Bush Continues The "Lying Bastards" Campaign On Veteran's Day

by Steve

A day after National Security Advisor Steve Hadley started the White House pushback against Iraq war critics with a conveniently forgetful argument that masked his own culpability for withholding contrary intelligence, President Bush carried forward with his own attempt today in a Veteran’s Day event. He did this on a day when a new AP/Ipsos poll found that 57% of those polled don’t think he is honest.

Bush carried on his own lying bastard routine today, with the following remarks:

"Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and mislead the American people about why we went to war," Bush said.

He said those critics have made those allegations although they know that a Senate investigation "found no evidence" of political pressure to change the intelligence community's assessments related to Saddam's weapons program.

He said they also know that the United Nations passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam's development and possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Skippy knows full well that the so-called Senate investigation, thanks to Bush water-carrier Pat Roberts, was forbidden from evaluating what the White House did with the intelligence. Both the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report and the Silberman-Robb Commission indicate that they were not allowed to look into how the Administration manipulated the available intelligence.

As long as Bush wants to talk about the UN, he should then also talk about the IAEA’s refusal to endorse Bush’s WMD claims and their desire, ignored by Bush, to continue looking for weapons instead of starting a war based on false pretenses. Bush should also mention that he never got the second UN resolution either. And Skippy should also mention that it is now clear that neither the Senate investigation nor his own presidential commission were provided all the information; his White House withheld information from both.

"More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power," Bush said.

Do you really want to claim Mr. Bush that you provided the House and Senate with the “same intelligence” that you had? If so, prove it. Bob Woodward of all people makes clear in “Plan of Attack”, that Bush didn’t give Congress all the information he had. Woodward says so on pages 185, 199, 203, and 264.

"As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them," the president said. "Our troops deserve to know that this support will remain firm when the going gets tough. And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory."

Mr. President, these same troops and their families also need to know they weren’t sent to war based on lies and a strategic disinformation campaign against our country and the world by a man who failed in his TANG service. And if you are so concerned about settling for nothing less than victory, then please let us know when Jenna and not-Jenna will be enlisting.

Bush left himself wide open with these charges today, and Kennedy rightly responded immediately in kind. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi should immediately challenge Bush’s assertions and demand the Phase Two inquiry to test Bush’s claims. They should also begin their own pushback campaign on the Sunday chatfests, and by doing as I suggested several days ago a "60 Minutes" show in the next 2-3 weeks laying out point-by-point how Bush lied to Congress in his March 18, 2003 letter to start the war.

Keep talking Skippy, you lying bastard. And keep digging. Hell will get closer for you every day.

Thanks to Ari Rabin-Havt from Senator Reid’s office for the tips.