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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (520939)	1/7/2004 3:20:17 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769668

My references are Bush's own words in his own speeches and his own remarks. That's not good enough for ya? How come?

To: JakeStraw who wrote (520939)	1/7/2004 3:40:22 PM
From: PartyTime	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769668

washingtonpost.com query.nytimes.com >>>"As Bush leads the nation toward a confrontation with Iraq and his party into battle in midterm elections, his rhetoric has taken some flights of fancy in recent weeks. Statements on subjects ranging from the economy to Iraq suggest that a president who won election underscoring Al Gore's knack for distortions and exaggerations has been guilty of a few himself." LINK Among Milbank's examples: Bush's warning that "that Iraq has a growing fleet of unmanned aircraft that could be used 'for missions targeting the United States;'" his citing "a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the Iraqis were 'six months away from developing a weapon;'" his statement that "objections by a labor union to having customs officials wear radiation detectors has the potential to delay the policy 'for a long period of time;'" and his repeated assertion on terrorism insurance that "'[t]here's over $15 billion of construction projects which are on hold, which aren't going forward — which means there's over 300,000 jobs that would be in place, or soon to be in place, that aren't in place.'" The administration reaction in the piece reads thusly: "The White House, while acknowledging that on one occasion the president was 'imprecise,' said it stands by his words. 'The president's statements are well documented and supported by the facts,' Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said. 'We reject any allegation to the contrary.'" Now, far be it for The Note to put itself between Mr. Milbank — who, as suggested, gets props for being one of the few White House reporters to not be intimidated — and the administration, but … We received a call this morning from a senior Administration official who felt so strongly about the Milbank story that he 1) made some remarks about Milbank himself, and 2) spent time going through the alleged misstatements one by one. Before we get to those, we should say that it is clear that the president HAS made some misstatements for which he has not seemed to pay a price in terms of credibility — first and foremost his "trifecta" assertion, in which he claims that during the campaign he told voters that he wouldn't dip into Social Security or run a deficit except in case of a war, a recession, or a national emergency.<<< more.abcnews.go.com