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Has the Bush administration ever told the truth? Name one example.
8 years and I have yet to hear George Bush or Dick Cheney or any of their cabinet cronies tell the truth. Ever. Has any administration in American history been held less accountable than the current one?
I challenge anyone to find one example of telling the whole truth, clear and undiluted.
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Comments (24)
Are you kidding? I have TONS. Let me give you some highlights:
"I'm occasionally reading, I want you to know, in the second term."
"I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" --in a note to to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a U.N. Security Council meeting, September 14, 2005
"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."
"Wait a minute. What did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gas? ... That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."
"I heard somebody say, 'Where's (Nelson) Mandela?' Well, Mandela's dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas."
Oh wait, that last one was a lie I guess. Mandela's alive. But I mean come on! You can't hold the man to a constant high standard!
April 1, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
April 2, 2008 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
GMA: [The war in Iraq] Two-thirds of Americans say it's not worth fighting
Dick Cheney: So.
April 1, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have the perfect example-
In 1994 Dick Cheney told the truth:
"And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it…uh…the Syrians would like to have in the West. Part of the eastern part of Iraq the Iranians would like to claim, fought over it for eight years. In the north, you've got the Kurds. If the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It's a…it's a quagmire, if you go that far in trying to take over Iraq."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I
(I'm sure everyone's seen it)
April 1, 2008 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Mom, Jeb said he wouldn't get Katherine Harris to win the election for me in florida"
GWB hands phone to Bar
"Jeb, now you don't spoil your brothers run for President...., Do I have to come down there?"
April 1, 2008 4:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Dick Cheney: "And if you take down the central government in Iraq, you could easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off. Part of it…uh…the Syrians would like to have in the West. Part of the eastern part of Iraq the Iranians would like to claim, fought over it for eight years. In the north, you've got the Kurds. If the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey. It's a…it's a quagmire, if you go that far in trying to take over Iraq."
Dick Cheney: So.
April 1, 2008 4:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I truly am not that concerned about [bin Laden]"
Of course, Bush & Cheney rectified that last particular truth, by opening up Iraq.April 1, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bush on the war, his job, etc. during the debates with Kerry, "It's hard work!"
April 1, 2008 5:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
You stole mine. He was at least honest then; he just forgot to follow up with "and I am woefully unqualified for it."
April 1, 2008 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This thread is kind of harsh. Most politicians lie to get elected. Bush is one of the few people who honestly told the American people exactly what he would do as president.
"If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator,"
April 1, 2008 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Get the F#$% outta here! Did he really say that? I completely missed that one!
April 2, 2008 3:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
He was against the formation of the Dept of Homeland Security. This was a knee-jerk reaction on his part (because he wants to dismantle a centralized Federal government), but it was the right attitude to take.
Since formation, DHS has been under constant scrutiny from Congress about not being able to produce good on the basis of money spent.
The Dems were part of a group pushing for the formation of DHS. They got it wrong. And Bush, for the wrong reasons, got it right.
Ironically, it was one of the few things in his first term he didn't push back on.
April 1, 2008 9:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
There must be more examples of Bush telling the truth when addressing the American people.
Anyone?
April 2, 2008 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Didn't Bush say that his constituency was the haves and the have mores?
April 2, 2008 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yep... He went on to add: "Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."
April 2, 2008 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
"If we let the loggers go in and cut down all the trees we wouldn’t have a problem with forest fires."
"It's no exaggeration to say that the undecided could go one way or another"
April 2, 2008 9:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is how we'll heal the party once we (er, um the tentative Superdels...) pick either Barack or Hillary. Have an all out Bush Bashing Fest for 7 days recounting all the miserable deeds and disgusting lies of the last 8 years. After 7 days of venting, we'll be right-as-rain and ready to trounce John W. McSame (Bush III) in November.
April 2, 2008 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it were 2009, I'd agree. Why cry over Bush lies?
But he is the president for another 8 months and he's talking about the FISA bill, re-funding the Iraq occupation, how best to deal with the current financial crisis, the "necessity" of an anti-missile defense shield, the "necessity" of allowing oil companies to drill to their heart's content on both coasts and up in Alaska, and among so many other things, the possibility of invading Iran.
I believe it's very relevant to raise concern about his history of lying as it relates to these current and future issues.
April 2, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Haha - I was just going to say that I haven't seen this much unity around here in, well....months! Nothing like a round of Bushisms to bring together the TPM community. (at least for one post!)
April 2, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
"America is addicted to oil."
April 2, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
"America is addicted to oil."
That's a good one. I would add his implied sentiment to the the beginning though.
"I'm pleased to announce that...."
April 2, 2008 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, but that was a partial truth: he wanted us to drive hydrogen cars which is a good fantasy... akin to flying cars.
April 2, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
"we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here."
it doesn't make sense, and it's morally bankrupt, but I do think he believes it.
April 2, 2008 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
"we're fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here."
I guess it depends on what your definition of "them" is. (Or was, I think this was the rallying cry before the Iraq war.)
April 2, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
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