The Unwelcome Return of Mondo Fucko

I thought we got rid of this guy, but here he comes again, to haunt us with his sneering visage and petulant whinging, like some kind of ornery specter.

President George W. Bush says that when he heard Kanye West say, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," "it was one of the most disgusting moments in my Presidency."

In fact, according to his his forthcoming memoir, Decision Points, he told Former First Lady Laura Bush at the time that it happened that it was not "one of the" worst moments of his presidency, but THE worst. Which is interesting, because, let us recall, Kanye West famously uttered that criticism after Bush's catastrophic megafail responding to the Katrina disaster.

So: Letting an American city drown comes second in Worst Moments Evah! to being called a racist by Kanye West. Okay.

Maude bless Matt Lauer for pointing out this irony:

Bush has taped an interview [to promote Decision Points] with Matt Lauer that will air on a special prime time Matt Lauer Reports on NBC Nov. 8. ... The subjects of the interview are wide-ranging, but the former President is very passionate on the subject of West's criticism of the way Bush handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. NBC has released some quotations from the interview.

"He called me a racist," Bush tells Lauer. "And I didn't appreciate it then. I don't appreciate it now. It's one thing to say, 'I don’t appreciate the way he's handled his business.' It's another thing to say, 'This man's a racist.' I resent it, it's not true."

Lauer quotes from Bush's new book: "Five years later I can barely write those words without feeling disgust." Lauer adds, "You go on: 'I faced a lot of criticism as President. I didn't like hearing people claim that I lied about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction or cut taxes to benefit the rich. But the suggestion that I was racist because of the response to Katrina represented an all-time low.'"

President Bush responds: "Yeah. I still feel that way as you read those words. I felt 'em when I heard 'em, felt 'em when I wrote 'em and I felt 'em when I'm listening to 'em."

Lauer: "You say you told Laura at the time it was the worst moment of your Presidency?"

Bush: "Yes. My record was strong I felt when it came to race relations and giving people a chance. And it was a disgusting moment."

Lauer: "I wonder if some people are going to read that, now that you've written it, and they might give you some heat for that. And the reason is this — "

Bush [interrupting]: "Don't care."

Lauer: "Well, here's the reason. You're not saying that the worst moment in your Presidency was watching the misery in Louisiana. You're saying it was when someone insulted you because of that."

Bush: "No, and I also make it clear that the misery in Louisiana affected me deeply as well. There's a lot of tough moments in the book. And it was a disgusting moment, pure and simple."

Charming as ever.

Mr. President, you are racist. Without rigorous self-examination, we're all racists (and sexists and homophobes and transphobes and disablists and fat-haters and…) by default, by virtue of our socialization in a culture steeped with negative stereotypes; we internalize those messages so profoundly that even those bigotries that target us get turned in on ourselves. The question is not whether we have biases; we all do. The question is whether we leave them unexamined.

And a person who can't even hear the accusation without getting so defensive that he shuts down isn't someone who's likely to have engaged in a lot of rigorous self-examination. I'm just saying.