My Challenge to the Media

Much has been said here about President Bush's speech before the knesset this morning.  Many diarists and commentors have made reference to the president's grandfather, Prescott Bush, who, as head of Brown Brothers Harriman, was, in effect, the American banker to Nazi Germany.

Prescott B's ties with German and German-friendly firms such as Thyssen and UBC continued long after Pearl Harbor and the US declaration of war on Germany in December of 1941, ending only in August of the following year when BBH's Nazi-linked assets were seized by the US government under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

The story was covered in great detail by the Guardian newspaper in 2004.  Their coverage can be found here.

Since our president has shown both his solidarity with the Israeli people and his disdain for those who would appease tyrants and terrorists, he must not only denounce this chapter of his family's history, but turn over any wealth gained by his family from its ties with the Nazi regime to organizations representing survivors of the Shoah and their descendants.  A complete list of these organizations in the US can be found here.  Similar organizations outside the US are listed here.

Now, while I can rant 'til the cows come home on a blog, relishing the huzzahs and "right ons" that are shouted in response from like-minded readers, none of that will affect the president.  He will never even be aware that I've written.

That is why I'm asking members of the press and broadcast media to bring this question to the man himself.

Over the course of the next 8 months, President Bush will, in hopes of building some legacy beyond a moribund economy and the stupidest war in American history, grant numerous interviews with friendly press outlets and hold at least a few press conferences.  You, the members of the once-proud Fourth Estate, will have a chance to confront him about the appeasing, profiteering skeletons in his own family closet.  I beg you to do so.

I know you'll suffer professionally for asking these questions.  You will likely lose your treasured access to "senior administration officials" on whom you are dependent for so much of your reporting.  Your employers, under pressure from this most protective and vindictive White House, may even terminate your employment.

Still I ask, is there not one among you with the guts, nuts and pride to bring this question to the president himself?  Anyone?

I doubt it.  Stephen Colbert had you dead to rights in his speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Over the last five years you people were so good, over tax cuts, WMD intelligence, the effect of global warming. We Americans didn't want to know, and you had the courtesy not to try to find out. Those were good times, as far as we knew.

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!

Or did he?  Come on, scribes.  Prove Colbert--and me--wrong.  Ask Bush about the real Nazi appeasers that made his family rich.

I dare you.