Runnymede Rescinded

In November 1994, I was still writing for TownHall.com. At about 11:00 p.m. CST, I retired to my office on the second floor, scotch and cigars in hand, and typed out what I consider my best column ever: Runnymede Revisited.

The gist of the piece was that Newt Gingrich and the Republicans, with the help of the American people, had re-enacted the forced signing of the Magna Carta. Democracy was again legal. All was not lost.

Tonight, I cannot help but think King John signed the document with disappearing ink. Twelve years hence, we have very little to show for the Republican avalanche of 1994. President Bush has woefully mismanaged Iraq, resulting in unnecessary American and Iraqi deaths. The federal government has faster than Johnson might have dreamed of growing it. Our borders are more porous than in 1980. Congress is gone.

President Bush has two years to fix some of the damage he’s done in the previous two. His first administration was admirable, if not conservative, but his second has been an unmitigated disaster. Save for his two Supreme Court appointments, Bush has nothing to show for his second term but flag-draped coffins and enemies in Congress.

I still support the war. I hope Bush will finally decide to win the damn thing instead of piddling around like a business executive re-ordering PowerPoint slides before the board meeting. We need 250,000 troops on the ground with orders to kill anything that looks suspicious. Don’t worry—all will be forgiven when final victory comes home with the troops.

He needs to acknowledge in no uncertain terms, “I fucked up. I said that I had a lot of political capital that I intended to spend. I didn’t spend it, so much as I pissed it away. I get it, people. And swear I will use these remaining two years to fix every problem I made.”

And if he has a strategic bone in his body, he’ll add, “So ask your Representative and Senators to help me win the war for civilization, to put government beneath the people, and to find that son of a bitch bin Laden and hang his miserable ass from the roof of the White House.”