Friday, August 21, 2009
Liars The Lot Of Them
It seems like every week or two another kernel comes to light about the brazen disregard for the law, dangerous views, and pompous decision-making that went on during the Bush administration. I've never made any secret of my lack of respect for Bush. The man was (and is) an idiot whose inability to articulate himself off the cuff in any coherant way, plus his ridiculous commitment to never admitting he could ever be wrong, when it couldn't be more clear he was, proved that. 
Much to our country's detriment, Bush surrounded himself with even more dangerous people... intelligent men with dangerous views. You can't argue that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and to a lesser degree, John Ashcroft, ran the show while Bush was in office.
Today's new info was former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge's 
assertion in a new book that he was pressured by other members of Bush's Cabinet to raise the nation's terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election. Ridge says he objected to raising the security level despite the urgings of former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and then-Attorney General Ashcroft, when no evidence existed to raise it, other than to scare the public into voting for Bush again. Well, it worked!
I'm not sure Tom Ridge is blameless here. Maybe he's just trying to distance himself from the sinking ship. But I certainly believe these men had no misgivings at all about their decision to raise the level for no other reason than an election.
It's just really sad that this, and so many other decisions, were made during those eight years that, I'm sure these men would claim, were done for the country's best interest. I just don't think you should have to so knowingly and boldly lie to the public in order to 'win.' If you are so sure you are right why do you have to lie to get there?
