White House To Congress: Confirm Mukasey Now, Ask Questions About Torture Later
During today’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Dana Perino brushed aside lawmakers’ concerns about Michael Mukasey’s views on torture, urging them to quickly confirm him as attorney general. “Once he is confirmed, then the Congress has the capability to ask him to come to Congress and to testify on all sorts of matters, including this one,” she said. But this technique ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ confirm now, question later ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ immediately raised red flags with reporters, who pointed out that if Mukasey becomes attorney general, the Bush administration would likely block him from answering questions in the future as well…. Perino dodged the reporter’s follow-up, replying that several lawmakers have “been briefed on the legal underpinnings and they have been briefed on the techniques. So Congress ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ the appropriate members of Congress have all the information that they need about these programs. They are safe, they are effective, they are tough, and they are legal.”…. But in reality, the White House refuses to even define torture.
It’s got to be tough to be a White House Press Secretary in BushWorld. You’re given dog shit and then expected to convince the press (and, by extendion, the American sheeple) that it’s chocolate. (Hey, they’re both the same color…how tough can it be? If they don’t go along with you, just question their patriotism and their commitment to the war against radical Islamofascism….)
Dana Perino is by all indications a capable and intelligent person…who just happens to look completely out of her element behind the podium in the White House Press Room. Then again, she’s been given an almost impossible job- lie, prevaricate, and obfuscate while convincing the press that she’s not lying, prevaricating, and obfuscating. It’s a herculean task, and one which eventually did in Tony Snow, who’s a master liar, prevaricator, obsfuscator, AND propagandist/apologist.
And you think it’s easy lying day in and day out….
The sad thing about watching Ms. Perino spinning is that she isn’t nearly as adept at it as Snow was. Snow could lie to you while looking you straight in the eye, and while you knew that he didn’t believe the bullshit he was peddling, you knew that he expected you swallow it unquestioningly. To say that the Bush Administration has had a tenuous relationship with the truth would be like saying that Jeffrey Dahmer liked to stock up on meat. Both statements are true, but they provide no real indication of the depths of depravity and indifference to anything save for their own self-interest.
Tony Snow was a virtuoso, a veritable whirling Dervish when it came to peddling lies and propaganda. Dana Perino couldn’t spin her way out of a wet paper sack, which tells me that maybe, just maybe, there might be hope for her. Perhaps she still possesses something resembling a conscience. Of course, if she hangs around long enough, Chief of Staff Josh Bolten will have that surgically removed, and Perino will become like every other reality-challenged BushBot- though she does inspire better fantasies that Tony Snow or Scott McClellan ever could.
Jeebus, people…can’t anyone in this Adminstration just tell us the unvarnished truth? (He said, knowing full well that he was asking a pointless, rhetorical question….)
