{"id":2006,"date":"2005-11-11T21:06:04","date_gmt":"2005-11-12T01:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.test.bradblog.com\/?p=2006"},"modified":"2005-11-11T21:06:04","modified_gmt":"2005-11-12T01:06:04","slug":"last-ditch-talking-point-of-the-moment-rewriting-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=2006","title":{"rendered":"Last-Ditch Talking Point of the Moment: Rewriting History."},"content":{"rendered":"

In today’s Veterans’ Day speech<\/a>, Bush attempted to send the latest Talking Points out to his troops. Not the ones that fight, the ones that talk. Judging from Carol Platt Liebau’s latest<\/a> at HuffPo, the message was received from Dear Leader and is even now being delivered to whoever is left to buy it.<\/p>\n

Here was “the message”:<\/p>\n

While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.<\/div>\n

In other words, after years of questioning the patriotism of those who criticized his decision or the conduct of the war, he’ll give up on that battle as long as we all stay away from the one point that is likely to bring the entire house of cards crumbling down, namely; How the war began. Or more aptly, how he<\/i> began it.<\/p>\n

It is, of course, the latest last-ditch effort (and there have been plenty of late) to save his Presidency. And of course, the way to do that…is to blame everybody else.<\/p>\n

So who is actually<\/i> the one rewriting history today? Bush (and Liebau and the other dead-enders) mislead yet again by claiming “More than 100 Democrats in the House and Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to remove Saddam Hussein from power.”<\/p>\n

Setting aside that those Democrats didn’t<\/i> have “access to the same intelligence” that Bush did, Atrios helpfully points up Bush’s condensed re-written history<\/a> on that “vote to remove Saddam Hussein from power.” We condense Atrios’ work still further…<\/p>\n

Bush today:<\/a><\/p>\n
“It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how the war began…More than 100 Democrats in the House and Senate who had access to the same intelligence voted to remove Saddam Hussein from power,” the president said.<\/div>\n

\nBush, 10\/1\/2002:<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course, I haven’t made up my mind we’re going to war with Iraq.<\/div>\n

\nBush, 10\/14\/2002<\/a> (two days after the “Iraq War Resolution”):<\/p>\n

I am very firm in my desire to make sure that Saddam is disarmed. Hopefully, we can do this peacefully.<\/div>\n

\nMcClellan, 11\/2\/2002:<\/a><\/p>\n

This is about disarmament and this is a final opportunity for Saddam Hussein to disarm. … the President continues to seek a peaceful resolution. War is a last resort.<\/div>\n

\nBush, 11\/7\/2002: <\/a><\/p>\n

Hopefully, we can do this peacefully — don’t get me wrong. And if the world were to collectively come together to do so, and to put pressure on Saddam Hussein and convince him to disarm, there’s a chance he may decide to do that. … And war is not my first choice<\/div>\n

\nThe “Iraq War Resolution” gave him the authority. It was not a vote to “remove Saddam Hussein from power” as Bush made clear at the time.<\/div>\n

Got that? Good. Now let the next<\/i> last-ditch Talking Point commence…bring it on.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/b> Josh Marshall drops an elegantly concise case<\/a> on Bush’s latest “Rewritten History” gambit and his now-lost causes gone astray. It begins this way:<\/p>\n

What a sorry, sorry, unfortunate president — caught in his lies, his half-truths, his reckless disregard … caught with, well … caught with time. Time has finally caught up to him. And now he doesn’t have the popularity to beat back all the people trying to call him to account.<\/div>\n

…And ends this way:<\/p>\n

In any case, he must sense now that he’s blowing into a fierce wind. The judgement of history hangs over this guy like a sharp, heavy knife. His desperation betrays him. He knows it too.<\/div>\n

Go read the middle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In today’s Veterans’ Day speech, Bush attempted to send the latest Talking Points out to his troops. Not the ones that fight, the ones that talk. Judging from Carol Platt Liebau’s latest at HuffPo, the message was received from Dear Leader and is even now being delivered to whoever is left to buy it. Here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","bb-type-bradblog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=2006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}