George Bush in 2000, while running for President:

The Armenians were subjected to a genocidal campaign that defies comprehension and commands all decent people to remember and acknowledge the facts and lessons of an awful crime in a century of bloody crimes against humanity. If elected President, I would ensure that our nation properly recognizes the tragic suffering of the Armenian people.

Either “all decent people” doesn’t include the American people or American Congress, or George Bush egregiously misled Armenian-Americans about his intentions, or he's just gone John Kerry flip-floppy on genocide. Because as Congress sits on the verge of finally, finally recognizing the historical verity of this "genocidal campaign," Bush has tried to jam a Presidential sabo into the gears by asking Congress to vote down the Armenian Genocide resolution.

And I thought this was supposed to be the President of "moral clarity."

Well, things could be worse. He could be flip-flopping with all the spasmic insanity of Abraham Foxman.

Since the Jewcy protest on September 6, Foxman has been doing his best Yasser Arafat impression by saying utterly contradictory things depending on whether he has a Western or Eastern audience. After his weeks of ambiguous wishing and washing, he supposedly acknowledged the genocide in an August ADL press release in the US. But to the Turkish press he's still referring to “Armenian allegations.” (hat tip John Dimascio and the Watertown blog.)

Consider Foxman’s recent answer to a question on whether ADL had changed its position: “We may change our minds we may not," he explained. That’s just magical. You have to love a civil rights organization that not only refuses to state clearly their position on genocide denial, but indeed equivocates about whether or not they are equivocating.

Hopefully, neither the President’s cowardice on this issue, nor Foxman’s general derangement on the issue, will prevent the resolution from finally being passed. As always, we’ll be watching the outstanding site NoPlaceforDenial.com for the latest news.

UPDATE: And the vote is yes! The House Foreign Affairs Committee has voted 27-21 to put the Armenian Genocide bill in front of the full House. Chris Helms, editor in chief of the Watertown TAB & Press, points to today's blistering editorial against the bill in the Washington Post, and says, "Expect the temperature of this debate to go way, way up."

First on my wish-list? I'd like to see the very large Armenian-American community in Glendale (just a few stones' throws away from where I live in West Los Angeles) make this as hot a political issue in California as it is in Massachusetts. Can it be done? Perhaps we'll find out.

* Check our always up-to-date list of Jewcy's posts on the ADL/Armenian Genocide issue