The New Litmus Test
A lot of ink has been spent discussing the concept of political litmus tests. The most popular one still seems to be Roe v Wade. In fact, many workers for the green zone were asked this question to determine their fitness for rebuilding a country. Despite never being outside the country or having any experience with civic affairs. Holding a minority (and completely irrelevant) position on a hot button wedge issue was good enough.
So if we're going to have stupid litmus tests, I want a new one to start: Do you actually think Bush/Cheney did a good job? At anything?
Imagine, it's 2010 and a Supreme Court justice is being confirmed by the Senate. After the routine series of questions, a senior senator shifts forward in his seat and asks, "Do you think Bush and Cheney were competent?"
And the answer should be no. If they say yes, the follow-up questions are easy:
1. What did they do right?
and then
2. Are you fucking kidding me?
People are going to be debating the merits of Iraq, the escalation, and the opposition to it for decades. Not so with Bush and Cheney. We, as Americans, have a pretty good understanding of how awful they've been. The only people still rooting for this administration's policies are die-hard partisans and those who believe in a unitary executive. Neither class of person deserves to be near our courts.