Bush Whacked Us too

Let me see if I understand this correctly.

According to this New York Daily News article, "Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak," Bush has known about Karl Rove's role in the CIA leak for at least two years, and was extremely annoyed about the way the whole leak episode was handled. What it means, however, is that Bush was not just troubled that the leak occurred, but that Rove and his cronies were caught. Josh Marshall also explores this issue further at Talking Points Memo.

In other words, Bush has long known that Rove and other senior officials were involved in the CIA scandal (it's just unclear exactly what he knew and when he knew it). Compare this to Bush's pledge in June 2004, when the president clearly said that he'd fire anyone involved in the leak of Plame's name. There was a shift in July 2005, when it became know that officials in the Administration were involved in the CIA leak, with the new threshold being that if someone "committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration." Implicit in this (and explicit in several instances) was the fact that Bush said that he had no knowledge of the leakers at that time and wasn't sure their identity would ever be uncovered. Josh Marshall has some of the earlier quotes by Bush in his discussion on this issue at Talking Points Memo, and concludes that Bush most likely knew about Rove's involvement when he made those statements.

Terry Neal of the Washington Post reminisced about the words he recalled hearing during his coverage of Bush's campaign in 2000, noting that Bush repeated the mantra of a "promise to restore honor and dignity to the White House" if elected. In Bush Should Live Up to 2000 Pledge, Neal opined that "Bush's speech resonated with many voters, and the themes of honesty and integrity helped propel him to the White House in one of the closest elections in decades."

They were words, just words, devoid of meaning for Bush. He wasn't honest in 2000 when he spread his campaign propaganda touting "honesty and integrity" and he's not honest today with his political propaganda, whether its talking about Rove, the war in Iraq and almost any other issue of import. Sad to say this about a President of the U.S., but "honesty and integrity" are about the last words I'd apply to him. Try liar. It's short, sweet & to the point. Most of all, it's a better fit.