PRECISELY What Is Needed: President Bush Stirs The Troops

It was a good day.

First: Karl Rove was exonerated Tuesday:

Top presidential aide Karl Rove will not be indicted in the CIA leak case, according to Rove's lawyer. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald had questioned Rove about his role in the public revelation that Valerie Plame had been an undercover CIA agent.

Rove's lawyer says Fitzgerald has formally told him that Rove will not be charged. Already under indictment is former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff.

The news, which came in a letter to Rove's attorney, lifts a cloud from over the White House. It should also allow Rove to focus on the Republican Party's efforts to maintain its congressional majority in the November elections.

Chuckie Schumer is pissed and demands the prosecutor to justify his decision to not burn Rove. Sorry Chuckie; no second "perp walk" for Karlie. Howard Dean said:

"He doesn't belong in the White House. If the president valued America more than he valued his connection to Karl Rove, Karl Rove would have been fired a long time ago," said Dean, the Democratic Party chairman, speaking Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show. "So I think this is probably good news for the White House, but it's not very good news for America."

Second: President Bush visited Iraq and proffered a stirring speech:

Bush foiled the press (the temerity!) and jetted into Iraq directly from Camp David, making his second visit to Baghdad since the 2003 invasion on Tuesday, days after U.S. forces killed al Qaeda's chief in Iraq.

"Good to see you," Iraq's new Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Bush as they shook hands in one of Saddam Hussein's old palaces. "Thanks for having me," Bush replied.

From the Green Zone in Baghdad, President Bush spoke in front of the troops. In part, he said:

I have come today to personally show our nation's commitment to a free Iraq. My message to the Iraqi people is this: seize the moment; seize this opportunity to develop a government of and by and for the people. And I also have a message to the Iraqi people that when America gives a commitment, America will keep its commitment.

I told you earlier we were laying the foundation of peace for generations to come, and we are, because we go with confidence knowing that liberty is the desire of every soul. When Iraq succeeds, reformers and people who desire to live in a free society will see such a hopeful example, and they'll begin to demand the same rights and the same conditions and the same hopeful society.

And that's why I tell you what you're doing is historic in nature. People will look back at this period and wonder whether or not America was true to its beginnings; whether we strongly believed in the universality of freedom and whether we were willing to act on it. Certainly we acted in our own self-interest right after September the 11th; and now we act not only in our own self-interests, but in the interests of men, women and children in the broader Middle East, no matter what their religion, no matter where they were born, no matter how they speak.

This is a moment -- this is a time where the world can turn one way or the other, where the world can be a better place or a more dangerous place. And the United States of America and citizens such as yourself are dedicated to making sure that the world we leave behind is a better place for all.

It is such an honor to be here. It is such an honor to be with you. May God bless you all, may God bless your work, may God bless your families, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
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This is finally, President Bush, "just what the doctor ordered."

Keep it up.

BZ

P.S.
Once again Blogger will not allow photographs to be included.