Bush's Greatest Hits: Karla Faye Tucker and "Oooh, please don’t kill me!"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.showmenews.com/2003/Dec/20031223Comm004.asp

It so happens that the United Nations and the European Union, both of which include our coalition allies, are against capital punishment. Neither those organizations nor the countries that constitute them - not to mention the Vatican - will endorse or sanction any proceeding that could lead to an execution. When Bush called for Saddam’s head on a pike, he needlessly created an international crisis.

He must have known this, but the man’s fervent enthusiasm for the death penalty overrode all caution. He has always embraced it from his days as "The Execution Governor" of Texas, where he presided over more than 150 of them. Who remembers Bush’s hilarious impression of Karla Faye Tucker, the death-row inmate who pleaded with him to spare her life? "Oooh, please don’t kill me!" he mimicked in his best falsetto.

Bush’s oft-stated reverence for life doesn’t extend to full-grown sinners. The attitude is strange for a man who claims to be a devout Christian and the leader of a Christian nation. I always thought mercy and forgiveness lie at the heart of Christian teachings. Wasn’t Jesus Christ himself executed? And wasn’t execution by decree one of the hallmarks of Saddam Hussein’s wicked regime?

Lest I be accused of lèse-majesté, I do not believe President Bush is bloodthirsty. Perhaps, however, he lacks an insufficient appreciation for the horror of violent death, whether by execution, airstrike or ambush. That might explain his devotion to the death penalty, but in keeping with my bend-over-backward policy of fair play, I believe he just thinks it’s the politically popular thing to do.