"You've gotta fight, for his right, to PAARRRRRRRRRTYYYY"

While the world anxiously awaits his departure from the scene, George Bush is taking a moral stand.

That no matter how inappropriate the situation, he and his family will find a way to P-A-R-T-Y on the tax payers' dime.

After making a general complaint about human rights - always a dubious proposition from Bush in the wake of torturing 5 and a half years out of Hamdan -- Bush now takes time to engage in the whole point of his trip to Beijing, getting fetted with the other VIPs during the Olympic ceremonies. But he didn't just go himself, no he brought the whole family along.

Mr. Bush, accompanied by his wife, Laura, and their daughter Barbara, arrived in Beijing at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, descending the stairs from Air Force One into a riotous crowd of officials, security officers and photographers. The president’s visit was, in fact, a family affair. His father, brother Marvin and sister Doro Bush Koch also joined him in Beijing.

Oh, and Kissinger is there too. Traveling to one of the few countries he can visit without Interpol coming to his suite. And so close to Cambodia, so it's kind of kinky and sick -- but very appropriate considering his associates.

And Bush answered his American critics...all 240 million of them...by taking a passive-aggressive stand on human rights, yet not highlighting its most pronounced overseas abuse, the support of Sudan's government while the latter commits genocide in Darfur. The Chinese government has gone to great lengths to repress protests in this area, including the revocation of Winter Olympian Joey Cheek's visa because he is involved in the issue.

But not surprisingly, a rather prominent group of Americans is not following Bush's non-lead -- they are not there to just party and suck up to our creditors:

Sudanese refugee Lopez Lomong was chosen by his U.S. Olympic teammates Wednesday to be the American delegation's flag-bearer at Friday's Opening Ceremonies, a move that will cast an additional spotlight on the controversy over humanitarian abuses in Sudan's embattled Darfur region as the Beijing Games begin.

The announcement of the vote by U.S. Olympic team captains came just hours after the Chinese government rescinded the visa of 2006 Olympic speedskating gold medalist Joey Cheek, the co-founder of Team Darfur, a group of athletes that aims to raise awareness about the conflict in Sudan and has been pressing China to do more to help end the fighting.

Lomong is an active member of the organization. "This is the most exciting day ever in my life," Lomong, 23, said in a statement. "It's a great honor for me that my teammates chose to vote for me. I'm here as an ambassador of my country, and I will do everything I can to represent my country well."

Cheek, who carried the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, said he was "thrilled" by Lomong's selection. "I was more thrilled by it than I imagined I would have been," Cheek said by telephone. "It just seems incredibly relevant. . . . Every time I think I can't be prouder of U.S. Olympians, those guys find a way to outdo themselves."

Good for them. And now if we can keep the pictures of Mr. 25% to a minimum tonight all the better.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

(picture REUTERS/Larry Downing)