BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS RECAP
posted by reliapundit
The Astute Blogger
The Left - and the MSM they control - have tried to smear Bush from the get-go. Here's a partial listing (originally - on 7/17 - this list was merely a dirty dozen) of the idiotic phony scandals they've trumped up in an attempt to smear our president - even if it means aiding the enemy! This expanded list has been compiled from 7/17-19 with help from my readers.
Here we go:
1 - "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" - The Left/MSM would like you to believe that Bush declared the war in Iraq over. He did not. Bush declared an end to major combat - which was true (Edit - And Bush never said "Mission Accomplished. The Mission Accomplished banner was up for the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln who were ending their lengthy tour & heading home). In the same speech Bush said that the struggle continued, and it was going to be a difficult transition.
QUOTE:
Thank you. Thank you all very much. Admiral Kelly,
Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham
Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in
Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States
and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is
engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. ...
We have difficult work to do in Iraq. We're bringing
order to parts of that country that remain dangerous.
We're pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime who
will be held to account for their crimes. ... We are
helping to rebuild Iraq where the dictator built palaces
for himself instead of hospitals and schools. And we will
stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a
government of, by and for the Iraqi people. The
transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time,
but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay
until our work is done and then we will leave and we will
leave behind a free Iraq. The battle of Iraq is one
victory in a war on terror that began on September the
11th, 2001 and still goes on.
2 - "PLAME NAME GAME" - Judith Miller is in jail. Rove is cooperating, and released all reporters he spoke to so they can testify, (yet STILL somehow all this is about Rove!?). BOTTOM-LINE: Plame was NOT covert (as defined by the I.I.P.A.), and therefore could not be "outed". As John Tierney of The NYTIMES wrote: this is NADAGATE. There is no there there.
3 - "MEMOGATE" - In a concerted effort to spring an "October Surprise", members of the the Left/MSM manufactured and used FAKE documents to try to prove that Bush did not serve honorably when he was part of the Texas Air National Guard. They did this RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION. Texan Dan Rather lost his job; Bush got re-hired. Nuff said.
4 - "ABU GHRAIB" - the Left/MSM portrayed these limited number of disgusting events perpetrated by a few sickos at a prison in Baghdad as pervasive crimes which were the fault of Rumsfeld, Gonzales and Bush. The fact is that months before the disgusting events/photos became public (through the efforts of the perps defense attorneys and a MSM that hungers for anti-Bush stuff SO MUCH, they'll publicize anything - even if it aids the enemy!) the Pentagon was investigating. Now they are prosecuting and punishing the perps.
5 - "NIGER YELLOWCAKE AND THE SOTU" - Bush never said the words "Niger" or "Yellowcake" in the 2003 SOTU. (What he said was:
“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein
recently sought significant quantities of uranium from
Africa.”
- and the Brits still stand behind this intel. Wilson LIED about how he got the assignment and what he reported about his mission. And he did this RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION - and election in which he was an advisor and contributor to Kerry. The real scandal is that the MSM has allowed Wilson to LIE AND LIE AND LIE OVER AND OVER without one network or major newspaper once calling him out on it. COULD IT BE THAT THEY'RE BIASED!?
6 - "BUSH LIED" ABOUT WMD - The USA and every other major nation had the same intel (and even Clinton believed it). In addition, The Deulfer Report concluded that Saddam was in violation of the UNSC #1441 - and had WMD assets which were banned - Saddam's stockpiles (those he had ion 1991, and MIGHT have made between 1993-2003) were never found. NEVERTHELESS, because Saddam was in violation of all the UNSC's and UNSC #114, a casus belli existed.
7 - "ENRON/Kenny Boy Lay" - the crimes were actually committed on Clinton's watch and prosecuted on Bush's. Yet the Left/MSM blames Bush. This is generally true of ALL the corporate scandals of late (Arthur Andersen/Worldcomm/etc): the crimes were committed under the noses of Clinton & Rubin - who get none of the blame for them from the Left/MSM. Bush - who does get blamed - is actually punishing the crooks and fixing the problems by reforming the markets.
8 - "CHENEY'S SECRET ENERGY TASK FORCE" - The Left/MSM claimed that the Veep had no right to meet with anyone in private - especially not anyone in the energy industry. The Left claimed Cheney was a tool of the industry. The Left did what they love most: dragged it into the COURTS! The Left lost their legal battle, and Bush passed a sweeping Energy Bill - WITH BIPARTISAN SUPPORT. Yawn.
9 - "'IRAQ IS A DIVERSION' BY DICK CLARKE" - Disgruntled bureaucrat, Dick Clarke claimed that Bush could have stopped 9/11 - and claimed that a "Presidential Daily Briefing" in August would prove this; however, the PDB contained NO ACTIONABLE INTEL. Clarke further claimed that Iraq was not involved in terror since 1993 - or cooperating with al Qaeda. BOTH WRONG! In fact, the Clinton Administration had proof of Saddam/al Qaeda operational cooperation, and we have discovered more proof at GITMO. BONUS BOGUS CLAIM: Clarke LIED when he testifed that stepped up counter-terror efforts were the reason the Millennium Attack failed.
10 - "HUMVEE-GATE" - An intellectually dishonest reporter for the Left-wing dominated MSM planted a question/questioner during a miltary townhall meeting Rumsfeld held in Kuwait. At the time the army had not yet reto-fitted armor on to all their 15,000 Humvees; it does take time.
FACT: the Humvee was NEVER intended as an ARMORED PERSONNEL CARRIER; the Humvee is merely the "new" Jeep.
FACT: The enemy always attempts to attack at your weak-points. For a limited amount of time, the Humvees were a weak point. We fixed that, and the enemy moved on to other soft-targets. That's the way war is; it was not a scandal - except in the minds of the Left/MSM.
NOW: Retro-fitted/armored Humvees are having other problems.
11 - "AL QAQQAGATE / NYTROGATE" - Just before the election, the LEFT/MSM AGAIN rushed out a phony story about a weapons depot supposedly looted after we took control of Iraq. The whole story was BS.
12 - "GITMOGATE" - Amnesty International calls GITMO a gulag; Durbin upped the ante and followed suit - comparing it both a gulag and a NAZI concentration camp and a Pol Pot "killing field". SHEESH! Durbin cries as he apologizes; (he should have been censured!). The Left/MSM blames Gonzales and Rumsfeld and Bush. A congressional Delegation investigates, and finds GITMO is nearly a country club on their visit - the NYTIMES; they buried it on page 15!
MAYBE MARTHA STEWART SHOULD HAVE SERVED THERE!?
The Pentagon investigated the specific FBI report Durbin misused, and found that it cannot be corroberated.
(13) "TURKEYGATE" - that supposedly plastic turkey Bush held up on his surprise visit to Iraq - THAT TURNED OUT TO BE REAL! This attempt at smearing Bush proved that the Left - and the MSM they still dominate - will stoop to any depth, tell any lie, deny any truth in order to hurt Bush - even if it helps the enemy. They are shameless.
(14) "LANCETGATE" - that bogus statistical study which claimed to prove that the USA killed 100,000 civilians in the Iraq War (released just days prior to the election). This study was thoroughly debunked. (Civilan casualties were probably between 4,000-8,000.)
(15a) "KRUGMANGATE" - the Left (led by deranged NYTIMES columnist Paul Krugman) railed that the Bush tax cuts would drive the economy into a depression. WRONG. The USA economy leads the world and deficits are shrinking again. We could call this "HOOVERGATE" (15b) - because the Left kept charging over and over again that Bush was the first president since Hoover to lose jobs on his watch. Of course, by the time the election took place, that was no longer true: the nation was plus 1.5 million jobs, and the job growth has continued and the economy is doing GREAT! Of course, you won't read that much about it in the MSM!
16 - "FUNERALGATE" - this (courtesy of John Cole of Balloon Juice) - is the phony scandal that Bush was somehow being a bad leader (and/or disingeuous) because he wasn't attending any funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq.
17 - "PATRIOT-ACT-GATE" - remember how the Lefties cried and cried and cried about how it was, in effect, a repeal of the Bill of Rights!? They were completely overboard and outta control on that. Today, they cannot name ONE citizen who's had their Rights denied. Yet despite that, they - the ACLU especially - have intervened again and again on behalf of the sworn enemies of America and liberty - making it more difficult for us to prosecute the enemy and to gather intel on them. And now, the Left is trying to weaken it as it goes through re-enactment.
18 - "LOOTED BAGHDAD MUSEUM-GATE" - remember how the Left, and the MSM they dominate, railed and railed about how Rumsfeld and the US miltiary had idiotically left the Baghdad Art Musem unprotected and thus has allowed masssive looting of its ancient art treasures (they called it "cultural vandlaism" and they meant that WE were the vandals, and NOT the enemy!), REMEBER!? Well: THAT WAS PHONY TOO! Most of the treasures were hidden - or stolen by insiders.
19 - "Bush first said he'd fire any leaker; now he's not saying that; therefore, Bush is moving the goal-posts-GATE" - here is what Bush initially said regarding leaks within his administration:
Let me just say something about leaks in Washington.
There are too many leaks of classified information in
Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch;
there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too
many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration,
I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated
law, the person will be taken care of.
This statement, due to the miracle of spin and the President's habit of using imprecise language while speaking extemporaneously, has transmogrified into 'I will fire anyone in my administration who talked about Valerie Plame.'
Of course, that is truly NOT what he said, and NOT what he meant. This FACT hasn't stopped the Left - (folks like John Podesta and the fat senior Senator from Massachusetts, Teddy Jo Kopechne) - and the MSM they still dominate, from LYING and distorting it to suit their narrow partisan ends. Anyone who has the slightest regard for the truth knows that the claim that Bush is moving the goal-posts to protect his cronies is completely BOGUS.
20 - "KORANGATE" - This is the one in which our military was supposedly deliberately effing with copies of the Koran in order to upset prisoners at GITMO. Only it turned out that most of the Koran abuse - like the toilet-flushing - was NOT by US soldiers, but by the prisoners themselves.
21 - "FLU-SHOT-GATE" - In 2004 (and just before the election), because of a production problem, a major plant couldn't deliver the the flu vaccine to the DHHS. The Left blamed Bush. Kerry/Edwards even ran ads about it! Well, there was no wave of flu-related deaths, were there!? In fact, flu-season came and went RATHER MILDLY! I guess the Left and the MSM just made a mountain out of a mole-hill - or should we say that they TRIED to make a scandal out of THIN AIR, and FAILED! I wonder why!? Could it be .... LEFT-WING BIAS?! Naw, ya tink!?
We should also always remember one of the most annoying and non-productive characteristics of the folks that make these Left-wing smears: even after they've been disproved, the Left-wing talking heads still repeat them over and over and over again. I think their employing the BIG LIE THEORY in practice; they think if the say it often enough people will believe that they're true. And the sad fact is, that because so many people limit their news intake to the MSM or the NYTimes, they have NO IDEA WHAT THEY'RE MISSING: the truth!
And, the MSM cannot get away with using the excuse that they're just INCOMPETENT. After all, nearly ALL the mistakes always benefit either the Left or our enemies in the GWOT. That's NOT incompetence; that's bias verging on treason.
IF I WERE INCLINED TO HELP THE LEFT/MSM, I'D RECOMMEND THAT INSTEAD OF TRYING TO SMEAR BUSH WITH PHONY SCANDALS, THAT THE LEFT PROPOSE SOME COUNTER-POLICIES FOR THE GWOT AND THE ECONOMY AND ON OTHER DOMESTIC ISSUES. Not that it would work: The Left's policies are as bad as their phony scandals! Heh.
And I'd recommend to the MSM that they cover the news; there's a lot happening out there, and it's pathetic that they miss most of it! They miss the REAL news because they're too busy trumping up phony news to hurt Bush.
[ANNOUNCMENT: If you folks out there have more Bogus Bush Scandals (or better links to the ones I've mentioned), let me know in the comments section; (please provide a link to new bogus scandals, if you can). I'll post the best of the additional BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS right here on the front page!] (UPDATE 7/19 - NOTE: this post has been edited and its original layout changed slightly for greater clarity.)
(all relevant links can be found here)
astuteblogger.blogspot.com |
