Sully notes that Laura Bush was “the most decent person in the White House for eight long years” and proffers this quote as evidence:
In 2004 the social question that animated the campaign was gay marriage. Before the election season had unfolded, I had talked to George about not making gay marriage a significant issue. We have, I reminded him, a number of close friends who are gay or whose children are gay. But at that moment I could never have imagined what path this issue would take and where it would lead.
I agree, she was decent. By all accounts, her husband was decent, too, and both treated all the gays they knew well. So fucking what? Tell it to the millions of gays who don’t happen to be “close friends” of the Bush family –the people who bore the brunt of the retrograde policies Bush used to ride to election. And, while you’re at it, be sure to send it in a letter to John McCain’s adopted daughter.
I don’t mean to pick on Sullivan, who probably just meant this as nothing more than to compliment to a decent lady. But there are plenty of members of the journalistic elite who justify their shitty journalism by saying that some monster is actually decent “in person”.
One of the things I really appreciate about Glenn Greenwald is that he’s one of the few top-flite bloggers who doesn’t care if someone’s “decent” or “nice” in person. I mean that as high praise, and would like to see more of it. If we replaced the DC press corps with a bunch of misanthropes who want to spit every time the President’s name is mentioned, we’d be a hell of a lot better off than we are with the current bunch of fawning, preening wanna-be elitists.