When Jimmy Carter, then known as a former one-term governor of Georgia, first ran for President, he was a long-shot and not at all well-liked by liberals. The fact that most of the rich snobs I went to college with at the time, liberals and right-wingers alike, didn’t like Carter made him a more attractive figure to me. His diligent, down-home, person-to-person style won him the presidency.

Over his four years in office, several spectacular successes — the national fuel reserve, the Panama Canal Treaty, the Camp David Accords —were marred by a sometimes unevenly applied human rights program and serious failures in economic policy. Carter never fully understood the problems of industrial workers, and our region took a particularly hellish beating during his last year in office. Running for a second term, Carter lost to a man whose brain cells were already seceding to dementia — who ultimately pushed a wounded Western Pennsylvania over the edge into the abyss.

But defeat, which embitters some men, made Carter more human-freer. He has proven to be, in the words of many, "Our best ex-President." His involvement in human rights issues grew and he steadily won respect as an "honest broker" in power disputes in Third World countries — especially those with contested elections.

Carter’s recent trip to Cuba marked perhaps his greatest and most useful contribution to international relations since leaving the White House. During the trip, he sharply refuted Bush Administration charges that Cuba was developing bioterror weapons and exporting them to "other rogue states."

Carter’s remarks came at a time when the Great Usurper’s minions were escalating their rhetorical war against terrorism. In a speech to the fascist Heritage Foundation several days before Carter’s trip, undersecretary of state John Bolton charged, "Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort." Bolton also accused Cuba of providing bioterror weapons to "other rogue states."

Carter, however, seemed to have Bolton and other Dubyaistas in mind when he invited them to accept Fidel Castro’s offer to open Cuba’s laboratories to international inspection. Referring to the bioterror allegations, Carter said, "My presumption and hope is that anyone who does have evidence of this kind would take advantage of this offer."

The right-wing press was quick to pounce on Carter’s comments, and the Heritage Foundation website launched an ad hominem attack accusing Carter of gullibility and of resembling (gasp!) "a Sunday school teacher." A more cautious response came from Secretary of State Colin Powell, who tried to salvage the situation by stating that the administration merely believed Cuba had the capacity to produce bioterror weapons: "We didn’t say it actually had some weapons."

As usual, however, the facts were of secondary importance to the corporate media, which has always shown an obeisance toward conservatives that borders on the fellatial. They were more interested in the fact that anyone, even a former President, had the nerve to criticize their favorite Mesquite Mussolini.

The fact that Carter met with several Cuban dissidents and openly criticized aspects of Cuba’s political system on Cuban television was virtually buried in recriminations over his brief statements on the bioterror issue. The day after Carter’s remarks were published, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a headline over a ten-inch photo of Carter’s face in profile, carefully chosen to show Fidel Castro peering out from behind it, with the headline "Not so fast, Jimmy and Fidel." The clear implication was that Carter and Castro had conspired to pull a fast one on Americans, even though Secy. Powell’s remarks fully supported Carter’s statement that Cuba had no bioterror weapons. It’s no wonder most Americans don’t trust their daily newspapers.

The real reason for the Bushies’ sensitivity on the Cuban issue was buried in a pullout quote beneath the fold: "In Florida, Bush garnered nearly 80 percent of the Cuban-American vote, a marker very much on the minds of his political advisors."

It has been clear all along that the Bush administration’s "anti-terror" campaign is driven by domestic political considerations: On the same day the PG blasted Jimmy Carter for speaking truth to the administration power-mongers, it published an article about White House use of a September 11 photo of President Bush. The photo was taken aboard Air Force One as Bush flew around the country while Vice President Dick Cheney devised the administration response. Now prints of the photo are being sold to raise campaign funds for Republican candidates. With a whopping $33 million raised so far for the GOP, it is clear that the "antiterrorism" campaign is designed less to eliminate real threats to ordinary Americans than it is to cow and overpower domestic political opposition.

This photo flap places the "bioterror" allegations in context. Bush administration charges about Cuba’s "bioterror" program, ostensibly offered in the interests of "antiterrorism," were in reality designed to reinforce the status of Florida as a family fiefdom of the Bush clan. If nothing else, the incident serves as a vivid, concrete reminder to us of the illegitimate nature of George II’s purchase on the White House.

The most important outcome of Carter’s statement on the bioterror issue was to reveal that the current emperor wears no clothes — and neither does his alleged "loyal opposition." Not one elected official of comparable stature in the Democratic Party has shown Carter’s courage when it comes to questioning the prevarications of this administration.

A former naval officer, conservatives often criticized Carter as president for his reticence about deploying the U.S. military. Much of this criticism implied that Carter was a coward.

Anyone who ever dealt with Carter knew better. As a young businessman in Georgia, Carter was the only white man in his community who refused to join the racist White Citizen’s Council-a kind of white collar KKK. He persisted in his refusal, a risky stand to take in the Deep South in those days, even after local bigots organized a boycott of his family business.

Later, after his presidency, Carter served as an observer of the 1988 Panamanian elections. At one juncture, one of Gen. Noriega’s thugs ordered Carter at gunpoint to leave a polling place where Carter was convinced irregularities were taking place. Carter refused, and the officer in charge reportedly muttered "Este hombre tein cojones!"

In this horrific time, when all political discourse seems to be dominated by conservative malice and liberal cowardice, it’s refreshing to know that there is at least one leader who can still look deceit in the eye and say "No."