the blog quebecois

It's a long-held adage in American politics that "politics stop at the water's edge," meaning that partisan bickering about foreign policy should cease once the President decides on a particular direction.

It's actually a rewording of this part of a speech in 1948 by Senator Arthur Vandenburg:

To me, 'bipartisan foreign policy' means a mutual effort, under our indispensable, two-party system, to unite our official voice at the water's edge so that America speaks with one voice to those who would divide and conquer us and the free world.

Vandenburg, a Republican from Michigan, was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. A former isolationist, he was instrumental in throwing his weight behind Democrat President Harry Truman in favor of his policies creating the Marshall Plan and NATO.

Alas, it's a convention more honored in the breach than the observance these days; gone, too, is the quaint notion that ex-Presidents avoid criticising their successors, offering at worst non-committal support.

At least when it comes to the Democrats. Bill Clinton, as usual, is all over the map. Here he slams Bush. Here he supports him. Must be his fabled "triangulation" in action.

You can't beat, however, Jimmy Carter. As much as you'd like to. With a stick. Here he is a couple of days ago in the German magazine Der Spiegel:

Unfortunately, after Sept.[11], there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous. For three years, I'd say, the major news media in our country were complicit in this subservience to the Bush administration out of fear that they would be accused of being disloyal. I think in the last six months or so some of the media have now begun to be critical. But it's a long time coming.

It's a thankless enough job without a miserable little ankle-biter like Carter making misery for your ankles.

Sorry, ran out of metaphors there. I must have been distracted by his comic assertion: I think in the last six months or so some of the media have now begun to be critical.

Good one, Jimmah! No wonder Ronald Reagan bounced you out on your ass after your pathetic one-term Presidency. What an embarrassment you are.