The Mouth That Roared

I have mentioned how little I like Jimmy Carter before. I have also mentioned that I could not remember any other former president who made a whole career after getting his butt thrown out of office by criticizing other presidents. If former presidents have made any comment whatsoever about successors, it has been so infrequent and so rare that the commentary is memorable.

Carter, on the other hand will not shut his pie hole. He criticizes incessantly to the point where it isn't even newsworthy.

Whereupon he does the absolutely unheard of act of criticizing the head of state of an allied nation. The man is simply too irresponsible to be let loose without a muzzle.

"I have been surprised and extremely disappointed by Tony Blair's behaviour," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"I think that more than any other person in the world the Prime Minister could have had a moderating influence on Washington - and he has not. I really thought that Tony Blair, who I know personally to some degree, would be a constraint on President Bush's policies towards Iraq."

In an exclusive interview, President Carter made it plain that he sees Mr Blair's lack of leadership as being a key factor in the present crisis in Iraq, which followed the 2003 invasion - a pre-emptive move he said he would never have considered himself as president.

Mr Carter also said that the Iraq invasion had subverted the fight against terrorism and instead strengthened al-Qaeda and the recruitment of terrorists.

"In many countries where I meet with leaders and private citizens there is an equating of American policy with Great Britain - with Great Britain obviously playing the lesser role.

"We now have a situation where America is so unpopular overseas that even in countries like Egypt and Jordan our approval ratings are less than five per cent. It's a shameful and pitiful state of affairs and I hold your British Prime Minister to be substantially responsible for being so compliant and subservient."

The outspoken attack by the former Democratic president shows the extent of the alienation between the Labour Party and its traditional Democrat allies in America.

It will embarrass the Prime Minister on his return from his summer family holiday in Barbados and comes as Mr Blair prepares to make a defiant speech warning his party that it risks losing the next election if it does not unite behind him.

Not content to make an ass of himself at home, he has to go a step further and make his obnoxiousness clear to the rest of the world. It is time to censure Carter for his antics, his complete lack of judgment and his outright derangement at this point. You were a poor excuse for a president, Jimmy. You've gotten even worse in the intervening years. I recently called Carter an empty pot. I guess I was incorrect. He's shown he's quite full of it.

UPDATE: Sister Toldjah - that will leave a mark.

• 

  By Roland Hesz, Monday, 28 August , 2006 @ 3:03 am

  “UPDATE: Sister Toldjah - that will leave a mark.”

  Uhm, where and in what sense?

  You think, that supporters of Carter would suddenly see the light? I doubt.
  Those who already hate him, will just applaud.

  The rest will note, that her putting words into Carter’s mouth is a bit strange - Hamas? Where does he mention Hamas? -, and will just wave dismissively or shrug and go forward, leading a peaceful life.

  I find an absolutely different sentence that disturbs me:

  “We’ve never before had an administration that would endorse pre-emptive war - that is a basic policy of going to war against another country even though our own security was not directly threatened,”

  Now, that _is_ a straight faced lie.

Other Links to this Post

1. Sister Toldjah » Who would you rather be ’subservient’ to: George Bush or Hamas? — Sunday, 27 August , 2006 @ 9:01 pm