Bob Schieffer Preacher

Going for the easy patriotism points, Bob Schieffer decided to use his soapbox on Face the Nation to lecture about American democracy by comparing the Bush/McCain compromise on torture to the state of things in Venezuala and Iran.

"It's not a perfect plan, but it shows how we do things in a democracy — out in the open — and in accordance with the law even when dealing with the worst of the worst. "

Unfortunately for Schieffer and patriots everywhere, things don't look so good in the real world of the Bush administration. In fact, the Bushies have been doing everything they can to flout the Constitution, the War Crimes Act, military regulations, and international law concerning the handling of prisoners. Likewise, the Bush administration prefers to do everything in secrecy and kept Congress and the public in the dark as much as possible about CIA prisons, the rendition of detainees, torture practices, and various exercises in data mining. If anything, the Bush administration has been making an effort to be as much like the "worst of the worst" as possible.

Schieffer compared Hugo Chavez to one of the comic arch-villain in the old Batman series. It was an apt comparison. But the Bush administration doesn't escape the shame of Batman comparisons. Like Michael Keaton's obsessive, murderous Batman, the Bush administration is scarcely more moral than the insurgents they are fighting even if we are more moral than our Iraqi government allies who are taking chain saws to people as they kill them. The Bush administration is also like Adam West's Batman in being so comically inept that you have to wonder if they'll make it to commercial. And whether the Bush administration is Keaton-murderous or West-inept, the bad guys are far from intimidated and global terrorism keeps getting stronger now that it has a new home in Western Iraq.

However, unlike Batman or Hugo Chavez, the murderous ineptitude of the Bush administration has real world consequences for the well-being of Iraq and the United States.