My friend Brad Hobbs and I exchange e-mail observations. He recently sent me comments about George Tenet. Here’s an excerpt of what Brad said and my response:

From the interview on CBS’s "60 minutes", I felt Tenet was trying to shift and deflect the responsibility of blame towards everyone, but himself, regarding the mishandling or complete indifference to threats of terrorism from Al Qaida just prior to 9/11/07. Perhaps rightly so, perhaps not… but I don’t know if we will ever get a straight answer about that. But because we are living with a completely excessively secret president and presidential cabinet, we may never know. I guess it all depends on how well they hid their incompetence. Much of it we already know about, but take for instance the new definitions for "Domestic spying and Torture" now respectively referred to as "Terrorist Surveillance" and "Enhanced Interrogation". With that kind of blatant disregard for the intelligence of the American people, it is not an auspicious looked towards the future as we evaluate the last eight years of this country’s executive branch of the government. Democracy has taken on a new face… at least for awhile. King George, the tyrant and struggling dictator, continues to veto sound messages sent to the White House from Congress. Unfortunately, Bush has a support base enough among the bleeding heart conservatives in Congress to tie up things until it becomes too late to do the right thing. Brad Hobbs

Good observations Brad. I too, am particularly offended by their double speak – "enhanced interrogation" and the like which is Karl Rove pure deception. I also believe that one of the reasons for America’s growth has been the basic decency of its people. While I think evil will always be at work in this world until the end of time, we look to our leaders to set the example of honesty and genuine concern for the well being of all our people. When you instead have political corruption, lies, secrecy and dishonesty at the highest level of government, it contaminates the country. Instead of serving as an example for good moral and ethical conduct, government represents just the opposite. This deterioration of ethical & moral constraints emboldens industry to pursue profits without the restrictions which are necessary for capitalism to be kept in balance. Unrestrained capitalism is nothing less then pure greed without moral or ethical guidance. By undermining and obstructing the normal regulatory checks of government that are designed to keep capitalism in check, the Bush administration has opened the flood gates for industry to do what it wants in profit taking. This unrestrained greed over a period of two terms can’t help but have an adverse impact on the country. When a nation decides to make pre-emptive war without compelling justification and does so based upon fraud and lies, when a nation removes the restraint on industry greed, when a nation puts money as a priority over education, poverty and assistance for those least able to provide for themselves, that nation is on a path to serious problems. I am not arguing an Armageddon view that the end is near. I am rather looking at Gibbon’s reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. These are not good signs for a continued strong, moral America and the real concern is the ability to turn the tide when this administration leaves office.