On the way to work I was listening to The Glenn Beck Program, which was hosting representatives from various parties. I caught his interview with Jim Clymer, president of the Constitution Party. Part of the interview was entertaining, as Beck was playing sultry music while Clymer described the party’s wish to abolish the IRS.

Beck asked him if he thought President Bush brought down the World Trade Center on 9/11. To my shock, Clymer waffled. Eventually he got around to a reasonable answer, but it seemed like he was struggling with a desire not to say anything positive about the President. In the end Clymer said that personally he found it preposterous that Bush lied about 9/11, but there are some in the party that do.

There is enough difference between President Bush and the original values of the Constitution that nobody needs to say he lied. It is possible and desirable to disagree with policies that are in place without taking the kook road and saying he lied about 9/11. The high road must be held without surrender.

If I were Clymer, the first response to getting asked whether Bush lied about 9/11 and conspired to take down the towers would have been, “I don’t want to believe that. I think the President has good intentions, but we’ve deviated from the kind of liberty-loving country that follows the Constitution — the country we had been and are meant to be again.” Get off the past which we don’t control, and sell the future.