Fox had a first timer every single other network would love to have had: it was allowed to interview former U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his son and current President George W. Bush at the same time. The two had some interesting things to say.

Bush 43 (as George W. is frequently called) told Fox News’ Brit Hume, for instance, that he had refused to provide any kind of “bailout” for a political party (probably his own considering that Democrats won the ‘06 elections on a promise to force Bush to withdraw troops from Iraq) by withdrawing prematurely from the Middle Eastern country. Bush senior then praised his son for his courage and conviction, even though many believe that Bush 41 opposed his son’s decision to go to war with Saddam Hussein.

“During the darkest days of Iraq, people came to me and said, ‘You’re creating incredible political difficulties for us,’” the current president said as his term draws to a close. “And I said, ‘Oh, really? What do you suggest I do?’ And some suggested retreat, pull out of Iraq.

“But I had faith that freedom exists in people’s souls and therefore, if given a chance, democracy and Iraqi-style democracy could survive and work,” the president said. “I didn’t compromise that principle for the sake of trying to, you know, bail out my political party.”

The two presidents also agreed with each other about the ‘infective’ in politics these days; George H.W. said it had gotten a lot worse since his days in office saying: “it’s offensive, very offensive.”

George W. agreed: “The biggest disappointment in the political process, that’s been this kind of bitterness by a few people to the point where they don’t want to have a logical discussion or a civil discussion about policy,” he said. “They just want to tear you down.”

He also announced he plans to write about a book about his presidency. “I’m toying with the idea of maybe describing the toughest decisions I had to make as president, and the context in which I made them,” he said. “It is very hard for people to remember what life was like a mere four or five years ago. And it’s going to be very important for me to recreate the environment in which I had to make certain decisions, particularly the environment of right after September the 11th, 2001.”

Whether or not one agrees with every single policy of Bush 43, it should be clear that the debate has indeed gotten a lot more aggressive during his administration. He is partially responsible for this himself, as are some of his senior advisers, staffers and cabinet members, but liberal Democrats bare the grunt of the responsibility for the deterioration of the tone of the political debate. This is a very serious problem; one can only hope that it will change now that liberal Democrats finally won the presidential elections; Barack Obama was their man.