Surprise! Rolling Stone hates Bush!

And I'm back by popular demand (thanks Phil). I've been busy/lazy, but it's time to get back on the wagon.

So anyway it took the story below to goad me back into pulling my itchy blog trigger finger once again. It's an excerpt from the latest Rolling Stone cover story, a mock interview with President Bush written by Matt Taibbi laying out everything the magazine's editors (and likely most of its readers) would like to hear from Dubya's mouth before he makes his exodus from the White House on the 20th. Check it out below:

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/25329027

A few things for the sake of transparency before I get rolling: Politically I'd call myself centered with a lean toward the left, and I'm a pretty regular reader of Rolling Stone. Although the integrity with which they once used to cover music and the world at large has become pretty soft and lazy, there's always a few things worth reading in each issue, namely Taibbi, an equal opportunity offender who's about as close to an honest national affairs reporter your bound to find in today's day and age of blubbering pundits and tools trying to pass themselves off as honest journalists.

But with that having been said, the Bush interview, at least what little I've read of it, is a tragic misstep, even for a magazine that nakedly sold itself up liberal river a LONG time ago. Rolling Stone and publisher Jann Wenner has made little secret about their stance on Bush and the new guy (see all three RS Obama covers and the endless, though oft justified, assault on the Bush Administration over the past five or six years). And although they've put balance aside in favor of bashing Bush and trumping their boy Barack, this story abandons any sort of journalistic standards and pretense, all for the sake of giving Georgey Boy one more good kick in the ass on his way out the door. It's pretty rank and indecent.

As for Taibbi, I really like the guy. I think he's a really well informed and fearless reporter with a gift of clearly exposing the stupidity that runs amok on Capitol Hill. I encourage everyone reading this to check out his book Spanking the Donkey, which hangs the presidential campaign process out to dry as the traveling circus it is.

But while Taibbi's reputation as a renegade reporter is arguably the strongest weapon in his arsenal, it can really come back to hurt him at times. When he really digs his claws into someone, he runs the risk of coming off more of a bully than an investigative reporter, treating his stories and their subjects more as a grand stage of twisted theater than a platform for honest discussion and debate, which it should be. The "Bush Interview" is one such glaring instance.

From his child like send up fo Bush thrusting his Wii control in anger to more off topic and brazenly stupid anecdotes such as Condi Rice farting in the Oval Office, you're just left to wonder why bother? Bush is an easy target (way too easy), and Rolling stone has thrown more than its fair share of darts. But this story is little more than the magazine's last chance to kick an already disgraced man while he's down. Here Wenner and Taibbi show how much they have become something they've for so long openly rejected and despised, a one sided, biased liberal monster every bit as nasty and infuriating as the Ann Coulters and Sean Hannitys of the conservative world.

But the worst part of all of this is the timing. Of course we all should have expected Rolling Stone would try to get a few more shots in at Bush before he's gone for good, but by now everyone is over it. Bush fucked up, bad. We all get it and no one can run from it. But we're ready to move past it. Obama, hopefully, has some much needed tricks up his sleeve to get us out the ditch we find ourselves in, and that's where we all need to be. We need to hope for a better future in front of us, not dwell on the mistakes of the past. It almost makes you wonder what the magazine will do without Bush? Hopefully it can move on with the rest of us.

For now, Rolling Stone should stick to what it knows. Speaking of which, aren't Katy Perry or the Jonas Brothers ready for their close ups?