CT Blue

From the Moscow Times we learn that Colin Powell, Bush enabler par excellence, has seen fit to lecture the Russians on Democracy:

Walking a tightrope between praising Russia’s post-Soviet progress and encouraging the government to open up, General Powell reiterated Washington’s line that the Cold War was over and U.S. military expansion would not hurt Russia. He told reporters later that Putin’s recent proposal to share a radar station in Azerbaijan would not “derail” U.S. missile defense plans in Central Europe.

Calling Putin a colleague and a friend, Powell told the conference that political pluralism needed to take root in the country and that people should be allowed to speak out.
“Democracy has to be a noisy system,” he said, adding that the media should have an opportunity to challenge the government on any occasion.

In a nod to Winston Churchill, Powell likened democracy to a life raft and the waves and winds pushing it to people.

“And people have to be trusted,” Powell, the guest of honor at the conference organized by Renaissance Capital, told the packed hall. “And the trust comes from an open political process.”

Where, one must wonder, was Colin when Ari Fleisher told the media “that in times like these “people have to watch what they say and watch what they do.”

Perhaps the Moscow Times’ reporter had her tongue at least partly in her cheek, or her irony emitter on high, when she penned this paragraph that follows hard upon the quote above:

In the eyes of some Western governments, Putin has stifled political opposition, deprived people of an opportunity to elect officials in free and fair elections and neutered the media.

Not for nothing does Bush consider Putin to be a soul brother.

Russia is a sorry excuse for a democracy, no question about it. But it takes a lot of damn gall for a loyal Bushie (when it mattered) to lecture anyone on democracy, fair elections, or a free and unfettered press. I’m no Christian, but I think Jesus hit the nail on the head:

Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.