Just when I said I wasn't going to comment on each little outrage that appears in the news, something comes across my computer screen that makes me just want to howl with rage. In an effort to keep myself from pounding the keys on my laptop through to my desktop, I will attempt to put this particular incident in some kind of larger perspective. Of course, by so doing, I will probably end up denting the desktop from pounding so hard.
Think Progress has a piece today expanding upon a story I heard on NPR this morning concerning the "revelation" that a former member of the Bush White House legal team, now a federal judge, lied under oath when he was questioned about his role in internal White House debates over the issue of the detention of foreign combatants. My initial reaction upon hearing this was, "What else is new?" After consideration, and Durbin's rather limp response (I think the word he used during the NPR story was "misleading"), I must say that I am tired of the lying, and I do think it is time one or two of the Democratic Presidential candidates started mentioning them.
Serial falsehoods are SOP when these men and women go before Congress. Since they are led by a Vice President who views himself and his office as outside any framework of scrutiny and oversight, bolstered by legally moronic opinions by should-be-disbarred John Yoo that, in "wartime", a President can do whatever he or she wishes to do in his or her capacity as Commander-in-Chief, it should be no surprise that they lie. They lie. They lie about having lied. When called on it, they lie when they say they never lied about lying. It's in the air they breathe, the water they drink. The entire Bush Administration has been one big lie.
When we look back and remember Bush's pledge to restore honor and dignity to the White House, we must remember that his reference was rather narrow. He was insisting he wasn't going to receive oral sex from an intern. Back in the late-1990's, all the right-wing pundits were aghast at having to tall their children their President was at the receiving end of what turned out to be an inexpert act of fellatio. Where is all their concern now that the entire Executive Branch is a pack of liars? Of course, sex is much worse than lying, as we all know, so whose kidding whom here?
What makes this all the worse is the fact that there are folks who call themselves Christian out there who insist, over and over again, that the Bush Administration is in fact an exemplar of Christian values. Leaving aside war, and torture, and "extraordinary rendition", and domestic espionage, and the general shredding of the Constitution, since when is lying OK? There is not one act of this Administration that is defensible on Christian grounds. Not a single one. Anyone who argues otherwise is either lying themselves, ignorant of the facts, or both. There is simply no defense for anything these people do.
Until Articles of Impeachment are passed and a trial commences in the United States Senate (oh, Lord, John Roberts would be presiding judge. . .), there is little hope of any honor or integrity in the White House until the January 20, 2008, when a Democrat enters the White House.
Virtual Tin Cup
