Gene Lyons: George W. Bush: Master of Illusion

[kentuck]

Rec'd in email - no link - posting in entirety

Gene Lyons
December 3, 2003

George W. Bush: Master of Illusion

If the Bush administration can't get anything else right, they
definitely know how to stage a photo op. George W. Bush's surprise
Thanksgiving Day visit to the troops at Baghdad airport was as cleverly
contrived a piece of political theater as White House imagineers have
dreamed up since since his "Mission Accomplished" aircraft carrier
landing back in May. It's likely to have exactly the same effect.

But let's hold that thought for a moment. For me, the president's
well-choreo-graphed stunt served as a quick Rorschach test. Was I, or
was I not, a Bush-hater? See, for months now, right-thinking pundits who
respond to the Republican National Committee's party line have been
wringing their hands over a supposed epidemic of unreasoning hatred
shown Bush by his detractors.

Ironically, the first to advance the theme was Byron York, a
columnist who got his start writing for, get this, The American
Spectator--home of the infamous "Arkansas Project," a $2.4 million
project to defame President Clinton funded by Richard Mellon Scaife, the
Scrooge McDuck of the American right. To my knowledge, York played no
role in the secretive scheme, but the idea of any Spectator alum playing
Miss Manners is pretty funny.

"Remember 'The Clinton Chronicles,'" York asked "the 1994 video
that attempted to implicate Bill Clinton in all sorts of 'unsolved'
deaths? Remember the 'Clinton Body Count' lists? Remember the stories of
the president's connections to drug running?"

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[Racenut20]

1. I have no problem loathing Jr on a personal level.

[Skittles]

6. I'm sick of that too, Racenut

GWB is thoroughly disgusting - I depise him on a personal level AND a political level. For example, I would NOT shake his hand. He's garbage.

[lanlady]

7. I second that emotion

Personally he strikes me as a superficial goof with a short temper. Bleh.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Me neither, he reminds me of the the worst....

slimeball, used-car salesman I ever knew!! The smirk and arrogance does it for me!

[Sperk]

3. how can you like someone who deliberately LIES to you over

and over again? No problem disliking the man, at all.

[teryang]

4. Pollyanna says no drug trafficking at Mena

...and powerful people don't have people killed.

[realFedUp]

5. master of delusion-n/t

[jfxgillis]

8. I'm on a (the) Gene e-mail list, too. Best reliable link is:

Moose & Squirrel

http://moose-and-squirrel.com/

[JackDaniel1216]

9. all we ever get from bush is smoke and mirrors! n/t