Republicans Under Fire

From Carl Bernstein as published in Vanity Fair - click here to read more...

The first fundamental question that needs to be answered by and about the president, the vice president, and their political and national-security aides, from Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleezza Rice, to Karl Rove, to Michael Chertoff, to Colin Powell, to George Tenet, to Paul Wolfowitz, to Andrew Card (and a dozen others), is whether lying, disinformation, misinformation, and manipulation of information have been a basic matter of policy-used to overwhelm dissent; to hide troublesome truths and inconvenient data from the press, public, and Congress; and to defend the president and his actions when he and they have gone awry or utterly failed.

From the Wonkette Blog - click here to visit the site...

Earlier today, President Bush defended Donald Rumsfeld in the following terms : "I hear the voices and I read the front page and I hear the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what's best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

We were struck by this curious turn of phrase: "I'm the decider." In the words of one correspondent: "Not sure I've ever heard an ADULT refer to themselves as the 'DECIDER' before."

We agree. The comment sounded childish to our ears - a return of the "petulant kid" side of Bush's personality (which has been less in evidence since his reelection).

If President Bush wants to stick with this "jungle gym" approach to public communications, Tomato Nation has this helpful glossary of kidspeak. Reviewing it shows that many of the Administration's key initiatives can be explained and analyzed using playground terminology:

Eeny meeny miney moe: Where to strike next?
Iran? North Korea?
Cooties: Jack Abramoff? Who's he?
Do overs: the liberation of Baghdad .
No backsies: support for a guest worker program.