They’re two for the books. Both are in denial and cannot be believed. Either they’re born liars
or they’ve learned how to lie with impunity. Or, to be charitable, they’re simply ignorant of their
own policies and decisions.
THE RUMMY
After a week of news stories with these headlines about the Abu Ghraib
interrogation-cum-torture scandal, “Inquiry Faults Intelligence Unit for Abuses at Iraqi
Prison” and “Report Is Likely to Prompt Criminal Charges” and “A Trail of ‘Major Failures’ Leads to Defense Secretary’s
Office” and “Findings on Abu Ghraib Prison: Sadism, ‘Deviant Behavior’ and a Failure of
Leadership,” Rummy Boy had the gall to tell two separate audiences in
Phoenix there was no evidence that prisoners had been abused
during interrogations.
The first time he “misspoke,” on the radio, his exact words were, “I have not
seen anything thus far that says that the people abused were abused in the process of interrogating
them or for interrogation purposes.” The second time, at a news conference, he
repeated that and added, “all of the press, all of the television thus far that tried to link the
abused that took place to interrogation techniques in Iraq has not been demonstrated.” (Italics
mine.)
After an aide slipped him a note, Rummy Boy conceded that “two or three” cases of abuse
had, in fact, been found by the Army investigation. But even his correction was a
“mischaracterization,” to put it politely. “In fact,” according to reporter Eric Schmitt, “the Army
inquiry found that 13 or 44 instances of abuse involved interrogations or the interrogation
process. The [inquiry] report itself explicitly describes the extent to which each abuse involved
interrogations.”
THE DUMMY
After news stories this week with these headlines, “Administration Shifts on Global
Warming” and “U.S. Report Turns Focus to Greenhouse Gases,” the
Nincompoop in Chief has denied the shift, then claimed ignorance of it — “Ah,
we did? I don’t think so” — even though the report is online, as reporter Andrew C. Revkin points
out, and “is accompanied by a letter signed
by Mr. Bush’s secretaries of energy and commerce and his science adviser.”
The story in The New York Times characterized the report to Congress as “a striking shift in
the way the Bush administration has portrayed the science of climate change … indicating that
emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases are the only likely explanation for
global warming over the last three decades.” The Washington Post was more modest, saying
merely that the report “goes further than previous statements by President Bush.”
Here — from the transcript of an interview by
reporters Elisabeth Bumiller and David Sanger — is the Nincompoop in Chief conceding, finally,
that maybe he doesn’t know what’s going on:
Ms. Bumiller: Mr. President, why did your administration change its position on
what causes global warming?
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think we
did.
Ms. Bumiller: According to —
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think
so, Elisabeth.
Ms. Bumiller: You said that it’s almost certainly carbon monoxide —
which you hadn’t said in the past, carbon dioxide.
THE PRESIDENT: I think that
was my position during the campaign, if I’m not mistaken.
Ms. Bumiller:
It changed —
At this point the Nincompoop’s spokesman interrupts:
“You’re talking about the National Academy of Science report?” Ms. Bumiller replies: “Yes, yes.”
As if to say, “What the hell else could we be talking about?” To which the Nincompoop’s
spokesman offers typical boilerplate that his boss “has done a lot in terms of climate change”
blahblahblah.
THE PRESIDENT: Let me get back
with you on that, because I think you might — I don’t know why you said what you just
said.
Ms. Bumiller: Well, we had a story in the paper this morning
saying that you issued a report saying —
THE PRESIDENT: Oh,
okay, well, that’s got to be true.
Which makes everything all better, right? We know the Nincompoop in Chief doesn’t read
newspapers if he can help it — or so he’s said — but short of finding out what his own policies are
from his own appointees, he ought to start having somebody read the newspapers to him. Laura
has said she does, but apparently she skips the important stuff.
