Quite a little speech The President gave in honor of Veteran’s Day. Like Preston, it would be nice if I thought an offensive press was going to last. The noticeable absence of smirk is, I think, a promising sign. It takes recognition that his trademark mannerism pisses people off and concentration on Bush’s part to control it. Admitting it is the first step.

As rarely as Bush addresses the public, it’s too easy to grow accustomed to his usual stressing of a particular talking point, followed by said smirk, as if to assure everyone that he’s so very proud of himself to be staying on message. But sometimes, he gets it right:

”While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began,” Bush said in a speech commemorating Veterans Day. ”The stakes in the global war on terror are too high — and the national interest is too important — for politicians to throw out false charges. These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will.”

Making an appeal for a united front against terrorism with the Democrats is as hopeless as Ted Kennedy ordering a Diet Pepsi at an open bar. Or possibly George Voinovich not getting his period or maintaining a dry eye during a very special Lifetime made for tv movie starring Meredith Baxter-Birney.

What we saw yesterday, we should have seen six months ago. A year ago even. Without benefit of a Mike McCreary-type figure who does not reek of hapless mouthpiece and who can get out there and pound home the message every day, a wanting commentariat has been reflexively on the defensive as the most powerful microphone in the world has stayed silent to a media bombardment of bad news out of Iraq, the CIA non-leak kerfuffle (in the parlance of our times) and a domestic policy that, in attempts to satisfy everyone, has satisfied no one.

The calling out of Democrats for their invidious lies about being too gullible to know the contents of the intelligence reports they spouted off all during the Clinton Administration is too little, too late. Bush’s silence and Scott McClellan’s unavailing failure as White House mouthpiece has allowed this situation to get out of hand and now we need a showdown to clear the air once and for all.

During the Miers nomination, I said that if anyone doubted that Democrats had a majority in either the House or the Senate that they would have begun impeachment hearings over pre-war intelligence already. I stand by that and regardless of the current congressional landscape we must remain cognizant of that.

Be it deserving or not, the poll numbers demand an appeal to the Court of Public Opinion and refute the slanders Democrats have been echoing since before the election. As Norman Podhoretz noted:

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up, or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.

At the same time, it cannot be left to stand unchallenged.

If yesterday’s speech is any indication, it would be comforting to know that the White House is going on the offensive. It will require getting rid of Scott McClellan to do it effectively. As one who has been rather critical of this Administration over the last year, all I can say is that I want more of what I saw yesterday.

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