IT'S WHAT REPUBLICANS DO:

Bush Harks Back to Lincoln's Example (Warren Vieth, April 20, 2005, LA Times)

President Bush dedicated a presidential museum Tuesday in Abraham Lincoln's adopted hometown, and said that Lincoln's ideals were a source of inspiration for policies his own administration was pursuing.

Opening the $90-million Lincoln museum, Bush sought to draw a connection between Lincoln's efforts to expand the concept of liberty by abolishing slavery and America's current initiatives to promote democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries with authoritarian pasts.

"American interests and values are both served by standing for liberty in every part of the world," Bush said. "Our interests are served when former enemies become democratic partners…. Our deepest values are also served when we take part in freedom's advance, when the chains of millions are broken and the captives are set free."

Bush, who has called Lincoln his favorite president, said the opening of the museum in downtown Springfield was a reminder that Lincoln had helped the nation confront its unresolved conflict between the Founding Fathers' promise of liberty and the continuing acceptance of slavery during Lincoln's time.

"None of us can claim his legacy as our own, but all of us can learn from the faith that guided him," Bush said.

"Whenever freedom is challenged, the proper response is to go forward with confidence in freedom's power," he said

Lincoln was kind of a more parochial version of President Bush.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 20, 2005 6:46 AM