Character Counts, But Characters Rule
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:46 am
The White House has declared this third week of October as — warm up your sense of irony — National ‘Character Counts’ Week, 2007.
“During National Character Counts Week, we underscore our dedication to promoting values for our young people and encourage all Americans to demonstrate good character,” reads the White House statement. “In the community, we all can set good examples and demonstrate the virtues of leadership.”
Ah, yes, those elusive virtues of leadership. How we’ve missed them so.
We won’t subject you to a complete rehash of the many virtues of leadership exhibited by the Keytsone Kops of Character that populate the Bush administration.
But a few of our favorites so far:
One senior aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on four counts of perjury. The dearly departed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales lying to Congress, and lurking over a sick man’s hospital bed to gain approval of a massive illegal eavesdropping program on American citizens. Oh, and lest we forget Vice President, Dick “go f#$k yourself” Cheney, who shot a man in the face, but did eventually emerge from the undisclosed location long enough to issue a public apology after only a day or two.
Not to mention the tortur…oops, we meant the “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
As Harvey Keitel’s character Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe said in Pulp Fiction, “Just because you are a character doesn’t mean you have character.”
