At a Washington screening of Ron Howard’s new movie, Frost/Nixon, Howard slipped into a bit of uncharacteristic politicking. The Washington Times reports that…

Mr. Howard was the first to comment about the film’s connection to Mr. Bush, saying that he had told friends in 1977 that an abuse of power similar to Mr. Nixon’s would “never happen again.”

“So that led to some frustrations that I’ve experienced over the last few years,” said Mr. Howard, an Oscar-winning director.

That blistering and treasonous assault on America’s reluctant hero, George Bush, could not go unchallenged. And thankfully, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace was on the scene to protect the honor of the Decider. Wallace, in the tradition of fairness and balance for which his kind is known, leaped into action from his perch in the audience to save the day:

“Richard Nixon’s crimes were committed purely in the interest of his own political gain. I think to compare what Nixon did, and the abuses of power for pure political self-preservation, to George W. Bush trying to protect this country — even if you disagree with rendition or waterboarding — it seems to me is both a gross misreading of history both then and now.”

Wallace may want to reconsider raising the question of how Bush compares to Nixon. After all, both were presidents who brazenly broke the law. Both believed in their own political supremacy. Both waged illegal wars against third world countries that never presented a threat to the U.S. Both packed government agencies with loyal but unqualified cronies. Both abused their offices for partisan purposes. Both obstructed investigations, invoked executive privilege, and ignored subpoenas. Both worked to advance the interests of corporations and the wealthy at the expense of workers and the middle class. And both oversaw a parade of underlings and associates marching from the White House to the Big House.

I could go on, but I think I should pause to illuminate an important difference. Nixon was not an imbecile who considered himself ordained by God to lead the world.

But Wallace’s key premise was also wrong. Bush’s crimes were as motivated by self-interest as anything Nixon did. The assertion that Bush was acting only to protect the country is nonsense. Invading a nation that posed no threat is not protecting the country. Neither is sanctioning torture; or revealing the identity of a covert CIA operative as political payback; or firing U.S. attorneys for partisan reasons; or allowing thousands to drown in New Orleans while praising the former horse pageant lawyer you installed to head FEMA; or presiding over an era of deregulation that sent our economy into a tailspin.

If anyone is misreading history it is Wallace. For him to go out of his way to recast Bush as a hero is above and beyond the call of even a Fox News toady. It also should obliterate any facade of impartiality Wallace hopes to maintain. Not that he hadn’t already brought that curtain down.