Views » September 11, 2004

Duck and Cover-up

By Joel Bleifuss

The presidential campaign has made one thing clear: The Bush administration employs a strategy of lies and dirty tricks to stay in power.

This is well documented. The administration predicated its war in Iraq on false information. Bush campaign surrogate Swift Boat Veterans for Truth fictionalized Kerry’s service in Vietnam. And the Department of Homeland Security seemingly issues terror alerts with every Kerry uptick in the polls.

This venal strategy was at its most blatant when Dick Cheney told a crowd in Des Moines that a Kerry win would inexorably lead to another September 11: “It’s absolutely essential that eight weeks from today, on November 2, we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we’ll get hit again and we’ll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States.”

Is the GOP actually suggesting that veteran John Kerry will herald the end times, while the lying George Bush is America’s savior? Apparently so.

Wayne Slater, Texas journalist and co-author of Bush’s Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential, notes that Rove has built a career on attacking opponents’ strengths, not their weaknesses. The Swift Boat campaign against Kerry recalls the Rove strategy against John McCain in 2000. After winning in New Hampshire, McCain tanked in South Carolina after voters “learned” that his wife was a drug addict, he was unstable and the two had a black child.

Dirty tricks underpin the Bush operation because winning is the only goal. Rove and Co. have internalized the teachings of political philosopher Leo Strauss, who maintained that deception and lies are necessary political tools. Take the administration’s response to the 9/11 investigations.

Abdussattar Shaikh, an FBI informant and friend to two 9/11 terrorists, was withheld from investigators despite repeated requests. “The administration would not sanction a staff interview with [Shaikh]. Nor did the administration agree to allow the FBI to serve a subpoena or a notice of deposition on [Shaikh],” the FBI explained in a letter.

In his new book Intelligence Matters, task force co-chair Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) writes that this letter was the first time investigators saw in writing what they had long believed. “The White House was directing the cover-up,” writes Graham.

So why isn’t the media all over this story?

For journalists to admit they were duped over and over by this administration would require that they own up to their professional shortcomings. So that job was left to a self-described “fake news program.”

Take this dead-on exchange between “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart and correspondent Rob Corddry over Bush campaign claims about Kerry’s military record.

STEWART Here’s what puzzles me most, Rob. John Kerry’s record in Vietnam is pretty much right there in the official records of the U.S. military and hasn’t been disputed for 35 years.

CORDDRY That’s right, Jon, and that’s certainly the spin you’ll be hearing coming from the Kerry campaign over the next few days.

STEWART That’s not a spin thing, that’s a fact. That’s established.

CORDDRY Exactly, Jon, and that established incontrovertible fact is one side of the story.

STEWART But isn’t that the end of the story. I mean, you’ve seen the records, haven’t you? What’s your opinion?

CORDDRY I’m sorry, my opinion? I don’t have opinions. I’m a reporter, Jon, and my job is to spend half the time repeating what one side says, and half the time repeating the other. Little thing called “objectivity”—might want to look it up some day.

STEWART Doesn’t objectivity mean objectively weighing the evidence, and calling out what’s credible and what isn’t?

CORDDRY Whoa-ho! Sounds like someone wants the media to act as a filter! Listen buddy: not my job to stand between the people talking to me and the people listening to me.

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• Reader Comments

  Speaking of Karl Rove, the home address of:
  Karl & Darby Rove
  4925 Weaver Terrace, NW
  Washington, DC 20016

  Posted by Kirk Muse on Sep 11, 2004 at 6:57 PM

  As a Canadian, and a large majority of fellow Canadians if polls are accurate, suggest what is it that at least 40 percent of Americans don’t get about Emperor Bush II tat seems to allude them. In Canada a federal election with Emperor Bush and his dirty politics would put him and Rove on the trash heap.

  Posted by Brian Meighan on Sep 11, 2004 at 9:16 PM

  Read and distribute. Maybe the real Bush/Cheney/PNAC horror can override the Karl Rove strategy.

  WHY GEORGE W. BUSH IS
  THE WORLD’S LEADING TERRORIST!

  
  Analysis by TvNewsLIES.org

      Terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. - US Federal Bureau of Investigation

  Read the sentence carefully. You didn’t hear it on any corporate media newscast since 9/11. It’s the official US FBI definition of terrorism.  In its official definition, the FBI does not limit terrorism to stateless individuals or groups. In its official definition, the FBI does not suggest that terrorism cannot be perpetrated by the leader of a nation state. But even more amazing is that the official FBI definition of terrorism describes exactly what George Bush did in the aftermath of the attacks of 9/11!

  Proof given in the full article: http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/george_w__bush_-_world_s_leadi.html

  Posted by Reg on Sep 12, 2004 at 1:38 AM

  Are we really to believe that Kerry deserved all five medals awarded to him over a four month period? And how wonderful for him to get out so fast, even if it did require 3 purple hearts. I wonder how severe those wounds were. . .

  Kerry really has no one to blame but himself for his failing campaign. He showcased his Vietnam record as the reason to elect him. Many of the vets who served with him dispute his official record - and many MANY are still upset at his trashing of Vietnam vets when he came home and, um, testified to Congress (but hey, aren’t all soldiers baby killers, rapists, etc?).

  Perhaps Kerry should run on his Senate record? And Bush on his presidential record? Neither is particularly distinguished. . . This election is really between Mr. Dumb and Mr. Foolish.

  Posted by none on Sep 14, 2004 at 8:11 PM

  To be perfectly honest, I’m not thrilled with Kerry. The only reason I support him (other then the fact that he isn’t Bush) is Edwards. I’m not going to gush over Kerry, because I see little to gush about. What I will say is, the mistake of 2000 can’t be repeated. The only way you grow is to learn from your mistakes, and if Bush gets elected again, then America has a learning disorder (or he stole it again). There’s a chance Kerry is a mistake, but we’ve seen what kind of a mistake Bush was.

  We need a Democrat in office again. I’d like to say I have nothing against Republicans (I like McCain, at least) but it seems as if, and I can’t remember who it was who said this first but its not a Josh original, the Republican party has become a refuge for corporate theives, racists, Bible-thumpers, and basically Southerners in general. I live in the south, and I know how blindly some people around here would follow Bush into oblivion based solely on the fact that he’s a damn Republican.

  My mother hated Clinton, loved Bush, and I could never grasp that. Basically, she hated Clinton for lying about a blow job, yet she doesn’t seem to mind Bush lied about a war that is causing thousands and thousands of deaths. Redefeat Bush in 04, for God’s sake. If not, I may just have to become Canadian.

  Posted by Josh on Sep 15, 2004 at 1:31 AM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 19 posts.

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Fiction First, Spin Later

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