January 06, 2004
WHOPPER? AT BEST IT'S A FISHAMAJIG:
Whopper: Laura Bush: The first lady lies in order to make the president look ... stupid? (Timothy Noah, Jan. 5, 2004, Slate)
Q: Now, who could have written that poem, huh? I mean, what ...A: Well, of course, he didn't really write the poem. But a lot of people really believed that he did. That evening at the dinner, what some woman from across the table said: "You just don't know how great it is to have a husband who would write a poem for you."
—Laura Bush on NBC's Meet the Press, Dec. 28, 2003.
Comment. This lie is about an obviously trivial matter, and there's something endearing about the first lady's undisguised pleasure at conning so many people. Still, it is not only a lie, but an entirely gratuitous one—Mrs. Bush's remarks about the joys of reading didn't need the anecdote, and arguably were undermined by its mawkishness. Of particular interest is the apparent aim of Mrs. Bush's hoax. Ordinarily, when a surrogate tries to pass off a fake quotation as a president's actual words, the quotation is meant to make the president sound scholarly, or witty, or lapidary. In this case, though, whatever White House staffer prepared Mrs. Bush's remarks obviously strained to make the president's purported love poem sound sufficiently moronic that no one would doubt Bush had written it. Chatterbox doesn't know what to make of this.
"lie"? "doesn't know what to make of this"? If you happened to catch the C-SPAN broadcast of the event it was not only obvious what she was doing but entirely worthwhile--she was fulfilling a role that is reportedly uniquely hers of poking fun at the "Leader of the Free World", bringing him down a peg, and keeping him humble. While she read the poem he squirmed in his seat and grimaced in obvious embarrassment that someone might actually think him a poem-writer. Similarly, one recalls the story about her greeting the President after his Osama "Dead or Alive" comment and taunting: "Bushie, you gonna git 'im?"
All powerful people, but especially a Commander in Chief of an America at global war, need such a voice telling them: Thou art mortal.
Posted by Orrin Judd at January 6, 2004 11:26 PMFortunately, one of the many wonders of the Internet era is that I need only log on to a political chat in order to be reminded by others that I'm both ignorant and stupid.
Posted by: THX 1138 at January 7, 2004 06:41 AMI remember well the summers of 73 and 74, and all the drama surrounding Watergate, the "Saturday Night Massacre", the new stories nearly every day pointing out new transgressions, the real tension it was producing in the nation.
And then I see b.s. like this Slate thing, with the attempt to pile on to the "Bush lied" non-story, and laugh. Seriously, media, this all you got?
Soon the (P)lame scale of 1-15, how does this new instalment of "Bush Lied" rate?
Posted by: MG at January 7, 2004 07:39 AMThe real problem with people like Timothy Noah is that they believe the right to 'notch' down the President is inherently theirs, especially when he is a Republican. Hence the continuous foolishness of demeaning themselves, while Bush just sails on through life.
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 7, 2004 08:06 AMThe funniest Noah columns these days are his Kurd Sellout Watch columns, which basically come in two varieties: How the stupid, venal Bush administration is about the sellout our long-suffering deserving Kurds allies for at best temporary tactical gain; and how the stupid, venal Bush administrations stumbled into doing right by the Kurds.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 7, 2004 08:51 AMDavid:
What other option ever existed? We weren't going to make an essentially free Kurdistan submit to a new Iraqi Republic, especially since it will be dominated by Shi'ites. How do these guys get columns?
Posted by: oj at January 7, 2004 09:02 AMBecause they still think that he's his father? That's certainly half the reason some Democrats think they have a shot next year.
Posted by: David Cohen at January 7, 2004 10:12 AM