Wednesday, May 31, 2006

making an art of lying

yesterday bush was caught lying to the american public

how did the new york times cover it this morning?
Mr. Paulson formally accepted the job the next day, May 21, a fact Mr. Bush hid when asked at a news conference four days later whether he had any indication that Mr. Snow intended to leave soon.

"No, he has not talked to me about resignation," Mr. Bush replied then, resorting to what the White House acknowledged Tuesday was an artful attempt to keep the move secret.
just to be clear, in the grand scale of lies lying about whether bush is in the market for a new treasury secretary is relatively minor. but the fact that he would lie about something so minor illustrates just how low the bar is for misleading the public with this administration.

put another way, if bush had just come out and told the public he was considering other candidates for the job last week it wouldn't have been any new source for embarrassment for the administration. it wouldn't have effected his poll numbers in any noticeable way. it wouldn't have mattered much at all. if bush is willing to lie to the public for something that matters that little, what should we do with all his statements about iraq, afghanistan, torture, surveillance programs, or anything else?