Originally Posted by Marvelous Marv

Perhaps if I post this, I can simply link to it the next time a Bush-basher says, “I don’t care if Clinton committed murder while in office.” I’m not interested in going back to find that post, but it did appear on TFP. I will, however, give an analogy of why I think what you call a "tired and played out strategy" is relevant.

Let’s say one of your kids has his or her heart set on a bicycle. You, being short on funds at the moment, say there’s no money for one. Your kid starts a neighborhood leaf-raking service, works his butt off, and over six or eight months, earns enough for this fancy bike. You take him to the bike store, where he proudly plops down his money and rides the bike home. A real Kodak moment.


However, the dirt-bag father who lives on the next block has a kid or two who take after their old man. A couple of days later, your kid has gone somewhere, and since he didn’t know to buy a lock for the bike, dirt-bag’s kid heists it. No one sees him do it, and no one has seen your kid in possession of his new bike.


A month or two later, dirt-bag’s kid is observed riding the bike. You verify that, and call the father. He calls you unpleasant names, like “liar.” Says the whole neighborhood is participating in a “conspiracy to get him.” So you call the cops, but your kid didn’t know to save the receipt, and you can’t prove anything. You and your kid are out of luck.


Fast forward a year or so, and dirt-bag kid leaves the bike lying around. Your kid sees it, and takes his property back. However, once your kid is seen riding it, you get a call from dirt-bag father, calling your kid a thief, and threatening to call the cops. There are now plenty of neighbors who have seen dirt-bag kid riding the bike, and you still don’t have any proof that the bike originally belonged to yours. Dirt-bag father, who managed to ignore crime in the past, is now a champion of justice, as far as your kid’s “crime” is concerned.

So how forgiving will you now choose to be in regard to the original theft, and how forgiving of the current "theft?" Me too.

Don’t like my analogy? Let’s condense your philosophy, then. If Bush okays drilling in the ANWR, outlaws abortion, and privatizes Social Security, by your reasoning, he gets a clean slate in January of 2009. “It’s time to move on,” as some here would say.