Pudentilla worked many years ago for a curious man who loved the following, tasteless joke:
Q: Why does a dog lick his balls?
A: Because he can.
She wonders if Mr. Bush (DODO*) lies because he can. Kevin Drum, we note, believes that the lie tells how sheltered Mr. Bush (DODO*) is. He told the "Osama lie" because no one on his staff told him how badly he had spoken when he retreated from his "dead or alive" claim about Osama to this:
I don’t know where he is. Nor — you know, I just don’t spend that much time on him really, to be honest with you. I....I truly am not that concerned about him.
Many people noted that comment and the retreat it reflected from his original High Noon rhetoric. Kevin thinks that as a consequence Mr. Bush (DODO*) has come to sincerely believe he never said it. This sincere if mistaken [ed. note: "mistaken" is Republican for mendacious] belief explains why Mr. Bush (DODO*) turned with such vehemence against Mr. Kerry.
Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those ex-a-gger-ations.
We think that Kevin's explanation is a good beginning, but that Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s lie tells us an even more chilling truth than Kevin allows. Mr. Bush lied about his remarks about Osama for the same reason that Mr. Cheney (FOAL**) lied about ever meeting Mr. Edwards. Because he could. The Osama lie (like the lie about "most of the tax benefit going to the middle class") tells us the truth about the arrogance that characterizes this administration. So committed are they to what they believe is the fundamental truth of their possession of power that all other truth is diminished in significance.
The media has been remarkably ineffective in reporting Mr. Bush's indifference to facts. To be fair, Republicans have been manipulating the press effectively on the issue of indifference to factual inaccuracy since Regan's "teflon presidency." It is no wonder that Republicans, who believe in truths, if not facts, have long believed that they could not be held accountable to any standard of factual accuracy. Mr. Bush (DODO*) lied, as Mr. Cheney (FOAL**)lied, because he believed that he could. He has been lying for years and no one has called him on it.
His problem with the Osama lie is that it could be revealed as such in precisely the way, indeed the only way, the SCLM can actually cover a politician's lie: film at 11:00. We will be treated today to the quick succession of video tape showing Mr. Bush (DODO*)'s lie, and then the footage that proves he is lying.
The idealists among us may hope that the SCLM will learn from this experience and begin to report effectively on the indifference of this administration and its Congressional allies to factual accuracy. The realists may doubt the media will ever report a lie story without "caught in the act" footage. Both may wonder, however, whetherthe Republicans have been so corrupted by the power they hold and the license that the media has granted them that they are no longer able to help themselves from telling such telling lies.
*DODO: Doesn't Obey Direct Orders
**FOAL: Father of a Lesbian
