A University of Southern California political science professor was captured on video calling former President George W. Bush lazy, stupid and incompetent — a mentally unstable man who wasted his youth on drugs and alcohol.
This is the second USC professor caught using the classroom as a platform to push personal politics, Campus Reform reported.
In this latest video, the professor, Richard Dekmijian, said Mr. Bush had “serious intellectual and mental problems,” and he had to have been either “stupid or lying” when he launched Operation Iraqi Freedom as a means of promoting democracy. He also said Mr. Bush was a draft-dodger who spent his youth “getting drunk and high” and was subsequently “lazy for the first several months when he came into the presidency until 9/11,” Campus Reform reported.
The professor then said former Bush administration officials — Colin Powell and Condolzeeza Rice — “lied” to the American people.
“You have to use that term,” he said, Campus Reform reported. “Don’t use that term mislead.”
The professor’s statements were captured by a student during the fall 2012 semester, Campus Reform said. And at the same time he was putting down the Bush administration, he was praising former President Jimmy Carter, Campus Reform said.
“He’s still going around doing good things by the way, Carter,” Mr. Dekmijian said, in Campus Reform. “That Carter, very respectable.”
It was just last month that USC faced a similar scandal, with another video of a different political science professor bashing Republican Party politicians, Campus Reform reported.
The provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, Elizabeth Garrett, told Campus Reform in a Tuesday statement that “faculty members are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects.” She also said students, by school policy, were prohibited from videotaping professors in class, Campus Reform reported.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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