The Peculiar Desires of George W. Bush

The conservative punditocracy jumped the shark long ago, but this week marks a special low, particularly if the latest column by Jonah Goldberg is any indication. Proceeding from the false dichotomy that Americans are divided between those who “want the war to be a success” and those who “want the war to be over,” Goldberg congratulates the preznit on his insatiable desire to win. On Goldberg reading, the infantile nonsense spilling forth from George W. Bush’s mouth — namely, his defiant insistence that everything is unacceptable — somehow makes him more credible or (to invoke Josh Trevino’s diagnosis) places him on a “higher moral plane” than the rest of humankind. And the fact that Bush’s plans gang aft agley only makes Goldberg more upset with the Democrats:

He may be deluding himself, and his plan may not work, but he at least has done the nation the courtesy of saying what his position is, despite an antagonistic political establishment and a hostile public. What is maddening is that the Democratic leadership cannot, or will not, clearly tell the American people whether they are the party of “end it” or “win it.”

This is beyond pathetic. Goldberg finds such “stubborn emphasis on victory” to be courageous — “wise,” in fact — and so Bush’s desire for victory immunizes him somehow from responsibility for what happens from here onward.

I hate to be uncharitable toward Goldberg, but one gets the sense that if Bush were discovered in a pasture somewhere, babbling about “victory” while giving a horse the handjob of his life, Goldberg would wonder why Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid weren’t offering free reacharounds to his stablemates.

“Look how much Bush wants to win!” he’d cry. “Where are the Democrats? At least we know what Bush stands for! Sure, the horse might be a little chafed tomorrow, but look how badly the president wants to win!”