Bush, colleagues lose trust in Plame game

[cal04]

The war in Iraq grinds depressingly on, with few signs of progress and no end in sight.The president's plea to privatize Social Security is obviously going nowhere.And George W. Bush's chief political guru, the very architect of his successful re-election campaign, is looking increasingly like a felon, a liar or both. Is it any wonder a growing trust gap has begun to separate America from its suddenly rattled second-term president? Bush doesn't seem ready to face it head-on.That's the vivid impression from the White House pool report filed by one correspondent Friday afternoon: "On the tarmac in North Carolina, your pool was able to walk briefly alongside the president and ask if he still had faith in Karl Rove.

The question was met with a stare straight ahead, silence and a quick brush-off motion of Bush's left hand, as if the president were swatting away an insect." Well, buzz-buzz-buzz! It'll take more than a little swat to make this buzzing go away! Pick a poll, any poll. You'll find another swarm of evidence that more and more people are doubting Bush, especially his honesty and truthfulness. The new NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey - no bastion of left-wing negativism for sure - asked if people found Bush "honest and straightforward." Only 41 percent said yes, down 9 points since January. At the same time, those who said they doubt the president's truthfulness climbed to 45 percent from 36 percent. This is a big red flag for any president, especially this one, whose personal connection to voters has been his secret weapon when his policies have gone awry.

"No, he hasn't caught Osama," countless Americans have grumbled over the past three years and 10 months. "But he seems like a nice, regular guy."If that nice cushion is disappearing, Bush could be in real trouble soon. Not so incidentally, this trust gap has begun to grow at the same time as Iraq has become peoples' No. 1 concern. In that NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 40 percent cited the war, higher even than the 34 percent who called jobs their first concern. Now, add Karl Rove to the list of threats. The facts are still fluid. But as the week wound to a close, it was looking increasingly certain that the president's political adviser and deputy chief of staff played at least some significant role in revealing the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. And not only that: He'd done it for the lowest and most selfish motive imaginable - to extract political revenge against Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, for his public comments questioning the basis for the war in Iraq.

What could be uglier than that? What could be a worse violation of public trust? Rove's defenses have gotten wobblier by the day. He's gone from he-didn't-do-it to the-media-did-it to he-doesn't-remember-exactly. And Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, has been no help at all, offering up a whole series of contradictory assertions about what Rove supposedly told the grand jury - sometimes in the very same breath to the very same reporter. Here's a typical one from the Washington Post: "I don't think that he has a clear recollection. He's told them that he believes he may have heard it from a journalist." Now isn't that the double-barreled refuge of a cornered politico - blame the media and claim you can't remember? Just imagine the uproar if this had been an aide in the Clinton White House.

rest of the article
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyhen174345965jul17,0,6452557.column?coll=ny-ny-columnists

[Peace Patriot]

1. This article is a load of crap and misdirection.

Take it point by point and notice the lies and myths and delusions that are being promulgated. Then, come to the Rove part. What a worm, that Rove! What a liability he's become! Cornered little rat. Kick that guy off the Titanic!

I think that these so-called journalists may cause me to abandon the only absolute I have ever been committed to in my entire life: freedom of speech. I'm beginning to believe they should be denied freedom of speech. Or maybe be forced to exercise it for a $1/day wage, at some small town, shortwave radio station in Uzbekistan.

And they can take Dick Cheney with them, to organize the arms and drug deals.

[HamdenRice]

2. Newsday is a great paper

I understand your frustration that the editorial does not directly address the big picture behind the Rove affair -- lies about the war, intimidation of CIA agents to get fake intelligence -- but overall Newsday is a terrific paper, by far the most progressive daily in New York, and their editorial board and news coverage have been critical of the war consistently.

[CJCRANE]

3. The article shows that the tide is turning

surely that's a good thing.

[EST]

4. Based on your reply,

I have read and reread this article five times and can't spot the myths and delusions you stipulate. Could you be so kind as to elaborate a bit for the benefit of this unsophisticated reader, please? To me, accustomed to the mush-mouthed expurgations of the usual cowed reporting, this seems to be a marvel of clarity and straight forwardness. What am I missing?

[geckosfeet]

5. The issue may be Newsday's reputation along

with the gossipy, cursory, and vacuous writing style. There is no real there there. Its almost like FOX and CNN "reporting" on a battered and bruised WH. Poor babies.

I personally take strong exception to this :

<snip>
"..... with each passing briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan is looking more and more like Ron Ziegler, Richard Nixon's hapless mouthpiece during Watergate.

You almost have to feel sorry for him, as he keeps being forced to swallow his own words."
<snip>

Feel sorry for anyone in this WH !!?? I say keep up the barrage until every last one of them is gone for good.

[EST]

8. I can see your point.

I think the biggest source of frustration is the fact that any among us can take little more than a cursory glance at the facts we can see and easily part the obfuscatory veils and divine the truth, while these supposedly bright and discerning "reporters," who have far more information and better insight than we, appear to be too stupid and sheep - like to see the patently obvious.
It is so very clear to almost any progressive thinker that these lying criminals should be allowed no more opportunities to make any decisions, especially those of such moment as the picking of a sotus nominee and should, in fact be cooling in prison. The so-called better informed and supposedly more intelligent minions are simply clueless. It begs the question, "do they automatically get stupider the longer they are around the seats of power?"

[Pystoff]

6. Maybe the writer wanders around too much but

I think it shows the writers rage over what is taking place. Seems like he's mad and isn't focusing well because he's fed up and is venting the only way he can. Hell I'd have trouble being a good writer about this subject myself and would probably lose it on the page written even worse than he has.

But then again...I'm biased hehe.

[KoKo]

7. I credit NY Newsday for getting rid of Bernie Kerik for us. They are

really good when it comes down to tough times. Maybe they "coast" alot..but I thought this was a really good article. :shrug: