Bush Library a lesson in hypocrisy

Everything that looked right about the recent dedication of the GeorgeW. Bush Presidential Library andMuseum is what’s wrong with America.

First, hypocrisywas in overdrive: Against the backdrop of an architecturally pre-pubescent building, on a stage that rivaled “Mission Accomplished” for irony, Presidents Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama allowed themselves to be used as props to create the illusion that the Bush 43 presidencywas not a disaster, and he is a likely candidate to add toMount Rushmore, as Karl Rove has suggested.

Whoever masterminded the spectacle really knew howto lead ex-presidents by the nose. I suspect they started by inviting Bill Clinton— because he never says no to a chance to spread his ego before a crowd, plus he grew close to Bush 41, raising money to helpHaiti.

I’m guessing that Jimmy Carterwas the last to come around, after they told him everyone elsewas going to be there; he looked positively in pain— but he still showed up. All but Bush 41should have found an excuse for not attending the dedication rather than participating in a charade. Instead, they avoided the policy minefields of 43’s administration— Iraq, Afghanistan, the Great Recession, Hurricane Katrina— and participated in a calculated cover-up of the truth.

Second, injusticewas on display: The audiencewas peppered with scoundrels from the Bush WhiteHouse who didn’t knowright from wrong— or, if they did, chose wrong— and got away with it.

Therewas Dick Cheney in a white cowboy hat, when he should be in white and black stripes, doing hard time in federal prison— along with Karl Rove, who should be his cell mate. After exposing the identity of a CIA agent, among other misdeeds, Cheney and Rove get to go free and enjoy a Dallas afternoon; a kid who steals a loaf of bread from a 7-Eleven gets the book thrown at him. Their immunities are an affront to American morality and proof of our double standard of justice.

Third, propaganda trumped the truth— or any attempt to establish it. Taxpayer dollars will be used in perpetuity to support GeorgeW. Bush’s personal massaging of the history of his presidency.

Speaking at the dedication, Bill Clinton joked about “the eternal struggle of former presidents to rewrite history.” No truer, or sadder, words could have been spoken— and generations of Americans who didn’t live through the Bush 43 years will be the losers until and unless credible history seeps into the Library.

According to JamesHohmann of “Politico,” who has toured the exhibits, Wwants to be known as awartime president. (Right up there, I guess, with Abraham Lincoln.) The Svengalis of his administration— Rove, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney, are “essentially invisible” in exhibits. “Social issues, from his steadfast opposition to abortion to his push for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage are ignored, too.”

“CrisisManagement,” another section, “addressesHurricane Katrina and the financial crisis together,” with thewords “President Bush met each crisis byworking to restore order and providing practical plans for recovery.”

Really, so the issue afterHurricane Katrinawas about restoring order?

You’re paying for this, even if you never visit the library— andW, nowan artist, is rigging his own “picture” of his years in the WhiteHouse.

And he’ll get away with it, because Americans have the historical perspective of fruit flies.

For no reason, W’s approval rating is 47 percent, up from 33 percent when he left office. Americans are truth-challenged: We “detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies,” in thewords of Edgar WatsonHowe.

We need Truth Commissions— about the decisions leading up to our invading Iraq and whowas responsible for what in the Bush 43 Administration; about the causes of the Great Recession and who, if anyone, should be prosecuted; about racism in America. It is an axiom of any kind of treatment that you have to identify and acknowledge a problem and its causes before you can hope to cure it.

By that standard, until Americans are willing and able to distinguish right from wrong, we’ll keep getting truthless presidents— and their libraries.