Bruce Bartlett might hate Bush, but he's still an irredeemable dick

Those racist southern Democrats trying to keep Vivian Malone out of the University of Alabama in 1963 are now called "Republicans." Bruce Bartlett was an adviser to Ronald Reagan and a deputy assistant secretary for economic policy in George W. Bush's Treasury Department (which I guess is more impressive than it sounds?). But he's made his career as your typical conservative columnist pundit, which is why his latest missive in The American Conservative has gotten so much attention. And how can it not, with passages like this?

As I wrote the book, however, my utter disdain for Bush grew, as I recalled forgotten screw-ups and researched topics that hadn't crossed my radar screen. I grew to totally despise the man for his stupidity, cockiness, arrogance, ignorance, and general cluelessness.

Who could disagree with that? I mean, other than conservative dead-enders, who are the target of Bartlett's words? And yes, conservative-on-conservative violence is always fun and welcome. But we can never forget that Bartlett is a contemptible asshole.

It's not the fact that his missive is one long whine about conservative media ignoring his books (and an inaccurate whine, at that). It's stuff like this:

The best way to get Republicans to read a book about reaching out for the black vote, I thought, was to detail the Democratic Party's long history of maltreatment of blacks. After all, the party was based in the South for 100 years after the war, and all of the ugly racism we associate with that region was enacted and enforced by Democratic politicians. I was surprised that such a book didn't already exist.

Was this dick really going to pretend that he didn't know what became of the Dixiecrats?

I thought knowing the Democratic Party's pre-1964 history of racism, which is indisputable, would give Republicans a story to tell when they went before black groups to solicit votes. I thought it would also make Republicans more sympathetic to the problems of the black community, many of which are historical in their origins. Analyses by economists and sociologists show that historical racism still holds back African-Americans even though it has diminished radically since the 1960s.

So I wrote Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past. Unfortunately, it was published the day Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses.

Holy shit. He really did pretend he didn't know what became of those Southern racist Democrats! They went the way of Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Richard Shelby, Rick Perry, Roy Moore and so many others and became Republican.  

That's why white voters opted for Romney 84-15 in Alabama, and 89-10 in Mississippi this year'because they've inherited the Dixiecrat legacy. It cost Democrats dearly as a national party for two generations, and will cost Democrats dearly in the South for a distressingly long time, but we finally get to reap the rewards of discarding the bigots and racists from our own ranks.