Why I Think Peggy Noonan's Not Even Going to be Admitted to Purgatory

What's missing in the White House is an understanding "that maturity is not the same thing as cowardice, that personal loyalty is not a good enough reason to put anyone in charge of anything, that the way it works in politics is a friend becomes a loyalist becomes a hack, and actually at this point in history we don't need hacks."

"The president has taken to suggesting that opponents of his ... bill are unpatriotic--they "don't want to do what's right for America... Why would they speak so insultingly, with such hostility, of opponents who are concerned citizens?"

"For others ...[it] might have been Katrina and the incompetence it revealed, or the depth of the mishandling and misjudgments of Iraq."

The White House and its supporters seem to be marshalling not facts but only sentiments, and self-aggrandizing ones at that. They make a call to emotions--this is, always and on every issue, the administration's default position--but not, I think, to seriously influence the debate."

Please note that these quotes are not from the rant of some left-wing blogger, but from Saint Margaret Noonan, (aka Peggy), writing for the Wall Street Journal.  (h/t memeorandum)Saint Margaret is upset at the way Bush and Co are reacting to the right when discussing immigration. What is really shocking about the piece is not her rejection of Bush - the right must do that or be guaranteed losing to Democrats for the forseeable future.

What's astounding is that Saint Margaret has no problem when Bush behaves this way to Democrats; she is outraged only when he does it to "conservatives." Arguments made by Democrats deserve calls to "emotion," not serious debate. Democrats are clearly not "opponents who are concerned citizens" in the gospel according to Saint Margaret.

I went to look at the very loyal Captain's Quarters, a great admirer of Saint Margaret, who notes that this is nothing new in Bush's behavior,

"I see nothing all that unusual with the way the Bush administration has attacked its critics over immigration. If she was to honestly look at the last six years, she will see that this is the normal mode of operation for the White House"

Coveniently, her epiphany about Bush came in January 2005

"when the president declared that it is now the policy of the United States
to eradicate tyranny in the world, and that the survival of American liberty is dependent on the liberty of every other nation."

Only after Bush's re-election does Saint Margaret see the light. Her dishonesty and the disdain for democracy implicit in her article are simply amazing. Watch out, Saint Margaret - Saint Jude will not answer all your prayers.