted from an interview he conducted with Mr. Ford with the understanding that he could only publish Mr. Ford's remarks after he died.

"Eisenhower was critical of John F. Kennedy's domestic policies, the first President Bush pounded on Bill Clinton, now his pal, for his Haiti policy, and Nixon chided the first President Bush (for comparing himself to Harry Truman in his 1992 re-election campaign)."

The only real problem Bush and his friends had with Carter's comments is that his words had the ring of truth and the truth can sometimes hurt. Carter is an elder statesman and a gentleman and that explains why he somewhat backed off. However, after listening to Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Duncan Hunter and Tancredo, to mention just five of the candidates, it looks to me that the Republicans are pushing to send yet another failure to the White House. That is no way to rebuild a party.