Negative Campaigning 2006, part Deux: and so it begins...

(updated 4:10 pm)

The website, workingforchange.com is in full swing today. Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and WfC contributor, challenges Bush's sincerity and commitment to freedom (compared to whom, I ask??),

While we continue to uncover more and more about the lies and deceptions the Bush administration used to lead us to war in Iraq, let's not lose sight of the lies and deceptions that are being used to keep us there — namely, the idea that we are sacrificing American lives in the name of spreading democracy, freedom and human rights throughout the world.

For proof of how utterly insincere this claim is — and how empty is George Bush's lofty rhetoric on the subject — all you need to do is look at the kid glove treatment he gave the Chinese during his visit. Business and trade issues such as preventing movie pirating were clearly at the top of the president's agenda. Freedom, democracy and human rights were reduced to throat clearing preliminaries. Hey, who has time to worry about dissidents being locked up when the new "Harry Potter" flick is being stolen?

Huffington goes so far as to congratulate Ronald Reagan for standing firm on his human-rights convictions vis-a-vis Soviet dissidents. Yeah, and he was roundly criticized by Huffington's comrades for standing firm on SDI in Iceland.

Say, wasn't Bush criticized for taking a more aggressive stance against the Chinese in the pre-9/11 days? You remember, Bush's belligerence after China shot down our EP-3 plane off the coast of Hainan, and the "strategic competitors" comment?

What do the liberals want anyway?

Oh, yeah, that's right.

The White House. At any cost.

btw, Huffington has a book out, Fanatics and Fools: The Game Plan for Winning Back America. Might be worth a read.