Is the release of the Bush tapes a planned smoke screen?

[Vinca]

Let's face it, who really cares if Dubya smoked marijuana and his views on gays isn't a state secret. But, all of a sudden, this blah story is being turned into a "scandal" by MSM, overshadowing the bona fide scandal of Gannon/Guckert. I'm betting the tapes have been on the shelf, saved for a special occasion, and this is it. They must be hiding something very big when it comes to Bulldog.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. The tape thing sure reeks of a planned event...

...and the MSM is dutifully reporting it like it's huge (or, at least, bigger than GuckertGate).

[Skidmore]

2. For all the attention this has gotten at DU

I appear to have missed it on the weekend channels. We should ignore it and keep yelling "Jeff, Jeff, Jeff", or whatever his name is.

[Vinca]

3. Mea culpa - this is a topic on the Politics board, too. Oops!

[Tsiyu]

4. When they showed the Wead crap on local news last night

i said "This proves there's something to the Guckgan story" - unless they are now running TWO smokescreens.

I almost gagged when the reporter said, "Bush said he didn't want to answer any questions about marijuana because 'I don't want little kids trying what I did',"

But, hey! Blow up 100,000 kids and their parents? Send a bunch of kids to die and lose their parents? Send a bunch of kids reeling into poverty?

He has no conscience there, huh?

[Virginian]

7. 'I don't want little kids trying what I did',"

Does he really think he is that much of a "hero?"
Why would any kids want to emulate him? Does he have THAT large an ego?

I think he really was saying, "I don't want anyone knowing who I really am or anything about my past. They may not like the real me."

[izzybeans]

5. Yep. Let's not get off track. n/t

[Enraged_Ape]

6. Isn't it laughably obvious?

The talking heads covering the pot tape story are overacting badly in their desperate attempts to convince us that it matters.

I am now more convinced than ever that Jeff Gannon was cornholing Dubya himself.

[H2O Man]

15. Yep.

Are we supposed to be overwhelmed? "Wow! George is a regular guy!" Pathetic.

[RedstDem]

8. I'm So Damn Tired Of The Propaganda

Rove Had This In His Back Pocket Waiting For The Right Moment To Cover Up Whatever He Needed It For...Classic Lesser Evil Crap For The Media.

Is It 2008 Yet ?

[newyawker99]

18. Hi RedstDem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[GiovanniC]

9. It's Painfully Obvious Those Tapes Are Fake

Does ANYBODY truly believe that Bush has "the children" in mind when he says he's not going to talk about the drugs he did when he was younger? "See, I would tell the American public about all the times I toked, all the acid I dropped, all the blow... the meth, the crack, the heroin... all of it. I SOOOO very, very, very badly want to tell them about all of that. But my hands are tied because of the impressionable youth of this great nation."

Bitch, please.

All that shit about not bashing gays because "I'm a sinner, how can I differentiate sin?" HELLO? Have you not been around for the past four years, George?

This is all a ploy to release quasi-damaging information about Bush in a way that would still appeal to moderates and get attention off SOMETHING. Bush does not need to be re-elected, and frankly it doesn't matter if a majority of American approve of him anymore. So whatever they are covering up *cough* Gannon *cough* is big enough to bring them COMPLETELY DOWN.

[SmokingJacket]

17. Yes. Said it better than I could. nt

[sendero]

10. I'm generally...

... the first to scoff at the idea that Rove controls the media.

But in this particular case, I wouldn't be surprised. Rove probably has a handful of these bogus "news" items he can trot out at critical moments.

This is definitely a critical moment, the silence from the WH tells you all you need to know.

[flordehinojos]

11. boy, i tell you, they are so cynnical... you just have to be one step up

ahead of them all the time!

[pdxmom]

12. Of course it is. After listening to Wead this morning on CNN...

it was painfully obvious that this is definitely a staged event, ala Rovian tactics. Wead said he didn't ever want these tapes to become public...so why did they? He is a writer, and didn't need to hand the actual tapes over to anyone. Wead was being a good little soldier and it's obvious the WH isn't too upset about this, otherwise, we'd be seeing the destruction of Wead, as we have with every other Bush crony that has been "disloyal".

[FULL_METAL_HAT]

13. If it is a smokescreen for GannonGate(tm), REAL reporters might see that

the WH is _really_ scared and DIG IN!

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808960

"Things will settle down eventually," he said. "People will get used to a new balance of power. That's what's so disturbing. It's a new balance of power and nobody knows what that's like - bloggers, journalists, executives, users, Web cruisers. This is a moment of great expansion"

There's a power vacuum right now, and reporters like Anderson Cooper may be realizing _this_ is their chance to take a shot at climbing to the top of the heap of journos.

[seabeyond]

14. i think they are. they were not bad about bush

so on the pot we all knwo it. makes sound like just a puff here or there, we know drug and alcohol use much worse.

makes it sound as a good christian, wont be kicking gays, i have sinned too,..............a good ole boy, even when he didnt know talking to recorder. this is another fed to act like bad, but really a scene to lessen others to focus away from other and in an odd way make him come out sounding better

[Kingshakabobo]

16. Wha wha what? What tapes?

I've been in a Nyquil induced haze for three days. What tapes???

[Enraged_Ape]

19. Some dude released tapes of Dubya admitting...

that he (GASP!!!) smoked POT!!

[Toucano]

20. Yes. Yes it is.

I knew it yesterday when they played the excerpts on "This Week".

Total damage control.