Ode to Truthiness

At his March 20th appearance in Cleveland, shrubya actually entertained unscripted questions, which is entirely newsworthy in itself. The fact that he was challenged on the rationale for war in Iraq makes it especially newsworthy; Keith Olbermann's treatment of it makes it delightfully so.

A gentleman in the audience kindly pointed out that none of the reasons given for war - including that "Iraq was sponsoring terrorists who attacked us on 9/11" - turned out to be true. Naturally, shrubya claimed to never have claimed any "direct connection" between Saddam and 9/11. Olbermann demonstrates otherwise, naturally.

He calls shrubCo out on the preferred tactic of word association, but you don't even have to get into that; the claim is even more overt. In the 2003 SOTU speech cited by Olbermann, shrubya says that "Saddam Hussein aids and shelters terrorists, including members of al Qaeda." If Saddam were supporting Al Qaeda who attacked us on 9/11, how would that not directly link the two of them? Especially after saying things like this:

"They're both risks, they're both dangerous. The difference, of course, is that al Qaeda likes to hijack governments. Saddam Hussein is a dictator of a government. Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert. The danger is, is that al Qaeda becomes an extension of Saddam's madness and his hatred and his capacity to extend weapons of mass destruction around the world."

"Both of them need to be dealt with. The war on terror, you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror. And so it's a comparison that is -- I can't make because I can't distinguish between the two, because they're both equally as bad, and equally as evil, and equally as destructive."

But none of this is even the real point here. This little excursion off the reservation yielded an even finer gem. In his response to the gentleman's question, shrubya had this to say:

I don't think we ever said...at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September the 11th and...and...and and Saddam Hussein."

...I was very careful never to say that Saddam Hussein ordered the attacks on America.

My mouse-fu is strong; the "and...and..." is not a typo or a cut 'n paste catastrophe. I think it's very telling that he stuttered then, not that the comment doesn't speak volumes in and of itself. Suddenly, Mr. Make the Pie Higher is concerned with linguistic precision? As if. You can almost see the thought bubble: "Hey now! If there's one thing I know how to do, it's lyin'! You think I'd be sooo dumb as to say that?"

Yes, Georgie; that and so much more.


Tags: Bush, Iraq, Al Qaeda, impeach, neocon


wing tip to Bob Johnson!