Josh Marshall on Bush's increasingly dumbass statements

[diplomats]

Back in the day, Washington wags used to parse Bill Clinton's public utterances looking for various misstatements, lies, fibs, fudges, what have you.
Now we have President George W. Bush.
And with each passing day it seems his public statements show not so much a pattern of lies as evidence that when he's not doing press availabilities he's living on some other planet. Misstatements are becoming so par for the course that his public pronouncements now seem more and more like a verbal equivalent of what the immortal David St. Hubbins once called a "a free-form jazz exploration" in which the individual words aren't supposed to distract us from the larger truth the president is trying to convey.
Look at the president's final remarks from his press opportunity with Kofi Annan yesterday ...

The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region.
I mean, where do you start with this?
As the well-worn line goes, I think it's too soon to say we know Saddam didn't have a WMD program. I thought he did. There was lots of evidence to suggest he had at least some chemical and biological weapons programs. And we're still actively looking. But I think our inability thus far to find any clear evidence of a on-going chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program would seem to leave us at least a bit short of being "absolutely" certain that he had one. Am I nitpicking here?
Like the philandering husband, he seems to be asking us, "Who ya gonna believe? Me or your lying eyes?"
And remember when Saddam wouldn't let the inspectors in? I totally missed that one.
Look, you can certainly say that Saddam wasn't cooperating fully with the inspectors, that his people hadn't fully accounted for various chemical and biological munitions which the UN thought he had back in 1990s. Hans Blix said as much. It's true. But, c'mon, he let them in.
You hear this stuff and you say to yourself: "Well, you can kinda know what he meant, I guess."
The disquieting fact is that these whoppers aren't even getting reported any more because it's become a given among reporters and editors that most of what the president is saying on this subject has little connection to anything that's actually going on. And the two keep diverging more and more. It's almost as if the shakier the evidence gets the more certain he becomes about what the evidence was supposed to prove.

It's like the media knows Bush is a doofus they don't even bother reporting his embarrassing errors. It's such a double standard.

[treefrogjohn]

1. Maybe that's the strategy

What better way to ease him out than by allowing him to be himself and so out of touch that it is embarrasing for the media to let anyone see. Sort of like the uncle no one wants to talk about. Now let's see if some other Repuke starts getting more and more exposure.

[teryang]

2. He's been getting a free ride for over two years

He is completely incompetent in addition to being corrupt.

[otohara]

3. Here's The Link

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

[bunnyhop]

4. I'm so sick of hearing about "weapons programs"

Of course iraq had one - all countries do.

[MIMStigator]

5. They're hoping we just give up

The strategy must be making the lies too big and too many to keep up with.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Sick of the term 'weapons programs'

Since when has a 'program' been an 'imminent threat' to any country?

[mumon]

7. FROM THE WHITEHOUSE ITSELF!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-3.html

The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region. I firmly believe the decisions we made will make America more secure and the world more peaceful.

You'd think they'd have scrubbed it by now.

But there it is.