Bush: The Ethics President

[warren pease]

During the first meeting on the first day of his presidency, George W. Bush reportedly said: "I expect every member of this administration to stay well within the boundaries that define legal and ethical conduct. This means avoiding even the appearance of problems. This means checking and, if need be, double-checking that the rules have been obeyed. This means never compromising those rules."

Uncharacteristically, I have no comment on the above. It's simply too outrageous to comprehend, and the past 6.5 years have been a non-stop refutation of that silly attempt at noblity.

Unless he was actually talking to the millions of dust mite that inhabit the oval orifice. Or maybe to the trillions of various air-borne germs and bacteria that waft through the rarefied air of the White House.

But if he was talking to actual human members of his administration, his words seem to have somehow failed to register.

Care to comment, or is this so ridiculous it belongs in the lounge?


wp

[Mythsaje]

1. He had his fingers crossed the whole time?

And winked a lot?

Or maybe it was just a wry grin to let everyone know he didn't mean it.

Or, perhaps, he meant to completely re-define "ethics and morality" as we know it.

Oh, hell...

Your guess is as good as mine.

[warren pease]

8. Yeah, a wink and a nod and a nudge in the ribs...

Ever see that ancient SNL skit where they're sitting around the oval office in the Nixon white house and, knowing the mics are on, they say one over the top thing after another -- all of which are direct quotes from the official transcripts -- but they speak as if they're players in some burlesque or melodrama where they're actually good guys trying to seem like crooks. They're giggling behind their hands, elbowing each other in the ribs, falling on the floor trying to contain their howling laughter.

The point being, they aren't plotting the end of the republic at all; they're just a bunch of decent guys having fun with whoever's going to be listening to the tapes.

Now I can see Bushie doing just the opposite: Mouthing feel-good platitudes for the mics and cameras, acting all serious and claiming the high moral ground for his administration, the conference room full of staffers and cabinet appointees all putting on the sober looks expected of them.

And then the cameras leave, the mics are turned off, and everybody starts roaring with laughter, the ties loosen, the single malt starts flowing, beer's in the cooler, and everybody's feeling all smug about having pulled off another bit of theater designed to con the country into actually believing these evil bastards give two shits in a hen house about ethical behavior. Their only ethic is "don't get caught, and if you do be sure to experience an attack of total amnesia."

So maybe that's the scenario. As I wrote earlier, this scene is so completely ridiculous in light of the past 6.5 years that the only dead wrong interpretation would be taking it as the literal truth.


wp

[Phredicles]

2. That's almost up there with "a uniter, not a divider",

and I'd mostly forgotten about it. Thatnks for dusting it off; it's worth showing the contrast, say with the current "not everything we did was illegal.":wow:

[lligrd]

3. He Meant His Ethics And His Rules

a very low bar indeed.

[Flying Dream Blues]

4. Everything he says is the opposite of what he does and thinks.

That makes it easy for him to know what to say. He's sober, he's a Christian, he sees war as a last resort, he's compassionate, he cares about the environment, he supports education...etc. See? It's easy.

[Olney Blue]

5. He was supposed to be morally superior to Clinton, what with his

"faith" and "compassion."

[Bitwit1234]

6. Well they made the movie

BRUCE Almighty and then they made EVAN Almighty Little georgey thinks it is time they made

BUSH ALMIGHTY -------- cause he thinks that's the one that counts.

[Skidmore]

7. Maybe he's planning to be a comedian when he's done destroying

the world. He's testing his out his act.