BIG TIME LIARS

WHEN YOU HEAR Dick Cheney attack war critics for making "one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city,” you realize irony is not dead, but it is severely wounded. [Cheney speech text]  [story]

Asked if he agreed with the vice president or with Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) who said this week that it was patriotic to question the government during a war, Bush's face tightened and he answered sharply, "The vice president."

MORE THAN BUSH’S FACE is tightening.  His pant seem a little tight these days, his temper a little short.  Voters and Republicans are holding tighter to the idea the war was a mistake. Human nature works against Bush now.  People who believed he could do no wrong after September Eleventh and who gave him the greatest benefit of the doubt now see the war as the greatest of mistakes, costly in blood and cash.  And human nature being what it is, the people will not see their mistake in judgement as their own.  They will see the mistake in the leader.  Quack, quack.  Hail to the Chief Lame Duck

LIVE BY THE LIE die by the lie could be Bush’s epitaph.  It already is the marker on the grave of over two thousand soldiers.  Even former Bush cheerleader to the cheerleaders for war Elisabeth Bumiller of the NY Times  gets it. [story]

The administration, however, had access to far more extensive intelligence than Congress did. The administration also left unaddressed the question of how it had used that intelligence, which was full of caveats, subtleties and contradictions. Many Democrats now say they believe they had been misled by the administration in the way it presented the prewar intelligence.

IN BUMILLER'S CASE as always her non cheerleader take always come at the end of her piece.

BUSH GIVES IT but he can’t take it.  He does retain his down home touch. Talking out of both sides of his mouth.  On the one hand you can criticize and be patriotic, but on the other it is all political.

At a news conference in Kyongju, South Korea, where he will attend the Asian economic summit, President Bush said Thursday that he backed the vice president's comments.
Mr. Bush said it was "patriotic as heck to disagree with the President."
"It doesn't bother me. What bothers me is when people are irresponsibly using their positions and playing politics. That's exactly what is taking place in America."

IT DOESN’T bother me, it does bother me.  Patriotic, irresponsible.  The people are making the connections. If Bush didn’t have enough to worry about before, Bill Clinton is now coming out and saying the war was a mistake. [story]

Former President Clinton told Arab students Wednesday the United States made a “big mistake'' when it invaded Iraq, stoking the partisan debate back home over the war.
Clinton cited the lack of planning for what would happen after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.
“Saddam is gone. It's a good thing, but I don't agree with what was done,'' Clinton told students at a forum at the American University of Dubai.
“It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors ... one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country.''

SOME SAY Clinton disrespects the presidential tradition of not criticizing the dude who now has your job.  Other might see Clinton giving cover for his hawkish wife Hillary’s presidential bid.  Some will say Clinton is in danger of looking like a mere politician rather than a president. These fools forget Clinton isn’t running for anything.  Bush on the other hand looks like a politician running for cover.

REPREHENSIBLE PATRIOTS SPEAK OUT
[Scrutiny Hooligans] Much of the intelligence suggested that Iraq, in fact, had WMD. But much of the intelligence suggested the opposite, and the Bush administration was willing to pluck out only the facts that would convince you there was no doubt.

HOW BAD IS IT FOR BUSH? [Joe Gandelman/The Moderate Voice] Vice President Dick Cheney is now so far down in the polls that he should beware of sniffing dogs.
But that hasn't stopped the administration from sending him out as the attack dog to go after Democrats for allegedly "rewriting history" on Iraq . . . If there's a Republican who is damaged goods right now, it is Dick Cheney. So why would the administration send him out in such high-profile situations to go on the attack against Democrats?
Why not get someone a bit more believable than Cheney is these days — such as Tom DeLay, Bill Frist or any woman asked to state her age?
Most likely Cheney is being sent out because the game plan continues to be to mobilize the GOP's base — its big contributors (so TV ads can be run against the Democrats), its political choir (conducted by Rush and Sean). This has worked quite effectively in the past.
But, again, we point out that in the past the administration could count on a chunk of independents and centrists to supplement the GOP support.

THE HERETIK NOTES these guys re-write history every time the attack dog jumps the fence. The problem for Bush and Cheney is that the average American has already written both of them off.  What worked in the past won’t play anymore.

ALSO RECOMMENDED
DICK, DICK, DICK . . . . [The Nitpicker] Whatever, fella. Don't you realize that the American people are no longer picking up what you're laying down? Hell, a week ago nearly a quarter of the Republicans polled by Newsweek said you personally "deliberately misused or manipulated pre-war intelligence about Iraq's nuclear capabilities in order to build support for war with Iraq." 

THE HERETIK HEARS tones of another dick, the Dick that was Nixon.  Maha hears some of Nixon's swan song too, plus Barb has a great roundup of Scheer, Blumenthal, and others.

MUST READ IN ITS ENTIRETY
OPEN DOOR TO BROADER IRAQI WAR DECEPTIONS [Steven Zunes/Foreign Policy in Focus vis LeftI] Indeed, even prior to the return of United Nations inspectors in December 2002 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq four months later, it is hard to understand how anyone could have taken seriously the administration's claims that Iraq was somehow a grave national security threat to the United States. And, despite assertions by administration apologists that “everybody” thought Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and an advanced nuclear program immediately prior to the March 2003 invasion, the record shows that such claims were strongly contested, even within the U.S. government.

THE HERETIK SHARPLY SEES Zunes’ sword zorros zeros in and skewers all the pre Iraq war warbling by the hawks.  As far as who was for war and who was for peace, for who would run wide with wild charges, this piece wars on those who never gave peace or the sanctions or the inspectors or anyone without the most warlike approach a chance.  Sychophant Democrats get a good hammering too.

 

Comments

[Screwy Hoolie]

Thanks for the shoutout, Heretik!

This is the story that won't go away. Why? Because there are a hundred thousand dead people's aroma wafting from Iraq to the world. And, while we Americans aren't known for our sophistication, we can tell the smell of death from the smell of victory.