Gonzales breaks the rules of lying

The first rule of lying is that you never lie about something that can be verified.

The second rule of lying is that you don't do it without a good reason.

The third rule of lying is that if you do it, the lie has to be plausible.

The fourth rule of lying is that once you've lied, you have to keep your story straight.

Alberto Gonzales violates every rule. There are contemporaneous documents and no fewer than 10 eyewitnesses that prove without question that Gonzales lied to the Senate Judiciary Committee about the visit to Ashcroft's hospital room.

There was no motive for Gonzales to lie. In his attempt to explain why he'd gone to Ashcroft's bedside, it didn't matter whether it was about the terrorist surveillance program or some other program.

In addition, Gonzales' lie was not plausible. He claimed he'd gone to Ashcroft's bedside only to inform Ashcroft that the acting attorney general, Comey, wasn't going to reauthorize the program -- he says he was simply conveying information. However, when questioned by Sheldon Whitehouse, Gonzales was forced to admit that he had a piece of paper in his hand when he went to see Ashcroft, and that this piece of paper was a memo reauthorizing the program -- a memo that needed only Ashcroft's signature.

On top of all that, Gonzales can't keep his story straight. After the Bush administration has consistently denied the existence of surveillance programs other than the one knows as TSP, Gonzales said he'd gone to see Ashcroft to talk about programs other than the TSP. Clearly he was so confused by the hostile questions that he forgot what the previous administration lies were, and so was unable to keep his story straight.

If this guy doesn't resign, he's going to be impeached. In fact, he might be impeached after he resigns.

Romney goes too far

Clearly GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is not a a fan of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Did he apologize? Hardly:

"You know what? Lighten up slightly."

All I have to say is I'd better not ever hear Romney complain about someone else engaging in negative campaigning.

Tony Snow, writer of fiction

Tony Snow, in the first paragraph of an Op-Ed in today's USA Today:

We never argued that he (Saddam Hussein) played a role in 9/11; political opponents manufactured the claim to question the president's integrity.

BULL.

SHIT.

CNN, September 26, 2002:

President Bush's national security adviser Wednesday said Saddam Hussein has sheltered al Qaeda terrorists in Baghdad and helped train some in chemical weapons development -- information she said has been gleaned from captives in the ongoing war on terrorism.

The comments by Condoleezza Rice were the strongest and most specific to date on the White House's accusations linking al Qaeda and Iraq.

Los Angeles Times, January 23, 2003:

Vice President Dick Cheney revived two controversial assertions about the war in Iraq on Thursday, declaring there was "overwhelming evidence" that Saddam Hussein had a relationship with Al Qaeda...

CNN, January 30, 2003:

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (CNN) -- President Bush spent Wednesday trying to draw a link between a possible war in Iraq and the war against terrorism. He repeated accusations that Iraq is linked to the al Qaeda terrorist network.

Bush said the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein should be considered part of the war on terror "because of the nature of Saddam Hussein."

"He is a danger not only to countries in the region but, as I explained last night, because of his al Qaeda connections, because of his history, he is a danger to Americans," Bush said, referring to Tuesday's State of the Union address. "And we're going to deal with him. We're going to deal with him before it's too late."

Washington Post, June 17, 2004:

President Bush insisted today that "numerous contacts" between the ousted government of Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorist network showed that the former Iraqi leader was a threat to the United States, despite a report by the Sept. 11 commission that found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda.

"The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda [is] because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," Bush told reporters after a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

USA Today, April 6, 2007:

Vice President Dick Cheney repeated his assertions of al-Qaeda links to Saddam Hussein's Iraq on Thursday as the Defense Department released a report citing more evidence that the prewar government did not cooperate with the terrorist group.

Cheney contended that al-Qaeda was operating in Iraq before the March 2003 invasion led by U.S. forces and that terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was leading the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda. Others in al-Qaeda planned the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"He took up residence there before we ever launched into Iraq, organized the al-Qaeda operations inside Iraq before we even arrived on the scene and then, of course, led the charge for Iraq until we killed him last June," Cheney told radio host Rush Limbaugh during an interview. "As I say, they were present before we invaded Iraq."

Tony Snow lies so much he can't even tell PLAUSIBLE lies.

Kristol, you're a jackass

The Weekly Standard

Of Senators and Soldiers

The soldiers think they can win. Some Senators lose their nerve.

by William Kristol, 07/16/2007, Volume 012, Issue 41

This is the heading and sub-head of Bill Kristol's current column in The Weekly Standard.

The column goes on to criticize some Republican Senators who have announced they will no longer support the Bush administration's Iraq war.

As someone who's been to Iraq, I can speak first hand on the difference between the courage of "winning" as a soldier, which means executing a policy we may or may not agree with and trying to stay alive, with political courage, which means debating and making deals and voting. A civilian in politics simply cannot be equated with military members who are in combat -- being at war is more difficult than merely saying you support a war. If punk coward Bill Kristol doesn't know that, I'm happy to set him straight.

Chris Cannon, major league asshole

July 8, 2007:

Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Chris Cannon (R-UT) appeared on Fox News Sunday this morning to debate the politicization of the Justice Department.

Van Hollen argued that the firing of US Attorney David Iglesias in New Mexico last December was evidence of that politicized culture.

"It was clearly a case of trying to push somebody who exercises independent judgment," Van Hollen said of phone calls placed to Iglesias by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) to pressure the attorney to prosecute certain voter fraud cases.

Van Hollen said that Iglesias was fired because he ultimately did not "take orders from the White House" on those cases.

Cannon then spoke over Van Hollen, saying, "No, no, he was fired because he's an idiot."

I'm going to go with the obvious retort here -- if being an idiot was grounds for being fired in the Bush administration, there'd be no one left to show up for work.

I'm back

I didn't feel much like writing for the last couple of weeks. I'm feeling like I have something to say again.