MSNBC's Rachel Maddow used the occasion of President George W. Bush's final address to suggest that he was to blame for the destruction of New Orleans as well as the felling of the World Trade Center.
In her Thursday program after the President's farewell to the nation, with a photograph of Bush in the right of the screen that included the disgusting caption "Goodbye, Good Riddance," Maddow continued with the attacks that have made MSNBC a journalistic disgrace for years.
At one point, she even scolded the President for not doing an exit interview with either her or Keith Olbermann (video embedded below the fold with partial transcript):
Today's dramatic plane crash in the Hudson River in New York City drew attention away from the scheduled big news story of the day, which was of course the end of the public phase of the presidency of George W. Bush. This is the start of the part where we don't have President Bush to kick around anymore. That said, given his approval ratings and the state of the world his tenure has left us with there can be no promise that we won't be compelled to try to keep on with the kicking around.Isn't that special? I guess this means we can count on Bush Derangement Syndrome to last well after Tuesday's inauguration of Barack Obama. How delightful. But I digress:
The president's farewell address just 90 minutes ago was his last public event, his last speech to the country, and puts a cap on a furious Karl Rove and Karen Hughes produced legacy polishing tour that they undertook shortly after Election Day. There were more exit interviews than you can count on all your fingers and all your toes including long sit-downs with pretty much everyone on television except, you know, me and Keith and stuff.Wow. Is this woman so deluded that she thinks the President should have done interviews with two of the biggest Bush-haters in the country?
There was a big final press conference full of defiance and self-defense that left most observers scratching their collective heads, and got everybody mad about Katrina all over again. And there was the announcement that first lady Laura Bush is working on a book that will detail her own experiences in the White House all in the name of spinning the history of the Bush administration to the positive evidence to the contrary be damned.
But tonight was truly it. President Bush's farewell address, the official farewell address. His official goodbye. His valedictory. His final public appearance as President of the United States. Now despite the overt spin those of us who keep track of things like this know the real context of Bush's bye-bye tonight is this: When President Bush arrived in January 2001 the unemployment rate was 4.2%, now on his way out it is 7.2%. When he arrived there was a budget surplus of $237 billion. Today we are looking at a $1.2 trillion deficit. When he arrived the consumer confidence index was 116. Now it is 38. When he arrived there were 40 million Americans without health insurance today there are 46 million. And of course when he arrived in January 2001 we were fighting protracted wars in zero countries that we had preventively invaded and justified occupying through manipulated intelligence. Today we have been in Iraq for 5 1/2 years and counting and the war in Afghanistan is even older than that. Also there was a vital jewel of an American city called New Orleans back then and a World Trade Center. It is against that proud backdrop the George W. Bush presidency publicly ended today.
Though one could certainly argue the economic stats and how much Bush is to blame -- especially given the fact that he inherited a recession in 2001 and did nothing to cause the collapse of the financial services industry -- it is Maddow's suggestion that the President caused the destruction of New Orleans as well as the felling of the World Trade Center that is most disgusting.
If Maddow wants to make such claims on Air America radio, fine. But for a major American so-called news outlet to spread such invective shortly after the final address by an outgoing President is truly shameful.
How sad that MSNBC has basically devolved into a liberal blog.
Readers that can stand it should watch the entire video to witness Arianna Huffington similarly disgracing herself.
