Thursday, May 04, 2006
Failed Politicians
Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld. What can I say. Rumsfeld was confronted by a questioner in the audience in a speech he gave today in Atlanta. The questioner brought up Rumsfeld’s previous assertion that he said he knew where Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction were. When Rumsfeld flatly denied ever making that claim, the questioner read his statement back to him. Check out Thinkprogress for the video.
The Secretary of Defense was left speechless. You see how little it takes to skewer politicians this crooked? Ari Fleischer and many others in the Bush administration have repeatedly countered criticisms of their past statements by simply denying they ever said them, even if their original statements were on national TV. Denials this clumsy are dangerous, as Rumsfeld apparently discovered today.
This is all it takes: the will of questioners to bring up the past statements of administration officials and the preparation to have the quotes in hand.
So my message to the Secretary of Defense is this: whupah! How does it feel?
As I have said before, denials this blatant are clumsy, even stupid. Rumsfeld could have just said “I was wrong, blah blah blah.” Instead, he used one of the many disgusting tactics of the right that have enraged liberals and MSM people over the last few years: he flatly denied reality. The other tactic that diseased reprobates like him enjoy using is to simply attack the questioner and not even answer the question. I am reminded of all the times conservative politicians responded to criticisms of the administration by telling us that it was irresponsible to question our leaders in a time of war.
The fact that these people have the courage to voice such ridiculousness is emblematic of how ridiculously arrogant they are and how utterly unconcerned with even appearing to be truthful they are.
Is there any sane person in this country who still doubts that the military can be lead by a secretary so fundamentally dishonest? Is there any sane person in this country who thinks that an administration so fundamentally dishonest can be allowed to run the country?
This secretary is a failure, and Bush’s administration is a failure. What’s this? Another survey of historians who rate Bush’s presidency a failure? No! I never would have thought it!
And how about this quote from Robert Scheer, veteran reporter from seven presidential administrations, commenting on Bush’s administration:
This administration doesn't feel they need a mindful audience. They don't care about facts, logic or consequences. They are the most cynical people that I've ever encountered in politics. This is the most cynical bunch -- just think about that "reality-based community" quote. They create their own reality. I don't think I've ever seen that kind of cynicism before, and I'm the guy who interviewed Richard Nixon.
These guys are, as John Dean keeps pointing out, far worse than the Nixon crowd because they think they can get away with it. Nixon, at the end of the day thought it mattered what the New York Times said. He felt that if there was a big contradiction, a big error, they would catch him and there would be all hell to pay.
I love this stuff. In fact, I’ll end with it.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 4:52 PM 
