Say It Again, Sam
Steve Benen at TPM points out the latest from Rambling Rove, in Rove against the world:
On the Countdown video, Keith Olbermann also shows Karl Rove on the Charlie Rose Show, boldly lying, blaming Congress for pushing the Iraq War resolution, as well as Andy Card's amused response denying the truth of that tall tale.Last week, in one of his more breathtaking lies, Karl Rove told a national television audience that it was Congress, not the Bush White House, that pushed for an Iraq war resolution in advance of the 2002 midterm elections. Rove said the administration was "opposed" to moving "too fast," and that the president and his aides wanted the debate "outside the confines of the election."
Since then, there's been one thing everyone, on both sides of the aisle, can agree on: Rove is lying. Then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said Rove either has "a very faulty memory, or he's not telling the truth," a sentiment echoed by then-House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt's office.
Rove's former colleagues are just as blunt. Former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card not only said Rove is wrong, but added, "[S]ometimes his mouth gets ahead of his brain." Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer concluded, "I think Karl in this instance just has his facts wrong." Former Bush counselor Dan Bartlett added, "This is the first time I've ever heard Karl say that."
Even after being confronted by his lie, Rove repeated the original assertion, as Benen notes. But of course Rove would lie -- and lie again, even when called out on the fabrication. If nothing else, he's a master at reading our basic human tendencies.
In It's The Reason Why They Lie, I noted recent research showing that people persist in remembering the myth that they first heard, even if it is later corrected with the true facts. In fact, denials and clarifications end up contributing to the resiliency of the original bad information. As the piece noted, "once an idea has been implanted, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denials inherently require repeating the bad information."
Rove could have conducted the research and attested to the veracity of the results.
(Video via onegoodmove)
1 comment:
TIME'S DISCRIMINATION
We do not manufacture truth
But catch it, like a gleam
In someone´s eye--the vendor´s booth
Sells not shrinkwrapped esteem.
Though manufactured be consent
For such a thing as war
Or other evil--somnolent
They go, as were before
Sleepwalkers or somnambulist
Inherently in conscience:
They bring some icon to be kissed
But spring--a beast on haunches--
When there is gold or some advantage
To gain illicitly:
It passes, while the truer vintage
Remains perpetually.
In time the causes for the war
Reveal themselves a fraud,
While the adherents, plaudits for
No longer can applaud.
Truth is not manufactured, but
Like fixed within the mind
Of God, can no abridgement cut
Though salesmen are inclined.
So I will go unto my death
Not worried over reputation--
It were a waste of mind and breath--
But trust to time´s discrimination.
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