There is an old cliche that fits Bush Administration officials: "How can you tell if a Bushie is lying?.... His/her lips are moving." New revelations about the timing and amount of correspondence with the White house regarding the Katrina Hurricane response show quite clearly that Bush was again lying to the American people when he said that he and his staff were unaware of the New Orleans levee breaches until the day after Katrina struck. In fact, they knew as early as 11:30AM on the day the storm hit New Orleans. The makeshift response now is that it did made no difference, but that the important issue is that there was flooding. WRONG! Whether because of stupidity or ignorance, the attempts being made to rationalize the failed administration response do not [pardon the expression] hold water.
First of all, there is the basic question about lying to the American people, particularly if everything possible was done regardless of when the White House received notice. Second, if the levees had not been breached, the flow of water that had overtaken the barriers would recede as the storm passed, and the severe flooding would have been more temporary. The breach of the levees signaled an unmitigated flooding episode that would require much more damage and longer term relief efforts. Rescue and emergency response efforts should have been planned and mobilized with recognition that the scope and seriousness of the disaster had risen to a much higher level. But this points out the larger failing of the Bush administration of making policies without understanding the technical and science issues, and driving the experienced professionals out in favor of political hack appointees.
There is an old cliche about the Minnesota weather, "if you don't like the current weather, wait an hour and it will change." This cliche could easily be applied to the defenses and justifications the Bush administration floats to avoid taking responsibility and to excuse its failures. "If you don't like this explanation, wait an hour and we will come up with a new one." It perhaps never occurred to them that telling the truth might be a more efficient response. If the truth were disclosed, you would not have to keep changing the story. But the Bush administration has even spawned a new term in the political and journalistic lexicon - "truthiness." Unable to recognize or unwilling to disclose the truth, the Bush administration spin masters strive to present statements and explanations that "sound" like they might be truthful, even if they have no proximity to the actual truth or basis in fact or reality.
Finally, the old cliche about "what tangled webs we weave when we practice to deceive" is spot on for the current Bush administration. Perhaps the reason why the Democrats and other Bush critics are having such difficulty articulating a concise message to describe the problems with this administration, is that the web of lies and deceit, distortion and corruption is so broad, so deep and pervasive that there is no obvious place to start. If you take virtually any aspect of the Bush administration and the GOP Congressional leadership, you would be hard put to find one instance in which the taint of corruption, lies and deliberate deception of the American people is not readily identifiable. From a President and White House staff who deem themselves above the law, to a cabinet full of corruption and cronyism, to GOP Congressional leaders peddling influence to lobbyists and sneaking language into legislation after the conference committee has signed off and adjourned, and congressional staffers going to work for lobbyists to maintain a direct pipeline of graft. Half of the GOP leadership are facing criminal investigation of some kind and possible indictments.
It is truly sad that we have reached a point where we cannot rely upon anything that comes from the lips of those elected officials who have the power to enact rules and enforce laws that seriously affect our lives daily. The only thing we can reasonably rely upon is that if Bush or Cheney, Rumsfeld or Rice, Frist or Hastert or Boehner say anything publicly, you can bet that it is not the truth, no matter how much "truthiness" their declaration may seem to have.
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