The Harry Reid Democratic War Room and Media Message Development Center, Can't We All Just Forget That Harry Voted For the Iraq War Division, rushed to slam remarks made during Bush's press conference Tuesday morning. The best line in Reid's statement was the headline: "Reid: We see no end to Bush's dangerous incompetence." After that, there was some lamenting that Bush "is content with an open-ended commitment with no end in sight for our U.S. troops and taxpayers." And Reid rightly scoffed at Bush's assertion that the ultimate decision to pull out of Iraq would be made by "future presidents."
Reid did not respond, however, to the direct jab Bush leveled at Reid himself during the press conference.
Fox News White House Apologist Carl Cameron asked Bush, "What, sir, do you think the impact of the discussion of impeachment and censure does to you and this office, and to the nation during a time of war, and in the context of the election?" In other words, "Gosh, Mr. Great and Strong Leader, how do you continue to be so great and strong in the face of Democrats and other evildoing lesser mortals trying to deliberately undermine our troops and comfort our enemies?" It was as if the way-back machine had traveled to February of last year, and Jeff Gannon was in the White House press corps.
Thanks perhaps to the breathless warmongering from the mainstream media in the months leading up to the optional invasion of Iraq, Bush knows a softball when he hears one. And he put it right where he wanted it (via transcript):
"I did notice that nobody from the Democrat Party has actually stood up and called for getting rid of the terrorist surveillance program. You know, if that's what they believe, if people in the party believe that, then they ought to stand up and say it. They ought to stand up and say the tools we're using to protect the American people shouldn't be used. They ought to take their message to the people and say, vote for me, I promise we're not going to have a terrorist surveillance program. That's what they ought to be doing. That's part of what is an open and honest debate."
Whatever else Bush's statement is, there is nothing "honest" about it. No Democrats have said they do no want a terrorist surveillance program. They've said that Bush can and should wiretap terrorist suspects -- but that he should follow the law and get a retroactive warrant afterward. Not only did Bush deliberately and knowingly distort the Democrats' position, he did it using the word "honest." This is exactly why he can't be trusted to run a surveillance program outside the law, because without the judicial review called for in the law, we simply cannot believe that Bush would confine his eavesdropping program to suspected terrorists.
Then, in the second part of his answer, Bush used his increasingly favorite rhetorical tactic -- deliberately distorting and misstating Democratic positions -- to attack Reid:
"I did notice that, at one point in time, they didn't think the Patriot Act ought to be reauthorized -- 'they' being at least the Minority Leader in the Senate. He openly said, as I understand -- I don't want to misquote him -- something along the lines that, 'We killed the Patriot Act.' And if that's what the party believes, they ought to go around the country saying we shouldn't give the people on the front line of protecting us the tools necessary to do so. That's a debate I think the country ought to have."
Having that debate might be rather difficult, in that absolutely no one is arguing that "we shouldn't give the people on the front line of protecting us the tools necessary to do so." Yes, Harry said "We killed the Patriot Act" -- in the context of Bush refusing to allow even minor modifications to the act that were being sought by Democrats and Republicans who felt some of the act's attacks on civil liberties needed to be reined in during the course of reauthorization. Later, Reid ultimately voted to reauthorize the act. And Bush knows it. By suggesting that Democrats -- and, presumably, those Republicans who were raising questions about the law as well -- are "saying we shouldn't give the people on the front line of protecting us the tools necessary to do so," Bush is again deliberately and consciously distorting the position taken by Reid and others. Bush is being disingenuous, duplicitous and dishonest -- exactly the type of qualities that can lead to abuse of civil liberties under the overreaching and perversely named Patriot Act.
Tuesday's press conference, as well as Bush's remarks in Cleveland Monday, show that Karl Rove or somebody in the White House has taken a page directly from the playbook of Reagan's second term; they've decided to "let Bush be Bush." And so the nation is being subjected to the laughing, self-deprecating and joking good ol' boy and jeepers, isn't he friendly? Oh it's still a carefully calculated dishonesty designed to destroy opponents, but with a smile.
The MSM is delighted to see the president having such a jolly good time spewing his vile hither and yon with such unadulterated glee. There are already whiffs of news stories about the rehabilitation of George Bush and asking if Bush can turn it around, if he can win the American people over one more time, blahblabblah.
But Harry Reid had it right the first time. The guy's a liar.
Man, I was going to comment with something snarky and clever, but then I realized: You said it all best. Sheesh. Your gleaning is insurmountable. I'm going back to my artsy and musical crap.
Posted by: Pj Perez | 03/24/2006 at 10:42 PM