Victor Davis Hanson has excellent advice for anyone seeking to sort out the substance from the superficial aspects of the endless stream of charges launched against the Bush administration.

When someone screams about a terrible policy of the present administration, just pose four questions:

First, was the controversial decision taken with bipartisan support? Second, were there precedents for such action in prior Democratic administrations? Third, will such polices continue under the newly elected Obama administration? Four, have the media changed their position on the issue since the November election?

If the answer is yes to these questions, then the acrimony was probably about politics and style, not principle and substance.

Read the whole thing here.