Pot/Kettle

Dean Esmay has an important question for conservatives, should Kerry win in the fall:

How many of you will have the patriotism to say, “I disagree with many of his policy directions, I do not think he is conducting our foreign policy in the right way, but I will do my best to get behind him and support him until elections come around next time?”

I’m genuinely curious. For that is the stance I intend to take. I will refuse to call him traitor, loser, liar, incompetent. He will be my President, my Commander In Chief, the Chief Executive of a great nation, elected by the will of a majority of the electors in these 50 great united States. So even if he does things I disagree with in conducting foreign policy, I will say, “I respectfully disagree with the President’s directions, but I will do my best to express my dissent respectfully and hope that I am mistaken and that he has made the proper decisions after all.”

That’s my pledge. How many of you will take a similar one?

Good question. Although I’d have to strike “loser, liar, incompetent” from the list. Those are good words, sometimes apt words, and I’ve called Bush at least two out of the three on occassion.

But Dean’s broader question is well-taken, however. And after what we heard from conservatives while Bill Clinton was president, I think we already know the answer.