A CULTURE OF LIES?

Politico.com is reporting that former Bush White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has written what looks like a "Mommy Dearest" memoir of the Bush administration. The books tells us that President Bush “veered terribly off course,” was not “open and forthright on Iraq,” and took a “permanent campaign approach” to governing.

The results, according to McClellan, is that "candor and competence" were sacrificed during Bush's presidency. In What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception McClellan explains that:

• President Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war (as opposed to hard evidence).

• The White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• Some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”

• Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

Look, we're all adults here. At what point does the press, the American public, and official Washington act upon the reality that "propaganda" and "misled" are simply bad euphemisms for "lying." It's because we accept these euphemisms that nothing is done when the NY Times reported the Pentagon regularly sent the press high level military plants (many of whom worked for the Defense Industry) to sell the war in Iraq.

That we willingly accept a culture of lies is the real reason our blood and treasure is being wasted in Iraq. But, then again, I may be wrong. A president who lies about a girlfriend just might get impeached.

Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?

The sad thing is that, at the end of the day, we all may be misguided about the real source of our problems. President Bush may simply be a symptom of a larger disease in America ... which you can read about in Chalmers Johnson's Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Whether you agree with Johnson's premise or not, the points he raises make for good discussion topics.

I'll be sure to discuss McClellan's book, and some of the points raised by Johnson, within the next 2-3 programs.



- Mark