Let's imagine and pretend and make-believe

One of the things we're hearing more and more of from conservative bloggers is that they were never really fans of Bush and his policies, that they were always skeptical and suspicious of him from the get go. The behavior is on display here in the form of a post about Patrick Fitzgerald in which the author insists that he always supported his prosecution of Scooter Libby for his role in the Valeria Plame case. To prove that, he offers up a post of his from March of 2007, which was conveniently after both Libby's conviction and the blowout in the mid-term elections.

It's plain to see what he's trying to do. Fitzgerald is prosecuting a Democrat right now, and Patterico wants to make himself sound relevant and reasonable throughout time by pointing out that when Fitzgerald was prosecuting a Republican, he was behind him. But scanning through his other posts, it becomes clear that his opinion about the broader Valerie Plame affair differs in no way from what most Republicans still believe; that the investigation into the leak was bogus and unnecessary, that Joe Wilson was a liar with an axe to grind, that Valerie Plame wasn't actually a covert agent, etc. The only thing that Patterico supports is Fitzgerald's prosecution of Libby for perjury. Had it been up to him, we never would have gotten that, because there never would have been an investigation into who in the administration leaked classified information to a reporter to silence a critic. Patterico thinks that would be silly.

Patterico may be voicing his support of the Libby conviction, but that's a separate issue. Fitzgerald's prosecution of Scooter Libby for perjury is not the corollary to Blagojevich's corruption investigation. The actual corollary is the investigation of Bush's corruption, which Patterico believes was misguided. Focus on this part of the above-linked post from a few days ago,

Nor am I saying that the Libby situation is anywhere near as scandalous as the Blagojevich situation. Let me be clear: it isn’t. The Blagojevich scandal is one of the most outrageous situations to come along in quite some time — and Libby’s deception, while reprehensible, is nothing close.

Even though that's a false comparison, we can still address the question of whether or not Blagojevich lashing out desperately in a political tailspin is worse than an aide to the Vice President being convicted of lying during a federal investigation looking into the administration's disclosure of national security secrets to advance their propaganda campaign pushing for unnecessary war. Blagojevich making a bunch of threats around town is worse than spilling state secrets to squelch a critic so you can start a war that doesn't make any sense? What kind of fucking political calculus is that?

Republicans are trying to pretend like the last 8 years didn't happen. They're trying to jettison George Bush and dodge all responsibility for all of the over-the-top fawning they did for him back when his approval ratings weren't in the toilet. They're trying to pretend like they didn't circle the wagons around him every time someone came at him with criticism that has turned out to be prophetic. That the national media takes so many of its cues from Republican talking points, it's absolutely essential that we confront these claims. Ignoring them will open up the possibility that Republicans gain more power in the near future. The past 8 years have discredited almost all things Republican and conservative. We need to make them feel discredited.