In this snarky column, WILL slams CARTER as a "fibber" and "fabulist" for believing that WILL mis-used the stolen debate briefing book. In most minds, the image WILL projects of being prim and proper equates, wrongly, with his being "moral". So what we have here is that, when presented with dirty-tricks-STOLEN-material during a campaign, WILL did not object, did not question anybody about its provenance, did not run screaming from the room, did not scream for witnesses to see him run screaming from the room, and certainly did not do what the GORE campaign do in 2000, which was to report it. Yet he continues to pose on some sort of higher ground. Am working on an e-mail to him incorporating some of this paragraph. Suggestions welcome.
As for RAYGUN being "ready" on his own, uh, yeah-right, with Poppy BUSH negotiating with hostage-takers to KEEP the hostages till after the "election".
*******QUOTE*******
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081001796.html .... "Regarding your briefing book, I will tell you what I have told many others.
When I got to David Stockman's house on the day he was preparing to play the role of you in the debate preparations,
he had on his kitchen table what I gather was
the briefing book. I do not know how he got it; more to the point, I do not know who thought having it would be helpful. Frankly, you deserved better.
My cursory glance at it convinced me that it was a crashing bore and next to useless -- for you, or for anyone else."
Even though,
as a columnist, my support for Reagan was well-known,
my participation in his debate preparation was as inappropriate as it was superfluous -- after three decades of public advocacy,
Reagan was ready. And speaking of the inappropriate:
The role of ex-president requires a grace and restraint notably absent from Carter. See, for example, his criticism of the United States when he is abroad, as in England two weeks ago. Having made such disappointing history as president, Carter as ex-president should at least refrain from disseminating a historical falsehood.
So strong, however, is the human impulse to believe comforting myths that Carter probably will continue to promulgate the fiction that
I gave Reagan the utterly unimportant briefing book, thereby catalyzing the 1980 landslide. But to be fair: As a candidate, Carter promised only that as president he would never tell a lie, thereby leaving himself a loophole for his post-presidential career as a fabulist.
georgewill@washpost.com********UNQUOTE*******