Bush Follies: Cynical Lie or Psychotic Break?

Okay, we're not a nation of intellectuals. That's been well established by now. In fact, part of the appeal of George Bush back in the rosy days of the 2000 presidential campaign, or so I was told at any rate, was that he was aggressively uncurious and proudly ignorant of much of the world and its ideas. He wore his bad grades and spotty work history as badges of honor, saying, "I'm no egghead. I know what I know, and I'm a man of faith and that's all I need to know."

While President Bush may still be an inspiration to every C-minus student with vast wealth and powerful family connections, there are some situations in which there is no substitute for plain, old-fashioned horse sense, of which it may be said that he ain't got it, so much. And one such situation is the one his shrubbiness finds himself in now.

The president and his folks have been caught in so many lies, distortions, criminal acts, venal sins, and ethical imbroglios that even his supporters are starting to do the unthinkable:

They are fact-checking the president.

Time was, the Crawford Cowboy could sling some spin at the beaten and emasculated press and they would report it dutifully. Now there's a glimmer. It's as if the national house was on fire and we are beginning to hear the smoke alarms; all of a sudden we are listening carefully to what the Man has to say.

One of the latest and greatest lies the president has uttered was that Congress "saw the same intelligence he did" prior to the Iraq II war and are attempting to "rewrite history" by claiming he manipulated them into supporting his fool's errand in Mesopotamia. This is a lie of such vast proportions, and one so easy to check, that one must doubt the president's grasp on reality.

Read this and ask yourself: would a sane man rest his entire justification for war on claims such as this?

And to the press I say, if there's a scrap of credibility left in the west wing when you get through gnawing on this story, then you're not doing your job.