Earlier this week I watched a television interview of an author who had just completed a biography of the Bush stewardship.  The author indicated that Bush was initially leery of cooperating with him, but after two Oval Office sessions granted him four more interviews.  

Once that it was established that the author had been granted that kind of access it was evident that he was not likely to provide a critical analysis of a regime steeped in disaster.  One could scarcely imagine, for instance, granting Seymour Hersh six private interviews in conjunction with a book on the Bush White House years.

When asked about any discernible change he observed in Bush from the days when the author had previously interviewed him while he was Texas' governor, the author cited Bush's current interest in history.  The author stated further that Bush has become an avid reader on the American presidency.

Such responses would have indeed endeared the author to Bush, who doubtlessly feels that the sessions were worthwhile where creating a positive image of his stewardship is concerned.  

David Halberstam, who died in an automobile accident in Northern California last week, deserves the plaudit of American patriot.  As a young reporter his courage and tenacity under difficult circumstances brought needed truth to America during one of the most troubling periods of American history.

It was understandable that when Halberstam died at 73 that he was in the midst of a project.  An ambitious writer who remained busy, the accident that took his life in Menlo, Park California came as he was being driven to an interview with Hall of Fame quarterback Y.A. Tittle.  

Halberstam was interviewing Tittle about what many called the greatest game in pro football history, the overtime 23-17 win of the Baltimore Colts over Tittle's team, the New York Giants, in the 1958 championship game in that historic era almost a decade before the Super Bowl made its debut.

In addition to his reporting and historical books, Halberstam had a reverence for sports that saw him write about the famous 1949 pennant race when Joe Dimaggio came off the injury list to lead the New York Yankees to the American League title over Boston and the 1964 World Series in which Bob Gibson pitched the St. Louis Cardinals to the championship over the Yankees.

The paradox is that the right has been proven wrong again and again, as well as hypocritical.  The hypocrisy was blatant in the case of the Vietnam War, a track record now being equaled if not surpassed by the Cheney-Bush brigade's actions and comments on the Iraq War.

Currently those who dare criticize Cheney, Bush and other administration operatives for rushing America to war on demonstrably proven false information are denounced as damaging America at a time the country is waging a war against terrorism.  

Better than a generation ago Nixon and his hired guns declared themselves to be seeking to perpetuate freedom on behalf of the "silent majority," and were allegedly being opposed by those who were accused of "running down America."

It was a period of turbulent division that saw scores of American young men leave the country and travel to Canada, some never to return, rather than go to Vietnam to fight in a war they genuinely believed to be wrong.