Bill Bennett Blows a Fuse

For being an accidental president, Gerald Ford was a pretty good one (restoring integrity to the office, yada yada yada). And while I have blogged on the other two thirds of the Famous Dead Guys Holiday Trifecta (James Brown and Saddam Whatshisname), I haven't felt like I could add anything to the discussion on Mr. Ford.

I was right, although I did come upon a (pardon the term) drop-dead funny post by Jon Swift, who skewers the smarmy William Bennett for taking issue with the late president calling the Iraq war a "mistake" in an interview with the WaPo's Bob Woodward that was published posthumously.

Says Jon:

"Bennett is right. Releasing the interview posthumously deprived us of the opportunity to accuse the 93-year-old former President of being a traitor and of wanting America to lose. And so instead of having a 'dialogue' with Ford about the War in Iraq, Bennett was forced to accuse Ford of being a coward and not being 'decent,' while Ford -- conveniently -- 'doesn't have to defend himself,' according to Bennett. By dying, Ford effectively cut and run from any discussion about why he hates America.

"Once someone has died, it's a lot more difficult to attack them without people thinking you are being unseemly. While it was very courageous of Bennett to do so anyway, his words have opened him up to a torrent of criticism, the kind of criticism that Ford avoided by dying. Bennett realizes that it would have made him look a lot better if he had picked on a 93-year-old man while he was still alive instead of the day after he died, but Bennett cares more about this country than he does about what people think of him personally. It's too bad that Ford was not as brave as Bennett is."

More here.