Today, December 12, 2008, President George W. Bush delivered the commencement address to graduates at Texas A & M University ("TAMU"). The Associated Press described the address as "reflective". Among the topics President Bush touched upon in final commencement address as President were comments that "[P]opularity is a fleeting as the Texas wind" and that the true test of character as being whether you can you can look yourself in the mirror at night.
According to Darlene Superville in a story written for the Associated Press, President Bush told the TAMU graduates,
"Remember that popularity is as fleeting as the Texas wind. Character and conscience are as sturdy as the oaks on this campus," he told the graduates and their families at [The ceremony venue]. "If you go home at night, look in the mirror and be satisfied that you have done what is right, you will pass the only test that matters."
The irony is too rich to ignore.
First, President Bush demonstrated the content of his character in sanctioning the legal advisor to the Convening Authority for Military Commissions at Guantoanamo Bay, Cuba in December, 2007 to testify before a Senate Subcomittee that evidence gathered by interrogation techniques such as waterboarding may be admissible during military proceedings if "reliable and probative", while declining to answer questions concerning whether the waterboarding was even used at Gitmo.
Second, President Bush revealed his depth of his conscience in authorizing or allowing his Attorney General to fire seven U.S. Attorney's for following their conscience. The firing were fell so far outside parameters of character that in his report on the firings Inspector General of the Department of Justice found the "process" that led to the firings to be "fundementally flawed and "arbitrary" and "raised doubts about the integrity of the Department Prosecution Decisions.
Finally, gaze into the looking glass, Mr. President and see the FISA legislation. Surveillance of any American. Retroactive immunity for Telecoms that violated their customer's right to not have the government eavesdropping on their telephone conversations. An act if you or I did it would be violate any number of state and federal laws.
If this, as President Bush told the graduates, "[Is]the only test that matters", I am hoping he is grading on the curve.