As near as I can tell, former Bush White House Chief of Staff Andy Card’s most notably contribution to the public discourse came a couple of years ago. Card complained publicly about President Obama appearing in the Oval Office without a suit jacket. Card insisted Obama was failing to show “respect” for his office — never mind the photos of Reagan and Bush doing the same thing.
This week, Card is at it again, bringing his shallow pettiness to the bin Laden story.
President Obama has ‘pounded his chest’ too much and taken too much pride in the success of the mission to take out Osama bin Laden, according to, of all people, George W. Bush’s former Chief of Staff, Andrew Card.
In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Card said that Obama has “pounded his chest” too much over the death of Osama bin Laden, particularly by going to Ground Zero earlier this week, the site of the 9/11 attacks.
“I think he has pounded his chest a little too much,” Card said. “He can take pride in it, but he does not need to show it so much.”
The irony, of course, is rich. Card helped run Bush’s White House when the former president needlessly donned a flight suit, landed on an aircraft carrier, and strutted his stuff under a “Mission: Accomplished” banner.
But Card is convinced Obama is pounding his chest a little too much.
Card added that it was “premature to go to Ground Zero” on Thursday. Why? Just because.
Paul Krugman noted the other day, before Card’s comments were published:
[J]ust to say the obvious: isn’t the GOP showing a stunning lack of grace in this whole affair?
It’s particularly striking if you remember the atmosphere from 2001 through until 2004 or so. Back then, any hint of criticism of Bush’s War on Terror, or even a failure to show sufficient enthusiasm for his leadership, led to accusations that you were unpatriotic and somehow warped by your partisanship.
Now Obama actually gets his man — and does it in what seems to have been a truly gutsy fashion — and all we get is carping.
Quite right. And when it comes to gracelessness, Card’s whining appears to be a new low, even for the Bush gang.
