Tit in the Wringer --Pepperbelly's Dispassionate Look at Bush's Dilemma

[Pepperbelly]

Plase bear with me for a few moments but something about the recent revelations regarding Bonehead and the yellowcake from Niger bothered me greatly. Kinda like Doyle's dog that didn't bark.

What the WH is saying is that Bush was not told that the info regarding the yellowcake was fraudulent and he therefore went ahead and used it in the SOTU speech. If we accept that explanation, we have to see the effect of it.

First of all, it is a horrific admission for an administration to make. They are admitting a sophomoric incompetence that is staggering and indeed calls to question their ability to actually manage a Wal-Mart, much less the U.S. of A. In addition, this glaring ommission has held the boss up to ridicule at the least with many saying that he lied outright. If I were Bush, I would be FURIOUS! This is the very worst political shitstorm Bonehead has endured. And this with the re-election campaign looming.

Heads would roll.

Big heads.

But they haven't.

Why is that?

[TheBigGuy]

1. nudge nudge wink wink

WMDS as an excuse..nudge nudge wink wink...

Bush and his gang built this up as a big excuse, and the public went along with it..knowing tthat the excuse was sort of built out of poporption.

It was a big lie, and the public willing agreed to believe it.

So, it really doenst matter if it comes out that this was a big lie...the public reaction is "eh..so what,,,we knew it all along...scumsucking lying politicians...so what".

The only ones getting worked up about it are partisan Dems like the folks here at DU, and maybe a few media figures.

So its an issue, but a non-issue too.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Bet it ain't a non-issue for the US soldiers getting shot at every day n/t

[TheBigGuy]

7. backround noise.

we arent yet at Vietnam levels of guerilla war.

[kainah]

6. and it's not a small issue for principled republicans

Those of you in the blue states may not believe that such a breed exists but I know many of them here in Wyoming. And lots and lots and lots of these people, who understand how serious war is & how serious international relations are, feel very uncomfortable about what they are beginning to realize happened to them. I see as much discontent among traditional repubs in this state regarding their leadership as I see on DU concerning the Dem leadership.

[kainah]

3. Goria Borger: "It's going to take a long time to dig this out"

Bill Press & Pat Buchanan had a major argument about the general point you are raising: how did this get into the SOTU without * knowing more about it???

I think we saw the first brick fall out of the wall today. I truly believe they thought they could slip this admission in under the radar because of their Africa trip. But look what's happened: the press is all over this story & Africa has slipped away instead. The whore press who used to be real journalists -- such as Gloria Borger -- seem to be sniffing something.

I do believe that these lies were so big that there is simply no way for them to cover them over. Gloria Borger just said "there are danger signs on the horizon for this president.

[Tigermoose]

4. Pathetic decadent American sense of responsibility.

No longer do we judge according to actions and results, but now its all about "intentions."

In a different time, Bush would be held responsible not because he was misinformed, but because his decision ended up being a poor one --for whatever reason.

I don't care about pschoanalyzing or studying the possibilities of "maybe-but but! I didn't know -- intentions." I want people to be held responsible for their actions, regardless of why or what excuses they come up with. If we based judgment on this, then boneheads like Bush would never run for office for fear of being held responsible for their actions.

[Pepperbelly]

5. The big point is this ... they are willing to admit this ...

terrible incommetence ... this staggering display of ADMITTED MALFEASENCE because they are trying to cover up something even bigger.

[whathappened]

9. thats right

it seems like any body who holds a office anymore aren,t responsable for there actions now days , unless your name is bill clinton or you are a defender of the freedom of the people of this u.s.a. , the right is so hell bent to control everything in life they are over looking the real meaning of being alive

[Walt Starr]

8. Pepperbelly, there were exactly two ways to go

Neither were very acceptable, but they had to choose one of the following two scenarios:

1) Admit the truth that they told the BIG LIE to start a war for oil that is going to last at least two decades due to the requirements of occupation and the fact that if we leave now we violate international law.

2) Say, "Oops! Looks like we're incompetent buffoons! <wink wink nudge nudge>"

Fortunately, the media whores smell blood in the water and are running with the truth that we all knew the instant the bullshit left Smirko's lips in the SOTU Address.

[Pepperbelly]

10. yep and the magnitude of what they are willing to admit to ...

shows the far greater magnitude of what they want to conceal.

Their reach exceeded their grasp.

[Eloriel]

11. Folks, Folks! The most damaging infromation yet -- Bush DID lie --

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_2518.shtml

An intelligence consultant who was present at two White House briefings where the uranium report was discussed confirmed that the President was told the intelligence was questionable and that his national security advisors urged him not to include the claim in his State of the Union address.

"The report had already been discredited," said Terrance J. Wilkinson, a CIA advisor present at two White House briefings. "This point was clearly made when the President was in the room during at least two of the briefings."

Bush's response was anger, Wilkinson said.

"He said that if the current operatives working for the CIA couldn't prove the story was true, then the agency had better find some who could," Wilkinson said. "He said he knew the story was true and so would the world after American troops secured the country."

more

Eloriel

[Pepperbelly]

13. holy shit!

Damn!

The man is absolutely INSANE.

[LuminousX]

14. He's lying about lying

it gets worse and worse.

Maybe the media will now do an expose on other Bush lies, maybe something regarding Enron and Ken Lay.

[Cocoa]

12. I see them as a gang

they can't admit weakness. They operate on sheer power, they just roll over everything and don't give any ground.

Hopefully their political strategy isn't any better than their military strategy. Rove will be exposed as much of a fool as Rummy.

[DrBB]

15. Yup--I've been pushing this line since Condi's DAMNING admission

Done LTEs to the NYTimes, LATimes and others. Finally got a bite last week when I sent it to Josh Marshall and he put a version of it on his blog.

Here's one version:

Re “What I Didn't Find in Africa” (Opinion, 7/6/03): Some weeks ago, National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice asserted that Joseph Wilson’s report “never got to my level.” Why has Ms. Rice not been held to account? If her statement is true, which Mr Wilson's account shows is unlikely, that is almost more disturbing than if it is a lie. She is in effect saying that a high-level report about a matter of a nuclear threat to the United States never made it to her desk, allowing the President to be misinformed about a matter critical to our national defense, and in turn allowing him to misinform the country in his constitutionally-mandated State of the Union Address. Such a lapse by the National Security Adviser in the post-9/11 world is not only terrifying (what else of major consequence has not "made it to her level?") it is also—or should be—a firing offense.

If Ms Rice is telling the truth, why does she still have a job? If she is lying, who is she covering up for?
</snip>

I'm totally with you on this PB--I think this is the killer issue. Can't be dismissed as partisan since it simply takes the bastards at their f-ing WORD. Good news: it seems to be the line Carl Levin is taking. Let me see if I can find the link/quote....

on edit: ah, here we go:

Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, also said that the development underscored a need for more investigation.
"The reported White House statements only reinforce the importance of an inquiry into why the information about the bogus uranium sales didn't reach the policy-makers during 2002 and why, as late as the president's State of the Union address in January 2003, our policy- makers were still using information which the intelligence community knew was almost certainly false," Levin said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=693&e=1&u=/ap/20030708/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq

[Pepperbelly]

16. When I read the threads yowling about Carl's approach ...

I suspected that he had something figured out that we had not yet quite got a hold on but this I think is it.

Carl is playing it exactly right. Take them at their word and follow it through.

[DrBB]

17. I actually emailed Levin on this over a week ago

...and tried to plant the suggestion that he pursue it this way. Therefore he did, because no on can ignore an email from me. </glaring egotism>. Actually, I'm quite sure my email had nothing to do with it. But I'm surprised that more people haven't caught onto this. Their cover story is as bad as the lie they're trying to cover up!