Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Lies, Secrecy, Hagel, Frist, and Karl
This president can’t even tell the truth about his treasury secretary resigning five days before it’s announced.
I think the biggest reason people don’t like Bush is because he lies even about little things. Things that don’t matter. I sure he had some bad reason for lying. Snow suggested it was to smooth the transition so the market wouldn’t get skittish.
There’s always a reason, isn’t there? In the words of Max Weber, there is no code of ethics on Earth that has the can discern what ethical ends can justify what unethical means. I don’t what might have happened to the markets for five days without a treasury secretary confirmed, if anything, but I do know the president lied.
This isn’t a big deal, but this is indicative of what this administration is about on a much larger scale. They just don’t value the truth, in big or small ways. If this treasury secretary thing were an isolated instance it would be meaningless. But it’s not.
In the president’s never ending war on open government he has delegated authority to National Intelligence Director Negroponte to exempt companies from accounting standards if they are working on top-secret programs. This leads me to believe that he’s doing it so much he needs help managing the situation. This seems to be first time in history this authority has been delegated to a subordinate.
This is why Chuck Hagel is a “maverick.” He has the temerity to question our “success” in the Middle East so far. Of course, when presented with unambiguous evidence of lawbreaking in the executive branch, he votes against conducting an investigation. It’s always instructive to measure the leash moderate republicans are kept on.
I’m always happy to point out how bent She Does Respond is. Flag-burning and gay marriage issues on the table this summer aren’t political posturing, oh no. They are pressing issues that people are very concerned about. Or not.
Karl Zinsmeister, the president’s new domestic advisor, has been attracting some heat lately. Greenwald has some good coverage of the issue, but so does Editor & Publisher. Check it our here. I especially like the Iraq reporters are “whiny and soft” part.
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 3:55 PM 
