Memo to Karl Rove: Never again let George W be posed with the real George W: George Washington.
An AP photograph recently ran in several newspapers – a head shot of W giving a talk in the White House. He was in the forefront of the picture, looking his goofy self, while our stately first president appeared to be just behind him, peering sternly at George. It was only an oil painting of Washington that loomed from the wall to the right of Bush’s head, but the contrast between Number One and number 43 was as unflattering for Bush as if the real man had stepped forward from history and stood beside him.
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The contrast was all the more striking because, on this very day, the White House was scrambling to explain yet another of Bush’s lies. This one was George’s flat-out claim in 2004 that he had no idea who had authorized the leak of some classified CIA information to reporters – a leak meant to discredit a prominent critic of Bush’s Iraq invasion. “If there’s a leak out of my administration,” barked George W back then, “I want to know who it is. If the person has violated the law, that person will be taken care of.”
But – oops! – it now appears that the authorization came from the Leaker-in-Chief, Bush himself!
Rather than tell the truth, however, the Bushites proceeded to lie about the lie. White House PR flack Scott McClellan began flimming and flamming as fast as he could go, claiming that since Bush has the power to declassify government secrets, any information that he might have okayed to be leaked was – ergo, ipso facto, and presto chango – not really classified.
This is Jim Hightower saying… This is a version of Nixon’s imperious assertion that “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” One thing for sure: George W is a whole lot closer to Nixon’s ethics than to George Washington’s. And that’s why Karl should never let Little George be pictured with the Big Guy.
Sources:
“White House sidesteps leak allegation,” Austin American-Statesman, April 8, 2006.
“If Bush allowed an information leak, he should tell us why,” Austin American-Statesman, April 8, 2006.
“A ‘Concerted Effort’ to Discredit Bush Critic,” The Washington Post, April 9, 2006.
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