It’s A Pointless Game
Re-occuring items, varies depending on the specific media peculiarity.
Today, it was a “Face the Nation” program. The host had on the RNC and DNC chairmen — Ed Gillespie and Terry Mcauliffe. Two people whose job description is, quite literally, “partisan hack”.
The host asks the question: “Are you calling Bush a liar?”
To wit, Mcauliffe responds “Well, there are serious questions blah blah blah.”
In the less Right-wing media, we have, say, Sean Hannity say “These left wing wackos are, without any evidence, calling our president George W Bush a Liar! It’s absurd”
Actually, it’s a fascinating game. If confronted with a left-wing wacko calling Bush a liar, the right-thinking conservative media figure will fire back with quotes from Bill Clinton*. Then, self-indulgently, will perform a mental jig.
Or, try this one out, in this case after quoting Kerry and Edwards Checkmate!. That’s a sort of verbal jig, I think…
See… Bill Clinton thought there were weapons of mass destruction too… (Remember, Operation Dessert Fox after Saddam kicked the inspectors out? When he supposedly used our intelligence to bomb suspected storehouses of weapons of the mass of the destruction. Or what remained there. Or something to that effect.) Therefore, Bush didn’t lie.
Actually, that story is open to constant revisionism, similar to, say, — for example — the testimony of Super-Defector Hussein Kamel.
Perhaps in this tug and nip game, where I’m supposed to side with one Party apparatus over another, it’s best to quote Colin Powell and Condelleza Rice from Spring of 2001… back when they stated that Saddam no longer had any capacity to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. Then we get to see to what extent either of us have meld our minds to fit the 2 party system.
Or, better yet, Colin Powell expressing his disappointment over his UN presentation. My favourite phrase, in reference to the evidence he provided, ” in some cases, intentionally misleading”.
At the moment, Joseph Wilson has found himself stuck walking back into the kitchen. He has been completely discredited, because — as far as I can tell — he lied about his wife being the person who suggested him.** I stare at what the Republicans are saying these days about Wilson, and ponder why that particular item is terribly relevant. Apparently, the entire thing was an elaborate set-up for Joseph Wilson to undermine the president. Though, in this case, I have to wonder why Bush Administration would take the bait and … expose his undercover wife… CIA Agent… expert on the weapons of the mass of the destruction.
Stare at Bush’s 16 little words, “British intelligence has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
The only way George Tenet allowed this into the State of the Union speech was with the opening caveat. “British intelligence has learned.”
Not a lie.
Some more revisionist history, the reason that Bush had to go to war at that precise moment:
“The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region.
It’s too bad that Saddam Hussein relented, and allowed the inspectors in… because then, you know, Bush’s storyline narrative would, maybe, be more coherent.
The inspectors went in, and were ordered out to start the bombing. It sounds vaguely familiar.
Actually, as a memento of the pre-war debate, recall that Bill O’Reilly said that if nothing was found, he would now become a whole lot more skeptical in trusting George W. Bush. When pressed, he acknowledged this quotation, and said that from now on he was going to be more skeptical in trusting George W. Bush. As far as I can tell… he still pretty much flacks for the Bush Administration.
…………
*Radio host Clyde Lewis, a few months back moving his audio stuff across town, ran into the material that made him angry in the late 1990s… “running over the same old ground.”
** Of interest is this Salon article which you need to view a quick ad to view. For me, the most bizarrely almost Fruedian bit comes at the very end: The Post article also contained one acknowledged error: In trying to build a case that Wilson’s Niger trip had actually bolstered the administration’s claims, Schmidt wrote that Wilson had told the CIA that Iraq had tried to buy 400 tons of uranium from Niger in 1998. In fact, it was Iran that Wilson said had tried to make the purchase, as the Senate report states. The Post ran a correction. Fascinating, due to what’s been making the headlines this past weekend.