President Bush gave a live press conference on TV tonight. Here’s a transcript. Unfortunately, the press conference was held before the White House press corps, and in my opinion, not one really tough question was asked. Compare: Tony Blair sat down to an interview with Al-Jazeera, Bush faces the nation before the White House press corps. President Bush also mispronouis nces both “Islamic” and “Muslim.” I find that irksome. (This post marks the end of conflict-related non-partisanship at rc3.org. I’m going back to criticizing the president, although I will no longer refer to him as “Dubya.”)

Did anyone else want to join President Bush in smirking last night when he said that the United Nations can be in charge of putting Afghanistan back together again after we finish taking it apart? When you consider the fact that Bush and his fellow Republicans have absolutely no regard for the UN, you begin to see just how important he thinks it is that we put things right in Afghanistan once we finish trying to blow up Osama bin Laden and feed the Taliban to the Northern Alliance. Here’s Bush’s exact statement:

I believe that the United Nations could provide the framework necessary to help meet those conditions. It would be a useful function for the United Nations to take over the so-called nation- building — I would call it the stabilization of a future government — after our military mission is complete.