In desperate times like ours – with 67,000 dead and a leadership vacuum in the White House – we are compelled to grade on a curve. Which is why this weekend’s award for uplifting eloquence goes to…George W. Bush.

I rarely situate the words eloquence and Bush in the same sentence; indeed, many of us have beefs with Bush dating back to his Iraq disinformation crusade, the one that destabilized the Middle East. But anyone who views the video he released on Saturday about the COVID crisis will surely recognize that, when compared to the unfit grifter, Bush is Cicero and Pericles combined.

Bush said nary a word about supporting the president in this time of crisis, nor did he voice support for the protesters who are heeding Trump’s dog whistle to “liberate” their states. Nope, Bush wants everyone to support the medical experts and to practice social distancing:

“Officials at every level are setting out the requirements of public health that protect us all. And we all need to do our part…In this case, we serve our neighbor by separating from them…I have no doubt that the spirit of sacrifice is alive and well in America. Let us remember that empathy and simple kindness are essential powerful tools of national recovery. Even at appropriate social distance, we can find ways to be present in the lives of others.”

Those words might strike you as anodyne, but Trump naturally took it as a rebuke to his less than sterling stewardship. Which it was. Because we all know who’s sadly lacking in “empathy and simple kindness.” And then Bush said this:

“In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We’re human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful…”

Well. The worst partisan combatant to ever disgrace the presidency – who railed yesterday about “Crazy Nancy,” compared Nicolle Wallace to a dog, and fired the Health and Human Services watchdog who’d warned in a report about shortages in testing and protective gear – didn’t like that passage at all.

So he retaliated today with a salvo of…wait for it…partisan combat.

He fumed on Twitter that Bush didn’t support him while he was being impeached. (True. When Trump’s bid to collude with Ukraine to smear Joe Biden and fix the election was thoroughly exposed, Bush stayed mum.) In Trump’s words today, “He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!”

Trump’s best response would have been no response, but he can never resist the temptation to dig himself deeper – especially when something emanates from the House of Bush. Relations between the two have never been good; lest we forget, Trump ridiculed brother Jeb as “low energy” and drove him from the ’16 race. And then, in an October ’17 speech, George voiced this prophetic warning about the American state of affairs:

“The health of the democratic spirit itself is at issue…When we lose sight of our ideals, it is not democracy that has failed. It is the failure of those charged with preserving and protecting democracy...Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication...Our young people need positive role models. Bullying and prejudice in our public life sets a national tone, provides permission for cruelty and bigotry, and compromises the moral education of children. The only way to pass along civic values is to first live up to them.”

Granted, the Trump cult formerly known as the GOP surely dismisses Dubya as a remnant of another era. But everything Bush has said – in that ’17 speech and yesterday’s video – is squarely in the American mainstream. Indeed, what he reportedly said after listening to Trump’s Inaugural speech, may someday serve as an epitaph for this tragic era:

“That was some weird shit.”