Sexual secrets
Leaks, secret prisons just the latest signs of a major disconnect with the American people.
The disconnect between reality and what passes for policy in the Bush administration widens every day. So, too, in a corresponding way, does the gap between those who trust the administration and those who do not.
An AP-Ipsos poll released Friday revealed that nearly six out of 10 Americans do not think President Bush is honest and the same percentage do not think his administration has high ethical standards.
The poll found that the same 60 percent or so who don't trust Bush also disapprove of his handling of the war in Iraq. It is by far the most problematic issue Americans have with their president, and rightly so. Of all the actions a president takes, going to war is the most serious and demands the most trust of those who will be asked to sacrifice.
Bush abused that trust from the beginning with what turned out to be faulty if not outright false justifications for starting the war. He has never acknowledged that. In fact, he continues to defend the invasion of Iraq, if with different justifications at different times. And his administration continues to behave in a way that suggests it believes it can do anything it wants as long as it is part of the war on terrorism, which, thanks to the botched U.S. rebuilding effort, has come to include the war in Iraq.
The latest example is the controversy over a report of secret prisons overseas that the CIA uses to torture or otherwise mistreat prisoners in ways that are illegal in the United States as well as under the Geneva Conventions. Bush did not confirm or deny the story in the Washington Post.
What he did do last week was order ethics classes for everyone in the White House in response to the indictment of "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Talk about horses and barn doors. Libby was charged in connection with the leaking of the identity of a covert CIA agent to the press, presumably to get even for the agent's husband writing an article for The New York Times. In it, he refuted Bush's claim in the lead-up to the war that Iraq was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Bush's own chief political operative, Karl Rove, is still under investigation for this leak and, presumably, taking ethics classes.
Last week's leak controversy was no different. While Bush remained mum on the secret prisons, his main water carriers in Congress, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, rushed to call for an investigation – not of the existence of the prisons and whether they were used for torture, but to find out who leaked the information.
Asked if he was concerned about what went on in U.S. detention centers, Frist bruskly declared, "I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that." No, Frist, who entertains fantasies of running for president, is more concerned with finding out who blew the whistle.
Most Americans, fortunately, do not feel the same way. As the recent poll shows, they are weary of hearing the war on terrorism used to excuse every immoral, amoral or illegal activity the administration thinks of to wage the war. Having lost confidence with the president's ability to fight the war in Iraq, it is not surprising that a majority of Americans would also question his capacity to fight other wars, even, or especially, the war on terrorism, which they recognize is crucial. And more especially, when they do not think they can trust him or his aides.
In 2000, running with the memory of the sex scandal in which Bill Clinton mired his presidency, George W. Bush said he would return "honor and integrity" in the White House. Outing CIA agents. Mandatory ethics classes. Secret CIA prisons. Insisting on the right to torture prisoners.
This is cache, read story here
The disconnect between reality and what passes for policy in the Bush administration widens every day. So, too, in a corresponding way, does the gap between those who trust the administration and those who do not.
An AP-Ipsos poll released Friday revealed that nearly six out of 10 Americans do not think President Bush is honest and the same percentage do not think his administration has high ethical standards.
The poll found that the same 60 percent or so who don't trust Bush also disapprove of his handling of the war in Iraq. It is by far the most problematic issue Americans have with their president, and rightly so. Of all the actions a president takes, going to war is the most serious and demands the most trust of those who will be asked to sacrifice.
Bush abused that trust from the beginning with what turned out to be faulty if not outright false justifications for starting the war. He has never acknowledged that. In fact, he continues to defend the invasion of Iraq, if with different justifications at different times. And his administration continues to behave in a way that suggests it believes it can do anything it wants as long as it is part of the war on terrorism, which, thanks to the botched U.S. rebuilding effort, has come to include the war in Iraq.
The latest example is the controversy over a report of secret prisons overseas that the CIA uses to torture or otherwise mistreat prisoners in ways that are illegal in the United States as well as under the Geneva Conventions. Bush did not confirm or deny the story in the Washington Post.
What he did do last week was order ethics classes for everyone in the White House in response to the indictment of "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Talk about horses and barn doors. Libby was charged in connection with the leaking of the identity of a covert CIA agent to the press, presumably to get even for the agent's husband writing an article for The New York Times. In it, he refuted Bush's claim in the lead-up to the war that Iraq was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Bush's own chief political operative, Karl Rove, is still under investigation for this leak and, presumably, taking ethics classes.
Last week's leak controversy was no different. While Bush remained mum on the secret prisons, his main water carriers in Congress, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, rushed to call for an investigation – not of the existence of the prisons and whether they were used for torture, but to find out who leaked the information.
Asked if he was concerned about what went on in U.S. detention centers, Frist bruskly declared, "I am not concerned about what goes on and I'm not going to comment about the nature of that." No, Frist, who entertains fantasies of running for president, is more concerned with finding out who blew the whistle.
Most Americans, fortunately, do not feel the same way. As the recent poll shows, they are weary of hearing the war on terrorism used to excuse every immoral, amoral or illegal activity the administration thinks of to wage the war. Having lost confidence with the president's ability to fight the war in Iraq, it is not surprising that a majority of Americans would also question his capacity to fight other wars, even, or especially, the war on terrorism, which they recognize is crucial. And more especially, when they do not think they can trust him or his aides.
In 2000, running with the memory of the sex scandal in which Bill Clinton mired his presidency, George W. Bush said he would return "honor and integrity" in the White House. Outing CIA agents. Mandatory ethics classes. Secret CIA prisons. Insisting on the right to torture prisoners.
This is cache, read story here
