He really does drive them crazy

One of my favorite things about President Bush is the way he drives those who hate him crazy. It must stem from the fact that his adversaries consider him both inferior and illegitimate. When he succeeds, it is more than they can stand. Consider these ravings from Michael Kinsley that appeared in his column in yesterday’s Washington Post: “If we knew which babies would turn out to be murderous dictators, we could smother them in their cribs. If we knew which babies would turn out to be wise and judicious leders, we could crown them dictator. In terms of the power he now claims, without significant challenge, George W. Bush is now the closest thing in a long time to dictator of the world.”
Kinsly truly seems to have taken leave of his senses. Is he suggesting that Saddam Hussein is a newly-minted, unformed leader who may or may not turn out to be murderous dictator? And isn’t a bit hysterical to use George Bush’s name in the same sentence as the phrase “dictator of the world?” Bush is prosecuting a war without having received approval from the U.N. Security Council. But other presidents, including Bill Clinton, have done the same thing. I don’t recall Kinsley engaging in the same kind of name-calling then. Kinsley objects that Bush is claiming the right to start a war solely at his own discretion, without deferring to the judgment of others. But Bush took his case to Congress and received overwhelming support for going to war. Kinsley speculates that Congress was “cowed.” If so, it was because the case for war was strong, and viewed as such by the American people, who promptly gave him majorities in both houses of Congress. Unable to accept this reality, Kinsley, like many of the president’s other critics, continues to spiral downward into irrationality.