that he literally chokes up talking about the "more hopeful" future Bush has left his children.

So how old and how rich is Franks? Is he expecting his kids to benefit from the death tax amnesty if he dies in 2010? Or did he make a killing from short sells during the last few months?

Franks, Rep. King and Rep. Pence all showed up to give praise to a man who has left us a world of a mess. They are obviously among the segment of people who are fooled all of the time!

If George Bush had committed his calamities in some other less threatening arena, say the Texas Rangers baseball organization, we wouldn't be in such urgent times, and we wouldn't have to listen to the idiots who are still fooled by what just happened over the past 8 years! -Kevo

On Franks, who is the 'Mister' Speaker to whom he is addressing? Steve King did the same thing. Is there some other Speaker of the House of which I'm not aware?

Perhaps there is an obvious answer to this question... if Madame Speaker Pelosi is not on the floor, is her stand-in referred to as Speaker as well?

over a roughly 44-year period, the gop has not only moved very hard to the right, it has also evolved into a party that attracts authoritarian personalities with limited ratiocinative abilities but a lot of skill at bellowing loudly.

and this is just the sort of personality who thinks george bush was a terrific president....

Perhaps there is an obvious answer to this question... if Madame Speaker Pelosi is not on the floor, is her stand-in referred to as Speaker as well?

That is correct.

GEORGE W. BUSH - KNOWING LION
wtf?

My mind reeled at the words of these three idiots. What alternative universe do they live in? "Joshie and Gracie" - presumably the small children of Franks of Arizona - are inheriting a far worse world than their father had the good fortune to grow up in.

What would have made these men NOT praise Bush? I can't think of a single act these men would not have excused Bush of doing. Live boy/dead girl in bed? Wife-beating? Falling down drunk during a State of the Union? What...?

Stalin still has admirers in Russia.

nah, they're the committee in charge of lacing the contemporaneous record with accolades so in five years, ten years they can reach back and say "look! he wasn't a complete failure, people said wonderful things about him!"

they've taken off with the republican revisionist history about the failure-in-chief like a shot out of hell because making his record look like anything other than a pile of stinking poo is a Sisyphean task. unfortunately for them the chinese fortune cookie message -- "keep talking, success is near" -- will never come true.

george w. bush was a joke, is a joke and will forevermore be a joke -- a bad one, a dark one, but a joke nonetheless.

Dubya left office with an approval rating of ~28% nationwide. This pretty much guarantees that there are constituencies where more than half of the electorate still believes he did a heckuva job, and all the fuckups are someone else's fault. Welcome to Joe-the-Plumber Country.

September 11 , 2001 happened while Bush was President... NINE MONTHS INTO HIS PRESIDENCY.

Considering how incredibly INEPT his administration was, I have no doubt they ignored all 9/11 warnings. Condolezza Rice ignored the memo about terrorists using airplanes as weapons of terror.

Also, Bush also kicked out the UN weapons inspectors, who were on the ground and DOING THEIR JOBS in his RUSH TO WAR in Iraq.

Proof?

Google:

"U.S advises weapons inspectors to leave Iraq"

This is a much more disturbing and accurate portrayal of both Champ's feelings for Ron and these knuckleheads' feelings for Bush, I'd imagine.

Most of you've heard about this, but here's a good link about Bush's big spying program:

http://www.alternet.org/rights/122234/

Whistleblower Levels Shocking Allegations at Bush's Spying Programs

By Liliana Segura, AlterNet. Posted January 24, 2009.

It seems Bush's lust for spying went so far as to target reporters, and even the senator tasked with overseeing U.S. intelligence. Tools

Also in Rights and Liberties

How the Press, the Pentagon, and Even Human Rights Groups Sold Us a Army Field Manual that (Still) Sanctions Torture
Jeffrey S. Kaye

Conspicuously Absent from Obama's Inaugural Speech: 'Gaza'
Robert Fisk

More stories by Liliana Segura
On Jan. 21, former U.S. intelligence official Russell Tice appeared on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermannn" and broke a sobering bit of news that, sandwiched between Obama's inauguration and sweeping executive orders, went largely ignored by the media: Under the Bush administration's notorious warrantless spying program, not only did the NSA eavesdrop on millions of Americans, it turns out it specifically targeted "U.S. news organizations, reporters and journalists."

As Olbermannn put it, "non-terrorist Americans, if you will."

"It has taken less than 24 hours after the Bush presidency ended for a former analyst with the National Security Agency to come forward to reveal new allegations about how this nation was spied on by its by its own government," Olbermannn said on Wednesday night.

What language do these people speak?

. . . fealty to his wife . . .

. . . steady hand on the till o' leadership . . .

Are they trying to show solidarity with the Archie Bunker wing of the party, or are they really this incompetent in their native tongue?

"Lion" would explain the limited vocabulary . . .

c'mon, steve, let's not damn the very notion of extolling leadership, i hope there are those who feel the same way about obama 8 years hence, but it IS comical and almost unfathomable that such adoration would be bestowed upon a petty small loser like GWB...

This Shrub worship is just gilding the turd. Shruby trashed the RepubCo brand and since they can't ditch all trace of his involvement, they shall make him a saint instead.

Their hero:
From President-Select to Ex-President-Reject.

Our hero:
First black President raises black students' test scores:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/education/23gap.html?_r=3&ref=us

bushback mountain.

They wish they knew how to quit him.

Oh, and lions tend to sleep 20 hours and bang all the females in their pride, often refusing to let other males "get" any. Hell of an admission to make on the floor of the House. Why not just say you're hung like a Ken doll, then drop trou to prove it? Slightly less embarrassing than admitting Bush controls you to THAT degree. Simp.

Why not just say you're hung like a Ken doll, then drop trou to prove it? Slightly less embarrassing than admitting Bush controls you to THAT degree. Simp.

I'm reminded of an old SNL bit:

Ken admits at last
That his marriage is a failya
'Cause neither he nor Barbie
Has any genitalia.

"There's sycophancy, and then there's this kind of sycophancy."

You do know that you are yourself a professional sycophant?

I too was wondering "WTF?" at Trent Franks' phrase "knowing lion".

All praise the mighty Google: "knowing lion" seems to come from the writings of... Ghandi, of all people.

Ghandi used "knowing lion" to refer to the type of person guided by his conscience and inner strength, as opposed to weaker lions who had allowed themselves to be deluded into thinking and behaving as lambs.

So it seems Franks was praising Bush's "going with his gut" leadership style with the phrase.

Okay... but Franks has been my Congressman for years (alas)and the mental image of him sitting down with a book of Ghandi's writings... no, and no, and hell no! If he's ever read anything but selected parts of the Bible, it would only have been lists of RNC talking points. Somebody planted those words in Franks' speech, I betcha.

Bruce A., not sure if this is better or worse but instrad of a mental image of Franks reading Ghandi, think about what he's admitting: "I'm easily led. My master walks amongst us and I bow, cede to his wishes, take what he gives, do what he demands, and questioning never enters into the equation." Who the eff wants to vote for a pussy like that? You'll never be able to trust the strength of his convictions. "This is what I believe, this is what I stand behind, and if my master dares tell me I'm wrong, then damn it, I'll change!"

Phony ass wipes...ignorant goobers and downright insulting to call Bush a hero. The man brought so much death and destruction into the world...a complete hypocrite right down to the "ranch and clearing brush" routine. Says a lot about a man to watch him stand and praise a lying mass murderer and ridiculously claim "he" kept his two children safe when they would have been just as safe if the man never existed. Now that's an ass licker.

King belongs in an asylum...he went over the edge a ong time ago.

"... Neil B â—™ on January 24, 2009 at 4:29 PM

Shouldn't that be ...first "Half-black" president or even first "half white" president.. Certainly can't be referring to his actual color since that is definitely not 'black'.

Joey, it is part of the customary assignment due to our history. Custom is the ultimate arbiter of the basis of semantics, look up the subject.

Not mere sycophancy, but psycho fancy ...

"through fealty to his wife, through his integrity in office showed the administration of what it is to provide good and decent government"- Mike Pence

AKA He didn't get his d*ck sucked (strike that) didn't get caught getting his d*ck sucked....therefore he makes the best president ever, and a personal hero to Mike Pence.

Gosh, Republicans have such high standards for "good governance".

Course he didn't get his willie wet, after 25 years of heavy drinking and drug use, followed by an awful lot of biking, I'd be somewhat shocked to hear he could get it up at all. Heck, I'd be somewhat suprised to learn that he was ever all that interested in women at all. For a playboy, there sure aren't a lot of women in his closet: an undeniably sharp wife who dulls herself into submission and close relationships with aggressive, powerful women who male him look weak, lots of anger and a fascination with the trappings of macho manhood...