Video below the fold.
Here's the relevant transcript.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD) (6/10/2010): ...you can't continue to blame Bush, you can't continue to blame Cheney...
REP. VIRGINIA FOXX (R-NC) (6/15/2010): ...they blame everything on our former President Bush...
JEB BUSH (6/19/2010): ...people wake up that are partisans and they have a sniffle and they blame my brother...
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ) (6/3/2010): BIOB, that's "Blame It On Bush"...
Yeah, BIOB. Well... HRWTPITHRTCITG (sic). He Really Was A Terrible President That Ran The Country Into The Ground. I see that's a very common acronym. Want to see my favorite "Don't blame Bush" talking point of all time? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Old Man Carter.
Rep. JOHN CARTER (R-TX) (6/16/2010): I actually heard, I believe, that somehow, this oil spill is now George W. Bush's fault. It reminds me of the game, the Kevin Bacon game that no matter your job is, no matter what actor or movie you attach, you lay out before the public, you gotta bring it back in seven cycles to Kevin Bacon.
All right, listen, I don't need seven cycles to trace this spill to Bush. I don't even need six degrees, which is the actual way you play the Kevin Bacon game. Because the oil spill is the result of the Mineral Management Services' decision to stop regulating natural resources, and start regulating how much coke they were sniffing off of oil executives' asses, a decision they made during the administration of George W. Bush... who was played by Josh Brolin, who starred in Hollow Man with... Kevin Bacon! Boom! I got from the Gulf disaster to Kevin Bacon in only five cycles!
What were we talking about again? Ah, maybe we're so quick to blame Bush because a lot of bad stuff did happen during his Presidency. I mean, I remember we were barely two months into Bush's presidency when the economy started to tank.
SEAN HANNITY (3/14/2001): ...the Clinton economy and the near recession we're in because it's the Clinton economy...
SEAN HANNITY (3/26/2001): ...this is the Clinton recession and the Clinton economy...
Yeah, that is, OK, that is a fair point, that is true. The first thing I think of when I think of the Clinton years... is the bad economy. And the second thing I think of is a lack of oral sex scandals. But, to be fair, Bush had only been in office for two months when the recession hit, so OK, fair point. And he'd only been in office nine months on 9/11. So the statute of limitations on blaming Clinton then?
PAT BUCHANAN (9/27/2002): ...there were opportunities to take out this al-Qaeda's leadership ... President Clinton really evaded this issue...
Ah! Blame Clinton for 9/11 too! So the first policy that Bush had to own for his own Presidency was the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. According to Republicans, 18 months is apparently the cutoff point for blaming the old guy, and at that point, when he invaded Iraq, Bush had been in office for 26 months.
RUDY GIULIANI (5/21/2007): It was the policy of the Clinton administration to have regime change in Iraq, so in a way, George Bush carried out what Bill Clinton wanted to do.
Yes, the George W. Bush administration wanted no part! They had no beef with Iraq. But what could they do? Clinton made them pinky swear! So wow, almost all the way through Bush's first term, and he's still just buried underneath Clinton's failed policies. Well finally in 2005, there was that flare-up with North Korea when the United States ended direct diplomacy with them, and the Bush presidency began.
SEAN HANNITY (2/10/2005): Trouble could be brewing in North Korea, but is it all the fault of Bill Clinton?
Clinton! All right, fuck it, let's just jump ahead to 2008, and the collapse of the housing market!
RICK SANTORUM (10/1/2008): Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were two organizations run by Democrats, that was abused by the Clinton administration...
NEIL CAVUTO (10/7/2008): I might just be cynical that this is a scandal that can date back clearly to the Clinton administration...
FRED BARNES (12/22/2008): You can go back to the Community Reinvestment Act under President Carter and all the things President Clinton did...
At that point Bush had been in office almost EIGHT WHOLE YEARS, and had yet, apparently, to have an impact!! Which brings us back full circle to the very show that said it was inappropriate for the Obama administration to mention the Bush administration, when talking about the wars or the economy or the regulatory environment that helped lead to the oil spill.
I give you that same show, two weeks prior.
June 9, 2010:
STEVE DOOCY: Explain what happened during the Clinton administration that impacted what is going on right now in the Gulf.
DICK MORRIS: Congress, at President Clinton's urging, passed legislation exempting the oil companies from any payment to the government for royalties for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico ... it's why we had all this new drilling in the Gulf.
STEVE DOOCY: Right, it started under Clinton.
Do you realize this shit is being broadcast and recorded??? So everything bad that happened during the Bush administration was Bill Clinton's fault! And now, everything bad during the Obama administration... is Bill Clinton's fault!
Who... by the way, was played by John Travolta in Primary Colors, who was in Carrie with Piper Laurie, who was in The Faculty with Jon Stewart... who... is banging Kevin Bacon.
Sigh... they really are that transparent. Jon once again shows why he's so trusted by Americans. :-)