The Nonexistent Credibility of Bush & Co.

During Congressional hearings held on the mafia some forty to fifty years ago the most common response by mafia types being questioned was invoking the fifth. Thanks to the 'leadership' emanating from the White House, a line of questioning might lead to a more nonsensical line of defense these days:

Congressman: Did you kill One-armed Sonny on July 31 on order from Mafia boss Corleone?

Hitman (after hesitating, consulting his lawyers, and pausing): I don't recall.

Congressman: Let's take this step by step. You were seen by two witnesses. You still had your gun when you left the building. The five bullets that hit One-armed Sonny came from your gun. You had blood on your jacket. You have agreed to testify in exchange for leniency. So I ask again, just the first part of the question: did you kill One-armed Sonny?

Hitman (same drama as before): I have no memory of causing his death.


Welcome to the era of the hazy memory defense.

Scooter Libby has hazy memory.

Karl Rove has hazy memory.

Alberto Gonzales has hazy memory.

Donald Rumsfeld has hazy memory.

Gonzales and Rumsfeld are also somewhat adept at playing rope-a-dope, which is simply filling their alloted time with nonsense and bullshit as they evades proper and legal questions from Congress. They won't even give a straight answer to the press.

Cheney is now attempting the hazy memory defense.

Dan Froomkin of White House Watch (in a column called "Cheney's Unmistakable Admission") has this post on our ethically-challenged Vice President:

In an interview yesterday, CNN's Larry King asked Vice President Cheney if he dispatched Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to a Washington hospital room to pressure a sedated John Ashcroft, then attorney general, to approve surveillance techniques that Ashcroft's subordinates had concluded were illegal.

Cheney's response?

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't recall -- . . . I don't recall that I gave instructions to that effect.

"Q That would be something you would recall.

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: I would think so. But certainly I was involved because I was a big advocate of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, and had been responsible and working . . . to get it to the President for approval. By the time this occurred, it had already been approved about 12 times by the Department of Justice. There was nothing new about it.

"Q So you didn't send them to get permission.

"THE VICE PRESIDENT: I don't recall that I was the one who sent them to the hospital."

Have you ever heard such a non-denial denial? Seriously: Can anyone reading this see it as anything but an admission that Gonzales and Card (then White House counsel and chief of staff, respectively) were following Cheney's orders?

He doesn't remember sending them to the hospital. Well, what does he remember?

Froomkin has a good summary of the events and issues involved. His post is a reminder that bloggers need to summarize events more often as more facts are uncovered and as more bamboozlement and distractions comes from the Bush Administration and their enablers in the media. The noise machine that seems to be about 90% of the function of the White House these days spends a great deal of time denying events while deliberately compounding and confusing the issues at the same time. Make no mistake. At this late date, we have no reason to trust Bush and Cheney's claims. Congress needs to take a hard look at everything these two are doing and have done. The fact that our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is still hanging on to his job tells us that we have a serious problem and that the problem is higher up.



Update: See Dan Froomkin's latest column on Thursday ("Karl Rove's Immunity")