1115.org

(1) The Silver Lining
President Bush’s claim that Democrats had exactly the same intelligence as he did about the Iraq war would be scandalous and laughable if it were true. Fortunately, it’s just a bald-faced lie.

(2) He Refuses to Flop, so America Goes Plop
Now Bush has started quoting (without name attribution) statements made by prominent Senate Democrats in support of the Iraq war two or three years ago:

West Virginia Sen. John Rockefeller in October 2002 :
“There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.”

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin in December 2001:
“The war against terrorism will not be finished as long as (Saddam) is in power.”

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in September 2002:
“Saddam Hussein, in effect, has thumbed his nose at the world community. And I think that the president’s approaching this in the right fashion.”

Doesn’t this really just establish that:
a) these Democrats are guilty of believing what the President put out.
b) these Democrats are willing to revise their positions in the light of new information.
The more principled Republicans, of course, refuse to move from flip to flop.

It doesn’t matter what the cost is to America and Americans, it’s the principle of the thing. We can’t send the wrong message to the enemy. We can’t send the wrong message to our troops. We must stay the course. We are a mighty nation, justifiably proud of our military might and our moral fortitude, and it is unthinkable for us to accept anything less than total success, total victory. Of course, this strategy makes all the more sense because it worked so well the last time we were stuck in a similar dead-end quagmire.

So America goes down the tubes. And we keep on sending the right message to the wives and mothers and children of American soldiers. The one that conveys the deep appreciation of a grateful nation for the courage and patriotism etc. of what is now unfortunately an ex-soldier. The one that expresses our unshakable resolve to honor their memories by staying the course. No matter how many more such messages it may take. No price is too great in this good and glorious fight for (…if you come up with anything at all, please insert it here and let me know too…) as long as it doesn’t involve sending the right message to people named Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rove.

(3) “Wilson’s Wife” Syndrome
What’s with this business of quoting these Democrats but without name attribution? From where has this Administration picked up the notion that it is somehow better or more noble or more effective to say “Wilson’s wife” than to say “ Valerie Plame ”?

We may not understand it, but maybe we should fight fire with fire? For example, we could stop saying “ George Bush ” or “George the Compassionate” and use phrases like “ Barbara Bush’s son” or “the son of a bitch” (I’m thinking, of course, of the notorious post-Katrina Astrodome comment.)

(4) Hunt for Osama Officially Abandoned
Nobody seems to have noticed, but the hunt for Osama has obviously been officially abandoned. The most telling sign: even Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf has stopped issuing periodic statements denying that Osama is holed up anywhere on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan. He got through an entire interview with Wolf Blitzer on Sunday’s Late Edition, without once feeling the need to issue his routine denials.

(5) The Pulitzer Prize for Double-Speak
Speaking to carefully rehearsed spontaneous applause at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska on Monday, Bush said that that it was Saddam (and not Bush) who had manipulated evidence and misled the world.

Let’s just step back and absorb the full impact of this outstanding example of the Separation between Truth and Reality. Bush kept on saying that Saddam had WMDs. Saddam kept on saying that he didn’t. By now absolutely everyone (with the possible exception of Dick Cheney ) has accepted or conceded that Saddam did not indeed have WMDs at the time we launched the Iraq war.

Only George Bush could step into this scenario and proclaim, with the fearless disregard for truth which characterizes a true leader, and no sense of irony whatsoever, that Saddam was the one who had manipulated evidence and misled the world. The man is just superb! No wonder he was elected President twice.

It is now widely expected that, in a rare gesture of respect, all other contenders for the Pulitzer Prize for Double Speak (Scottie alone had three separate nominations) will make graceful concession speeches, and withdraw their names from consideration.

(6) The Anti-McClellan
Reuters, 11/14/05:

Hadley, briefing reporters on Air Force One, played down the possibility of any breakthroughs on trade disputes with Japan and China.

On U.S. attempts to persuade Tokyo to lift a ban on U.S. beef imposed over mad cow fears, Hadley said: “This is not going to get worked out before we get there, it’s not going to get worked out while we’re there. But we hope in a reasonable time afterwards to see this issue worked through and beef returned to the Japanese market.”

As for China’s swelling trade surplus with the United States, a source of increasing frustration among U.S. lawmakers and exporters, Hadley also tried to minimize prospects of a breakthrough.
Bush wants China to liberalize China’s currency system and let the yuan rise in value. “It’s going to be an issue during this trip. It’s going to be an issue after this trip,” Hadley said.

Like I said yesterday, the man just puts the truth out there. This is a trip with no purpose whatsoever, no agenda. Bush just got tired of disappearing to the Crawford ranch, that’s all.