The Truth about President Bush (7/19/03)
by Dean Hartwell
With a lousy economy, record budget deficits, and the discovery that President Bush’s misled the nation about Iraq buying uranium from Niger, I find it hard to believe he remains popular. Had Bill Clinton presided over such a debacle, he would have had his political head handed to him by now.
Bush campaigned on a pledge to “restore honor and dignity to the White House.” Since he used the statement to pass judgment about President Clinton’s moments of dishonesty, it is only fair to judge Bush by it.
As a candidate, Bush did not always tell the truth. He said in his acceptance speech that two divisions of the Clinton Administration’s army were “not ready for duty.” The army officially denied this charge the following day, according to Sidney Blumenthal in his book, The Clinton Wars.
Bush also lied when he told a campaign reporter that he had never been convicted of anything. He stood by that lie until a few days before the election when another newspaper reporter covered the truth about his driving under the influence conviction many years before.
As the President, he has been no more honest. When the budget deficits started to rise, Bush referred back to a pledge he said he made as a candidate. According to President Bush, Candidate Bush claimed that in his Administration, there would be no budget deficits unless the United States had a recession, war or national emergency. But, there was one big problem: Bush never said that during the campaign. In fact, his opponent, Al Gore, really made the pledge (Washington Post).
In September 2002, Bush addressed the nation and in his speech he said that an International Atomic Energy Agency report stated that Iraq was “six months away from developing a [nuclear] weapon.” However, according to BushLies.net, the report Bush referred to does not exist.
More recently, Bush stated that “we found a biological laboratory in Iraq which the UN prohibited.” Once again, the facts contradict Bush. The mobile trailers discovered there really filled weather balloons (Robert Scheer's Web site - See "Archives").
And now the famous sixteen words that Bush uttered in his State of the Union Address about Iraq buying uranium from Niger. Some have compared this statement to Clinton’s words denying an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
But there is no comparison. The lies Bush has made have been even more damaging than Clinton’s lie. Bush has gone beyond lying to protect himself and his image. He has lied to gain support for a war that, if the truth be acknowledged, never should have been fought. He may avoid impeachment, but he cannot avoid the fact that he has not been an honest president.