My New Hero: Bob Herbert (Updated)

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Last night Bob Herbert was on Tweety’s “Hardball” along with Howard Finemann to discuss Bush’s interview (youtube link) with Heidi Collins of CNN. During the interview, Bush finally admits to some “mistakes” during his presidency…he wishes he hadn’t said “dead or alive” when talking about Bin Laden after 9/11, he wishes he hadn’t said “bring ’em on,” and he regrets the “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Tweety and Finemann had a few laughs about it all…Bush finally admitting mistakes and talking about how his wife had been the one to call him on them.

Then they asked Herbert for his thoughts. Bob was sober – no laughs. He pointed out that there were no apologies for things like extraordinary rendition, torture, etc. It totally caught Tweety off guard. He had to admit the seriousness of the reality Herbert was referring to and somehow explain his casual approach to it all. It was truly a profound TV moment.  

I spent time last night and this morning trying to find a video or transcript of the interchange, but nothing yet. I have also not been able to find anything written about it on teh blogs. If/when anything shows up, I’ll update this essay with it. If any of you find something, please add it in the comments.

This is the kind of media we need to support – the cold, hard reality of what has been happening – rather than the blather that trivializes things and sweeps the real crimes under the rug.

So my plan is to keep a better eye on Bob Herbert. He “gets it.”

Update

The transcript is now available.

BOB HERBERT, “THE NEW YORK TIMES”: I think maybe I will be a little harsh here. The president seems to be concerned about style points or public relations, how he looked when he made what he saw as inartful comments. But it might have been better if he had some regrets like, perhaps, some regrets that related to the war or maybe he was sorry about the way he handled the nation’s finances. I would be happier if he were a little sorrier about extraordinary rendition and prisoners who were tortured and what that did to the United States reputation around the world.

The United States is in a deep, deep fix here. President Bush bears a great deal of responsibility. There is more to be regretful about than a few inartful comments.

MATTHEWS: That’s why you’re one of the great columnists today. Howard, I agree. I was falling into the trap of trivialization along with our president. He led me into that valley of absurdity, as if it really matters whether he committed this faux pas or that when we’re talking about a United States of America which is in terrible shape. And I could argue morally, because of a lot of the issues that Bob just raised, morally, about torture, rendition, war, unjustified war, death by the tens of thousands of our own people-certainly the people, if you add them up, the casualties in Iraq is in the tens of thousands.

And he was either morally right or morally culpable. That would be an area of confession that might be more relevant.

FINEMAN: Well, I agree. I was led down that path just as you were. Bob brought us back to reality. But I also think we don’t expect any real confession or self-knowledge from George Bush, at least publicly expressed, at least publicly expressed. Most other normal human beings would be ringing their hands at this point. But it is both a virtue and a huge drawback of George Bush that he refuses either to look back or to look inward, it seems. And so I guess I wasn’t ever expecting, certainly at this point, before he leaves office, any kind of true soul searching on the part of this man. Soul searching does not seem-political soul searching does not seem to be in his make-up. So that’s why I wasn’t even looking for it.

MATTHEWS: We’re obviously at the cross section of horror and hilarity right now. The horror being so horrible, it’s hilarious. That’s a problem with my soul. I can’t deal with this level of horror. It begins to be just callow humor.