Tom Oliphant (Boston Globe): Facts vs. fiction

[Dudley_DUright]

NOW THAT President Bush and co-president Cheney have backed themselves into a corner with statements about Iraq and terrorism that aren't credible, it's interesting to watch them squirm.

Bush has an entertaining habit of confusing assertion with argument. For example: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda is because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."

The logic here is breath-taking.

Cheney is, as ever, more elliptical. Cornered for a change, he is striking out at the press, preferring not to take on the 9/11 Commission whose evidence (more to the point, its absence of any) exposes his pre-invasion and post-invasion hype and, shall we say, misstatements.

His initial line is that the press is hateful because it is confusing an important issue -- namely, that the absence of any information linking the former Iraqi regime to the 9/11 attacks is not the same as any assertion that there was no "tie" between Osama bin Laden's murderous organization and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

more...

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/06/20/facts_vs_fiction/

[acmavm]

1. And the bottom line (both from the article and realistically):

<snip>

Cheney and Bush, in short, have been caught in a lie, and that is why they are squealing.

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As Porky Pig used to say "Th-th-th-th-that's all folks."

[oblivious]

3. "that is why they are squealing"

I'd love to do a video of these two vomiting out their explanations and do a voice over of a squealing pig. Set it up as a classy pro-Bush/Cheney ad. Then when they open their mouths, looking suitably presidential, out of their mealy mouths comes the pig's squeal.

[Paradise]

2. thanks for this post.

being lied to, is the worst. :grr:

btw, in my experience, oliphant is fair and balanced.

[jbfam4]

4. Oliphant isn't afraid to tell it like it is...

"Cheney and Bush are squealing so much because the unmasking of their fiction about Iraq is one more shot into the solar plexus of their diminishing credibility -- and in the president's reelection campaign, credibility is a major route to the independent-minded voters who will probably decide the election."

[DemoVet]

5. By Cheney's logic,

which would seem to be, "we don't have any evidence that there were no high-level contacts between Iraq and al-Queda, and no evidence of a working collaboration between the two, and no evidence that Saddam Hussein wasn't involved in 9/11, then we must conclude that al-Queda and Saddam Hussein were cooperating in terrorism". Okay, because we don't have any evidence that Dick Cheney doesn't sell drugs to third graders, or molest little boys, or pimp minor girls, or have sex with sheep, that he is a drug dealing, pedophiliac, zoophile pimp.

[OldCurmudgeon]

7. c'mon there IS evidence

why is it, do you think, that Cheney gets so exercised in keeping his energy task force attendance list secret?

Because there were a few names that would seem oddly out of place...you know, the underage hookers that he hired to provide "entertainment" to his oily buddies.

If they won't release the documents, it must be far FAR worse than anything we can think of. If this be slander, let them sue and reveal the documents to prove us wrong.

[dand]

6. Thanks, good post

Oliphant always makes my day :bounce:

[DubyaSux]

8. Hmmmmm....

I don't recall ever seeing evidence that Cheney never received a reach-around while Adolph Hitler taught him the finer points of genocide.