Bush and DeLay: Bestest buddies

So: "President Bush said yesterday he is confident that former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) is innocent of money-laundering charges."

Do you believe him?*

The Carpetbagger Report compares Bush's inappropriate defence of DeLay (that is, the president commenting on an ongoing criminal case) to Bush's defence of his pal Raffy Palmeiro this past summer: "It's interesting to me the way in which Bush deals with evidence that conflicts with his preconceived ideas. Palmeiro tested positive for steroid use, but Bush likes him, so he defends Palmeiro's innocence. Tom DeLay more or less admitted his involvement in a money-laundering scheme, but Bush likes him, so he defends DeLay's innocence. As Kevin Drum put it a few months ago, 'It's like listening to a small child. He doesn't want to believe it, so it isn't true.' It must make Bush's daily life absolutely delightful. Ignorance, after all, is bliss."

(My posts on the Palmeiro steroid story are here, here, and here.)

See also Demagogue, Middle Earth Journal, The Heretik, and AMERICAblog.

* I don't.