The Last Honest Liberal (well, next to last, after Marc Danziger) on Charlie Gibson’s bushwhacking of the monster Palin:

At times, Palin seemed to know less than she should. On the other hand, Gibson sometimes seemed to “know” things that just aren’t so.

The biggest concern is that she appeared to not know what the Bush Doctrine is. There are, in fact, different definitions of it – but all have had an impact on this nation. One hopes Palin is more up to speed than she seemed.

Well, it’s actually sort of complicated, because it depends on whose definition of the so-called “Bush Doctrine” — so codified not by the Bush admin, but by the DKosMedia — you’re discussing. The Bush Doctrine, as understood by those who…well, who actually understand it, amounts to this:

• America reserves the right to deal harshly with states who aid and abet terrorist attacks against the US and US interests and personnel, including those states who knowingly harbor, shelter, and support the groups responsible — up to and including removing those regimes from power, should such be made necessary by the recalcitrance of said rogue states
• America is under no obligation whatever to sit on its hands until those threats ripen into “imminence,” at which point it’s too late, and will act preemptively when it deems it necessary — if need be without support, tacit or otherwise, from various international organizations and alliances

Now, we can argue about how fully Bush has lived up to this — I don’t think he has, for a variety of reasons. But in essence, the whole thing harkens back to the “with us or with the terrorists” SOTU speech from ‘02, and in my opinion there’s simply nothing in it for anyone truly concerned about American security and the safety of its citizenry to argue with. But this isn’t the same Bush Doctrine the howling screechmonkeys of the Left spend their time wringing their hands over, and it isn’t the one partisan “journalists” like Gibson are talking about either. That one goes a little more like this:

• America reserves the right to unjustly invade any nation at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all, with the intent of subjugating its citizens, replacing its government with a US-run dictatorship, and stealing its resources for the enrichment of Bush’s evil-capitalist cronies
• America will cruelly torture anyone in said nations who dares stand in the way of its imperialist aggression
• America will pluck random innocent civilians in the nations it subjugates from their very beds, arrest them without proper notification of the charges, and pack them off to secret prisons, where they will all be tortured to the last extreme of human endurance
• America will detain and torture any of its own citizens who courageously speak up against this Nazi-like regime and its innumerable crimes against humanity
• America will make no effort whatsoever to resolve international disputes through negotiation, but will attack and invade without warning or just cause as its first and sole response to even the most trivial slights, real or imagined
• America will seek to destroy all human freedom, and to kill en masse the adherents to any religion other than fundamentalist Christianism, with peaceful Muslims especially bearing the brunt of this bloodthirsty new Crusade
• The American government will summarily rescind Constitutional guarantees and ignore the rule of law at home in its pursuit of dominion over the entire world and the rape of the planet for financial gain
• America will, during these myriad unjust and illegal invasions, seek to maximize civilian casualties by any and all means possible, in order to wring the last conceivable drop of misery out of the subjugated population, with particularly harsh lack of human regard reserved for the poorest and brownest-skinned members of that population
• America will seek to stifle and prevent all dissent against its thuggish depredations by the harshest means possible, both at home and abroad, without regard to human rights or basic decency

There might be more — there always is, seemingly — but when you hear Leftards or the DKosMedia (sorry for the redundancy) talk about the Bush Doctrine, this is what they generally mean.

Oh yeah, the Powers piece? Read the rest of it; once again, she done good overall.

Update! An addendum to the liberal version of the Bush Doctrine, which I was remiss in not thinking of before now:

• America will completely and utterly refuse to acknowledge that it is itself ultimately to blame for any and all terrorist attacks against it, and this repugnant hubris will be justly held against it by more enlightened nations
• American rubes, mouthbreathers, cousin-humpers, God-botherers, racists, and xenophobic hicks will unfairly and shamelessly question the patriotism of their betters who accept this simple fact

Feel free to add any more you may think of that I forgot.

Updated update! Glenn seems surprised, so I’ll say it again: Howard Kurtz is just another one, no more reliable or trustworthy than any other of Obama’s Angel’s in the liberal media. It’s too bad, but it’s the way it is. And it really ought not be much of a surprise anymore.

Update to the updated update! If the Pope were a Republican…