Reply #38: More often, Bush's surrogates Rice and Cheney have told the blatant lies

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Bush is a very sly crafty politician who has successfully avoided outright lies in favor of evasive misleading remarks and deliberate deception (lies of omission) in order to avoid impeachment. Instead he allows (encourages?) his immediate subordinates and spokespeople to do the outright lying, one reason why there are stronger grounds for Cheney to be impeached. For instance Condoleeza stated they had no prior warnings about Bin Laden intending to attack and she claimed total ignorance about the possibility of terrorist attacking by use of planes. Cheney has repeatedly lied about Saddam having WMD's and having ties with Al Qaeda and responsibility over 9/11.

Many of what are perceived are Bush lies are not outright lies but misleadingly deceptive and evasive statements such as his explanations about his intentions regarding Social Security reform when he said during the 2000 campaign that he would not reduce benefits when in fact as soon as he won reelection he pushed his privatization scheme that included reductions in guaranteed benefits to future recipients (but no reductions to current beneficiaries).

Bush lied about his Administration not being responsible for Plame leaks and his intention to punish those involved in the Plame wrongdoing. But he deflected the lie by claiming personal ignorance and that the matter was up to Fitzgerald and the Grand Jury to determine criminal wrongdoing, not just wrongdoing. However he cemented his dishonesty over that matter by letting his subordinates get away with their silence and lies when it became known they were involved and finally by commuting Libby's sentence. But he has gotten away with that due to Congress's unwillingness to hold him accountable.

Another good example of a very deliberate lie of omission (Romney is using this same lie now) is his statements about Saddam not letting the UN inspectors in. But he got away with that because in the past Saddam had prevented UN inspectors in so Bush could 'honestly' claim that Saddam would not let the inspectors in, while failing to disclose that Saddam HAD let them in during the runup to the 2003 invasion.