When Presidents Lie

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Thursday August 18, 2005 · 9:24 AM PDT

2005/08/18 · 09:24

Think Progress takes a little trip back in time today to find Karl Rove pontificating on the subject of presidential lies and apologies in 1998. They make the point that Rove hasn't apologized for his lies in the Plame case, which is true.

But when the Republicans got the long knives out after Bill Clinton, first they said it was about the money. Ill-gotten gains and influence peddling and all that, the kind of thing many Republicans do every day as a matter of their basic life strategy. When that didn't pan out they said it was about the sex. Then a bunch of them were caught having affairs that far surpassed anything Clinton did (which doesn't excuse what Clinton did, but still). Then they finally settled, famously, on this: "It's not about the sex. It's about the lying." And they impeached him for it.

Well, okay fine, but here's the thing.
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I Know Who's Talking to the Washington Post

Dr Tom More

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Saturday August 13, 2005 · 10:51 PM PDT

2005/08/13 · 22:51

I try to keep a fairly close eye on the emergence of boilerplate, new clichés, or verbal tics like when "impacted" came to mean "had an impact on," or when everyone suddenly started saying "make no mistake" or "at the end of the day."

It's possible that I've just missed this one, but something struck me about the WaPo story that quoted the "senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion." Has the verb "absorb" in a transfigurative sense become one of these "dynamic" buzz words, or is it a verbal peculiarity of one man in particular? Read More

Amnesty Multinational

Dr Tom More

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Saturday August 13, 2005 · 10:36 AM PDT

2005/08/13 · 10:36

I was away from my desk yesterday, so I missed this WaPo article from Peter Baker:

At his meeting with his war cabinet yesterday, Bush reviewed the latest developments but reported no new direction. The administration has set up seven interagency groups focused on its main priorities in Iraq.

These are providing security and training Iraqi forces, building national political institutions, restoring energy and other services, tackling economic problems, establishing rule of law, enlisting international help, and improving strategic communications.

In not-for-attribution comments, some administration officials acknowledge the uphill task. One option that will have to be considered eventually, they say, is amnesty that would forgive even insurgents who have participated in violence. Historically, they note, insurgencies end with some form of amnesty.

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