And Up is Down
In an op-ed in today's USA Today, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow had this to say:
Just when I thought I understood the President's beliefs, though, Snow hit me with a curveball:
[N]o president in recent history has made more careful use of the pardoning power than George W. Bush: The president believes pardons and commutations should reflect a genuine determination to strengthen the rule of law and increase public faith in government.Well then, mission accomplished. Nothing strengthens the rule of law and increases public faith in government quite like giving blatant preferential treatment to a former top aide, particularly one who was just convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an investigation of the White House itself.
Just when I thought I understood the President's beliefs, though, Snow hit me with a curveball:
The president was not motivated by politics in making this decision. If he had made the decision based on opinion polls, he wouldn't have lifted a finger.Wait, so now the public is against strengthening the rule of law and increasing public faith in government? That's weird. Why would the public not want to increase its own faith in government? Or strengthen the rule of law? We really are a cynical society.
8 Comments:
Snow is equating politics with opinion polls, and saying therefore it wasn't a political move. What is left is the unsaid option that it was actually a personal decision, designed to save his own butt.
If we had a few White House reporters who could consistently and lucidly put 2 and 2 together like this to confront Snow and the White House on their obvious and basic logical fallacies, we would be much better off. I always love it when someone DOES point out something like this. You'll notice Snow loses his smirk and gets a deer in the headlights look for a few seconds before he recovers. If there were someone there to call him on ALL his nonsense, I think you'd see the smirk disappear completely.
If the White House at least had to THINK about what it said carefully, rather than simply spouting such obvious drivel and getting away with it, maybe they would feel some constraint to not adopt such unprincipled positions. I'd settle for not having my intelligence insulted so openly by their talking points though.
Sometimes you can be so dense.
Do Americans want Libby to spend time teh slammer?
Yeah, maybe, perhaps.
Can I get a HELL YES?
Come on peeps, HELL YES.
CHASM is correct about the sly equation of politics and opinion polls, and that this episode may mark a threshold moment in the use of the word "politics" - meaning, it's on the verge of having no meaning.
Oddly here I think the fault lies with the media more than the administration, for trying to act tough in press conferences by assuming the commutation was obviously "politically motivated." Again CHASM is correct (and so is Snow, I'm afraid). The president's decision was "political" only if by "political" one means personally butt-saving and entirely unjust.
In the old days - like maybe a couple months ago - "political" meant "designed for the sole purpose of making the other party look bad, or to raise personal/campaign funds." Now, by the political press's new formulation, it means "anything a politician would do." Really it's just a way for reporters to say, "hey, I think you're an asshole. In fact, you're ALL assholes...Okay, I think our work here is done."
If we had a few White House reporters who could consistently and lucidly put 2 and 2 together like this to confront Snow and the White House on their obvious and basic logical fallacies, we would be much better off.
LOL
You silly libertarians - you actually miss the entire point of what is going on, but don't feel bad - the psuedo "liberal" A.L. doesn't actually ever acknowledge the structural functions that drive today's politics either - this is something totally AGAINST liberal traditions.
WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT THE MSM THAT DUTIFULLY CATAPULTS THE PROPOGANDA WOULD ALLOW WHITE HOUSE REPORTERS TO DO THIS!
It is so silly and irresponsible to talk about the how some "reporters" would make a difference when in reality it is the problems are structural.
Good catch.
I agree that Bush didn't do this for political reasons, he did for self preservation reasons.
The 2008 Presidential Candidates have spoken. Find out how they feel about different issues. Click here
Let us say that Richie inadvertently (or even deliberately) discards a lit matchstick in the woods, which results in a fire in one part of the forest. When the forest ranger comes around to investigate the cause of the fire, Richie admits to discarding the lit matchstick. The forest ranger for some reason decides not to go after Richie.
However, the forest ranger discovers that at about the same time that Richie discarded the lit matchstick, Louie was smoking a cigarette in another part of the forest, which is against the forest law. When questioned by one of the fire investigators, Louie tells the investigator that he was not smoking. Although Louie’s smoking does not contribute to the fire, the ranger imposes a stiff penalty on Louie for lying about his smoking in the forest.
After observing the proceedings, the forest superintendent (the forest ranger’s boss) concludes that the penalty imposed on Louie is not justified given the circumstances.
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