Bush League perogatives – my reply to the Captain

 These Bush supporters are pretty cavalier about what the President can do. Apparently they think he can do anything in the national interest. And what is the national interest? Well, Bush is the only person who gets to make that decision. If disseminating misinformation will help accomplish national security that’s just fine. (Don’t forget how Eisenhower was damaged when he told the nation that we weren’t sending any spy planes over the Soviet Union when the Ruskies trotted out Gary Powers) If revealing a CIA agent’s identity and compromising an important investigation into the nuclear activities of Iran (which is what Valerie Plame seems to have been doing) is what it takes to discredit the husband who is calling the President’s shaky “facts” into question …well that’s just peachy keen. If giving the Veep the right to disseminate secret documents and hand that same authority down to his subordinates….hey, no problem. And if we all discover this new presidentialy approved authority just in time for the subordinate to evade a charge of leaking state secrets…..Big deal! Sure, its convenient but the President gets to call all the shots….kind of like when he gets to tell the Congress what the laws they pass really mean. And if he appoints enough justices to the Supreme Court I’m sure it will agree with him.   

What the Captain says about the newspapers attitude towards tattle tales and whistle blowers may be true enough but we have a president who began designating public material relating to his father’s administration secret long before 9-11. Powerline and company can huff and puff all they want and dismiss the President’s actions as simple presidential prerogatives but they can’t stop the public’s perception that Bush is as disingenuous as he is inarticulate. Some people think disingenuinuity is the kissing cousin of spinning a lie. Others don’t make a distinction between the two. I still do but I’m really not sure which of the two better describes this administration.

Oh, and did you know that John McCain is the father of a black child? Well, he is and that’s what seems to pass for truth in the Bush Leagues where the ends always justify the means.

 

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