But WHY did * admit to spying on Americans out of the blue?

[BlueStateBlue]

Two options come to mind for me:

He was about to be accused of spying for political reasons, and they're spinning it to the anti-terrorism slant, or

They're hoping to expand the powers of the executive branch, and this was the launch of the new product.

[shenmue]

1. His Xanax wore off...

he'd been reading Tolstoy, maybe?

:7

:scared:

[PatrioticLeftie]

2. Freudian slip? n/t

[Kierkegaard]

3. Or maybe...

he's dumb as a fence post and doesn't have enough sense to keep his pie hole shut.

[tavalon]

10. It was a speech

so his speech writers must be the fence posts. Bush is the fence post turtle. You know, like the ones you see on the fence posts in Texas. The poor thing doesn't know how it got up there and doesn't have a clue how to get down.

[Kierkegaard]

15. LOL!

You're correct. It was presented in speech form. I had pictured a 'Karla Faye Tucker' moment where * exposed himself as the callow, brainless, hearless prick that he is.

[tavalon]

19. Extemporaneous

is not something Shrubby does very well. Of course, I can't rightly think of anything he does very well.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. It was going to come out

and they did not want to have to lie about something else.

[BlueStateBlue]

7. But they've lied habitually for five years

Why is it different this time?

[Coastie for Truth]

13. A secret in Washington has a "critical mass" and a "life cycle"

Any "soft" secret (release of which doesn't risk American lives, just political reputations) in Washington has a "critical mass." Once enough of the "right people" know it, it "seeps out" - then it just explodes like a chain reaction and "everybody knows it."

One can argue that the NYT was playing both sides - holding back until after the rumors seeped - but before the explosion.

(You didn't catch the rumors - you're just not with it :shrug: - That's ok - I didn't either :shrug: )

[DemInDistress]

5. He fessed up because he was busted..

when the news got wind of "snoopgate"there was no turning back. He had to admit publicly he was spying. Many
scholars believe he broke the law and so do I.

[snowbear]

9. Out of all the answers, DemInDistress gave the BEST one !!!

(In my opinion)

~~~ Rock on DemInDistress !! ~~~

[DemInDistress]

26. thank you larissa for that "pat on the back" ..this spy stuff is

kind of like you stepped in shit and you cant hide it because we have eyes and suspicious noses. You can fool
my eyes but boy you cant fool my nose. Prominent scholars and other professional people strongly feel and believe bush broke the law now, if only dems in congress can dig deep dig in public and hope the patient dies.

lol..

Thanks again !!:hi: :hi: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[librechik]

22. he was catapulting the propaganda n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

30. That's right, he had no choice

and the Rove way is to admit whatever it is they say you did and claim that it's a god given right for the president to do whatever he wants.

[Warpy]

6. He did it to protect us, of course

You know, protect us from ourselves because you know how seductive those crazed Islamic terrorists can be, recruiting normal people from all walks of life. You never know who your enemies may be, right?

Well, that's the justification, anyway, and they knew they NYT had been sitting on the story for over a year, so they'd had plenty of time to come up with it.

Few people are buying it, though. We've seen it before.

[tularetom]

8. The whore NY Times grew cajones

and was going to publish the story after sitting on it for a year because 2 of their reporters were coming out with a book about it. * called the NYT editors into the oval office and tried to strong arm them but for once they hung tough. * didn't know how much they had so he admitted the most he could without admitting he spied on political opponents.

[unblock]

11. cheney used a sith mind trick on him to save his own ass.

[DBoon]

12. He honestly believes his base supports the spying

after all, they want to keep America safe from terrorists, damn those ACLU types.

Bush (or his handlers) understand the type of authoritarian personality that forms his backbone of support.

[EST]

14. Correct on both counts, with additions.

[kentuck]

16. That is a very excellent question !

Why indeed??

Was it to protect someone else? That's not his style unless it is to protect himself also.

Was it to convince his followers that he only did it to protect them? And by doing so, they would stand behind and protect him?

I thought it rather strange that he came forward so quickly and admitted it was his decision? Was it really his decision? Or was it Condi's decision? Is he doing it to protect Condi Rice? After all, she was the head of the NSA at the time...

But to admit that he was out of the loop and not "responsible" would be to admit that he was irrelevant. So, bottom line, he is protecting himself. That's all he cares about.

[mmonk]

17. Because if he gets Americans to accept it,

he truely has more power than he supposed to and will essentially become untouchable as far as the law goes (unless Fitz has a way).

[AtomicKitten]

18. I think it's full-arrogance.

A way of dealing with the controversy head-on, bullshit as it is.

BushCo was expanding presidential powers BEFORE 9/11, and their contention it is BECAUSE of 9/11 is BS.
The secrecy with the Energy Commission records and curtailing access to past presidential records are examples of their drive to expand executive power before 9/11.

Ironically, the in-your-face admission may be the lynch-pin to his impeachment.

[Popol Vuh]

20. Here's a thought

According to Randi Rhodes, Bush has distanced himself from everyone except from a few women. So MAYBE perhaps there's something going on here where there's a play to set up Bush to remove him? I mean look at what he's doing to their party. Look at how many people he's probably threatened. I mean there's got to be a laundry list of reasons why people from his own party, or his own administration would have motive.

Tinfoil Hat?

[snowbear]

24. Yep, distancing himself from all but a few women...

But somehow Anna Nicole isn't one of them!! http://eliteleague.co.uk/forum/images/smilies/lol!.gif



What do the "War on Christmas" crowd think about that anyway?

[NAO]

21. Rove could have scripted it to distract from a much larger scandal

It could be a "limited hangout" type "true confession" that draws media bandwidth away from some other area that they were getting dangerously close to uncovering.

The technique, which is the Mark of Rove, is the same one used by stage magicians. It is the specific direction of attention to something so you do not see something else.

Watergate was a "big scandal" which brought down the Nixon administration, but it drew fire away from COINTELPRO which was much bigger. While Watergate was a one-time break-in to one building to influence the outcome of one election, COINTELPRO was a decades long series of break-ins, domestic spying, infiltration and disruption of various legitimate political groups.

But the media and the American people were so obsessed with Watergate that they barely commented on or covered COINTELPRO.

[shraby]

23. He probably really believes he's everything

they've told him he is. I think they tried to talk him out of admitting it. Remember, he was angry when he gave that little speech. Like "I shall not be questioned on what I do, cause I'm the boss, and I'll do what I want, and here's what I did. Like it or lump it."

[rocktivity]

25. The NSA and CIA are starting to bite him back.

And I think there's much more to come.

:headbang:
rocknation

[area51]

27. B/c he can.

Who's tried to stop him w/all the evil he's committed? Loyal nazi party members? Gelded democrats? He admitted it b/c he's drunk w/power (among other things) & knows he'll get away w/it.

[Contrary1]

28. Since Slumpy never admits to being wrong...

he knew it was about to hit the fan, so he had to start catapulting
the propaganda as to why spying was the "right" thing to do.

Poor Dick, I wonder if they have upped his heart medication yet.

[BlueIris]

29. "Slumpy"? That's brilliant.

I'm using that from now on.

[Nimrod2005]

31. Or, the story is alot bigger than we know, right now...n/t

[youngred]

32. He doesn't feel he did anything wrong (and never does)

He's all about expanding the powers of the executive branch (which should scare true conservatives a lot more than it seems to). The question is why, since none of the excuses he's put forward are legit, would he keep this a secret. My bet is the spying includes political opponents as well