Yes, it’s true that when Dubya was running for governor in 1994, he pledged to never raise the sales tax or create a business tax, and then did both. But that’s a broken promise, not a lie.

Yes, in 2000, the Bush team launched a smear campaign against Sen. McCain, even accusing him of fathering children out of wedlock; and yes, they did something similar to John Kerry in 2004. And yes, Bush said he performed active duty with the Alabama National Guard, although his commanding officer said he never showed up. And yes, a Bush political ad told us he had reduced the growth of government in Texas to its lowest in 40 years, when in fact it rose 34 percent. But that’s campaign rhetoric, not lies.

Yes, in 2000 Dubya told us his budget plan would reduce America’s National Debt, but it has since soared to $7 trillion, which can only be the fault of theose big-spendng Democrats. And Dubya said he was against nation building and foreign military entanglements, yet today we’re deeply involved in both. Hey, s__t happens.

Yes, when Clinton departed in 2001, the Bush team charged his administration with acts of vandalism inside the White House and a GAO investigation proved the accusations false. But confusion occurs during a transfer of power.

Yes, when the Bush tax cut was passed in 2001, Dubya said the bottom end of the economic ladder would get the biggest percentage, though it turned out that the top one percent of America’s wealthiest got the most. But maybe Dubya was talking about mere millionaires rather than billionaires.

Yes, in 2002 Dubya said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that on May 29, 2003, he told a Polish TV audience, “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. For those who say we haven’t … they’re wrong.” And yes, we went to war without letting the UN arms inspectors finish their job and it’s true we ended up not finding any WMD. But the important thing to keep in mind is that it’s far more important to trust the intelligence of other nations than that of your own.

Yes, when the Enron scandal broke in 2002, Dubya said that he first met the company’s chairman, Ken Lay, back in 1994, when he was running for governor. Although the truth is that they had been friends as early as 1986, when the two of them drilled for oil together, it was just a memory slip, not an effort to distance himself from someone who was indicted for fraud and conspiracy.

Yes, it’s true that Dubya’s vice president, Dick Cheney, denied knowing Ambassador Joe Wilson when the Valerie Plame scandal broke around the head of the Bush administration, when all evidence points to the contrary. But gee, politicians meet so many people. Yes, it’s also true that “Scooter” Libby denied having any involvement in disclosing Plame’s CIA connection to the press, and it’s outrageous that he was later indicted by a grand jury, when it was nothing more than a case of male gossip.

And yes, it’s true, Dubya once said, “I am a uniter, not a divider” and that today the nation is in one of its most divisive periods. But you can blame that on all those nasty Democrats.

The list goes on, of course, causing Dubya’s mean-spirited critics to accuse him and his team of being unable to carry a factual sentence from one end of a room to another. Shame on them! And while some may see these and several other instances as a pattern of deception, I would argue that the Bush administration does not a history of feeding us chicken-fried whoppers. It only looks that way.

Jack T - Well, here’s the thing. If you campaign on the idea of bringing integrity and dignity back to the White House, people expect you to actually walk the walk. What did they burn the reporters about??? Oh, yeah, the rationale for that a $500+ Billion War and 2000+ American lives lost (Never mind the number of Iraqi’s lives lost innocent or otherwise). Its kind of a big thing or at least it should be that our executive branch felt the need to manipulate the media in order to convince the public the need to invade another country. Lets remember, for all the power of the press, they are not a coordinated force unlike the WH. The reporters for the NYT aren’t cross checking their info with the reporters on the WASH POST or Tim Russert on NBC. The admin played these guys off each other in order to convince the people there was a need for millitary force. The backlash from doing so is a somewhat skeptical MSM. Make your bed, you lie in it.

On the 24th of November, William Buckley Jr. will celebrate his 80th birthday. The Economist (via The Mote in God’s Eyes, with an amazing post) takes the chance to ponder about the future of the American Conservative Movement and the Republican Party…

Check out this howler from the increasingly-unhinged E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post: He doesn’t want us to remember that…

One of the ways the “Big Lie” is made to work is through a process of endless repetition. Through repeating something over and over again, it is hoped that people — the weaker people, anyway –will eventually be convinced that…

As for Matt A’s explicit statement that the media has been “repeatedly duped and burned” by the Administration and therefore are allowed to behave in an outright partisan manner (with freqeunt lies of ommission) then the debate is over and the media has lost. Even assuming (for purposes of argument only) that the administration DID dupe and burn certain reporters, that in no way provides blanket immunity to the entire media. Guess what, they’ve got their job to do REGARDLESS. Their most basic journalistic obligations (and obligations as Americans) don’t end just because their egos are bruised and feelings are hurt. Unless they are very small, very weak, very vindictive people. Which apparently they are.

Bush does best when he follows the Reagan rule: ignore the media, speak directly to the people.

No sweat, let’s just keep pounding them with the historical record. After reading about Rocky from WV on Fox the other day, the Dems cannot handle the pushback. They will be on the ropes in all areas if we just keep up the pressure.

I know we can. Its the Administration, the Pres, and his handlers about whom I’m concerned. Can THEY go the distance required to counterattack?

UPDATE IV: Oh, God, this is hilarious!

IS BUSH ACTUALLY ISRAELI? When he defends himself, the press says he’s escalating.

Thank you, Glenn! I needed a laugh this morning.

Will they respond in kind when/if his poll numbers rise? E.G. “Bush on the mend.” or “Bush rebounding.”

I won’t hold my breath.

Bush is at long last beginning to fight back against his political opponents in the type of speeches he should have been delivering all along. A sample from his remarks yesterday at Elmendorf AFB:Some of our elected leaders have opposed

37% approval? No problem. On his way to Japan tonight, the president is stopping in Alaska. According to Katie MacGuidwin of the RNC eCampaign, Bush’s speech includes:

The President gave a speech tonight Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska - the speech is a continuation of the same theme that the President has been pushing hard over the last week in response to the lying Democrats in Congress who are tryin…

(See my previous related post here.) … Read the official transcript of President Bush’s speech here. …

President Bush escalated the debate over the Iraq war by hurling back at Democrats the worries they