Bush White House Tries to Redefine "Truthful"

[marmar]

from AlterNet's PEEK:



Bush White House Tries to Redefine "Truthful"

Posted by Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report at 1:00 PM on December 6, 2007.

Steve Benen: By Ken Starr's '98 standards, if a president is caught lying in response to a reporter's question. That's impeachable. Just sayin'.



This post, written by Steve Benen, originally appeared on The Carpetbagger Report

The problem with Bush's fairly transparent lies about the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran isn't just that they're obvious; it's that they're clumsy.

Asked when he learned about Iran's halted nuclear-weapons program, the president said it was "last week." White House officials then conceded it was actually in August.

Asked about the August briefing, the president said the Director of National Intelligence told him there was "new information," but "didn't tell" him what it was. White House officials then conceded Bush was told that the August briefing included a discussion about Iran possibly having suspended its nuclear program four years ago.

Asked about any warnings he may have received in August about toning down his rhetoric on Iran, the president said, "obody ever told me that." White House officials then conceded Bush was told to "stand down" when it came to Iran, advice the president chose to ignore.

This isn't complicated. When Bush says one thing, and then White House officials tell us that reality is something different, then necessarily what the president told us wasn't true. Now, this could qualify as a lie (if he knew the truth at the time), or it could qualify as incompetence (if he just doesn't know what he's talking about), but it really has to be one or the other. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/69911/

[SpiralHawk]

1. Lying, the real republicon homelander "family value."

Republicons take a WIDE STANCE on lying when its one of their own hypocrites

[texpatriot2004]

2. Great image you have there. nm

[SpiralHawk]

3. Bush has been lying since his days as a Connecticut preppy cheerleader

A silver-spoon Yankee preppy pretending to be a Texas cowboy.

Pathetic.

[spanone]

4. Remember with Clinton.....it was ALL about the lies.....this asswipe lies daily

[gratuitous]

5. Wasn't August last week?

When you're as in the bag as Bush is, time takes on a pretty elastic quality. He might honestly have thought August was just a week ago. So see? It wasn't a lie at all.

[NewJeffCT]

6. The link doesn't work for me

but, I had thought the whole Clinton impeachment fiasco was because he supposedly lied under oath, no?

[DemReadingDU]

7. try again

it works for me now
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/69911/