You may have heard that the White House called Jimmy Carter “irrelevant” this week. I personally don’t believe it. Well, OK, maybe the White House did call him irrelevant, but I know in my heart of hearts that President Bush didn’t call him that: mostly because I’m pretty sure he can’t pronounce it.

Pretty ironic, really, Jimmy Carter studied nuclear physics and the president can’t say nuclear. So, why would the White House say such a thing? Because Carter made comments about Bush being the worst president in United States history when it comes to foreign affairs. But he is, so why all the whining? Maybe it’s left over animus from the September 2005 Zogby poll, which stated that if Americans could vote for either Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush for president, they would overwhelmingly elect Carter.

Jimmy Carter merely articulated what millions of people in this country have been saying for years. In fact, the latest Newsweek poll shows mostly bleak disregard or outright disdain for the president. Newsweek wrote, “The public’s approval of Bush has sunk to 28 percent, an all-time low for this president.” For crying out loud, Nixon’s numbers were higher the day he resigned!

Furthermore, U.S. historians agree. According to Princeton University historian Sean Wintzel, a survey of his colleagues around the country “conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a ‘failure.'”

So the White House got in a lather not because Carter said anything new, but because Carter broke protocol as a former president by criticizing a sitting president. Oh my aching back. We had one courageous leader tell the truth to a country that agrees with him and all heck breaks loose.

I say “had” because Jimmy Carter appeared on NBC’s Today show Monday and recanted. He said that his comments were misunderstood or “careless.”

Careless? How about honest? And not just honest, how about long overdue?

Carter shouldn’t have backed down; instead, the rest of the Democratic leadership should have stepped up. They should have embraced the discussion of this failed presidency and rejoiced that someone had finally articulated the sentiments of the vast majority of Americans.

President Bush has trampled on the U.S. Constitution. Without appropriate authority, Bush invaded a sovereign nation and waged war without provocation. Bush didn’t make a mockery of Saddam Hussein – a monster of Rumsfeld’s and Cheney’s making – he made a charade of our democratic ideals.

Bush sucker-punched the United States when we were down. Mourning, frightened, reeling from the attack of Sept. 11, Bush pretended to have the nation’s best interests at heart when he waged war with an uninvolved and completely neutralized adversary, letting the real villain get away.

Carter’s statements likely embarrassed the president. But the statements made over the last few years by the Bush administration have devastated our country, debased our reputation and destroyed the lives of thousands of brave U.S. soldiers, while the real reason for his war was never disclosed.

When Jimmy Carter said, “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history.” He did his duty. He did what other great men, sworn to defend the constitution have done when they see morally bankrupt presidents. Just as Abraham Lincoln did when he criticized President Polk as “a bewildered, confounded and miserably perplexed man” and proceeded to call the Mexican American War, “from beginning to end, the sheerest deception.”

And as for the White House calling Carter irrelevant: Carter and Habitat for Humanity have built more than 225,000 houses around the world, sheltering more than 1 million people. Roughly the number of homes destroyed and persons displaced under Bush’s failed policies.

George Bush should be so irrelevant.

Pat LaMarche, a former Green candidate for governor and vice president, can be contacted at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com.