Did you see this?
It was must-see TV. And not only because what it revealed about Bill O'Reilly--he was forced into a four corners delay to run out the clock after he realized the mess he was in with Dolores Kesterson, mother slain Chief Warrant Officer Erik Kesterson--but also what the segment revealed about president Bush, who apparently tried to bully the grieving mother when she questioned him about his war of choice.
(For details, refer to: http://www.huffingtonpost.com)
At one point during the interview O'Reilly asked Kesterson, the Santa Clara mother, about her allotted three-minute meeting with Bush following her only child's death in 2003. But keep in mind what Cindy Sheehan told CNN's Wolf Blitzer this Sunday regarding her brief grief time with Bush in 2004:
Sheehan: "He wouldn't look at the pictures of [my son] Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.' Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party."
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Now to "The O'Reilly Factor":
Kesterson: So actually, you know, it did come about. They put me into a cubicle by myself, took everything away from me. I also came prepared with a letter to give to the president about how I felt about the war and, you know, the loss of my son, my only child for a cause that I thought, you know, was not worthwhile at that point in time.
And so president Bush came marching in, to make a long story short, came marching in to the room, got right in my face, eyeball-to-eyeball, nose-to-nose this close, toe-to-toe and he said, "I'm George Bush, President of the United States, and I understand you have something to say to me privately.' And I said, 'Yes, I do respect the office of the presidency of the United States, but I want to tell you how it feels to lose your only child in a cause that you don't believe in, in an unnecessary war. And, you know, we talked about it from there just like you and I are talking about. [Emphasis added.]
O'Reilly: Was he respectful to you?
Kesterson: Yes, yes was. But he did, you know, come at me a few times with trotting out, 'Delores, do you realize we've been attacked on 9/11?' Who doesn't [realize that]?
O'Reilly: He hugged you at the end, did he not?
Kesterson: Well, yes, he asked if he could hug me and I said, 'Well, that's a human thing, you know, I'm human.' And I agreed to it. But my personal feeling is that he really doesn't have a conscience about all this death and destruction. That was the essence I took away after looking him in the eyes and meeting with him-there's just no conscience there.
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