"People Just Need to Hear the Truth"

Which is why...


He won't be testifying.

Today's NY Times:

The White House notes that making misrepresentations to Congress is illegal, even if no oath is taken. But that seems to be where the lack of a transcript comes in. It would be hard to prove what Mr. Rove and others said if no official record existed.

The White House also put an unacceptable condition on the documents it would make available, by excluding e-mail messages within the White House. Mr. Bush’s overall strategy seems clear: to stop Congress from learning what went on within the White House, which may well be where the key decisions to fire the attorneys were made.

The White House argued that presidential advisers rarely testify before Congress, but that is simply not true. Many of President Clinton’s high-ranking advisers, including his White House counsels and deputy chief of staff, testified about Whitewater, allegations of campaign finance abuses and other matters.

The Bush administration is trying to hide behind the doctrine of “executive privilege.” That term does not appear in the Constitution; the best Mr. Bush could do yesterday was a stammering reference to the separate branches of government. When presidents have tried to invoke this privilege, the courts have been skeptical. President Richard Nixon tried to withhold the Watergate tapes, but a unanimous Supreme Court ruled against him.

It is no great surprise that top officials of this administration believe they do not need to testify before Congress. This is an administration that has shown over and over that it does not believe that the laws apply to it, and that it does not respect its co-equal branches of government. Congress should subpoena Mr. Rove and the others, and question them under oath, in public. If Congress has more questions, they should be recalled.

That would not be “partisanship,” as Mr. Bush wants Americans to believe. It would be Congress doing its job by holding the president and his team accountable — a rare thing in the last six years.

TBogg sums up Bush's performance pretty well:

One thing that is fascinating about George Bush is how little he has grown in office. No, that's not right. It's not that he hasn't grown, he has gotten smaller; less Presidential, more sad little man watching his paper boat circle the drain. After six years of playing The Decider he should at least have a thin candy shell of gravitas as opposed to coming across like one of those guys on Peoples Court who not only has an unshakable belief that people won't see through his bullshit, but that no one will notice his artful comb-over either.

As bad a president as George W. Bush has been...he is a worse person and it shows whenever he is under pressure; he melts down into a greasy little puddle of glares and smirks and incipient panic. But tonight was special. Tonights performance lays to rest any notion other than the fact that he's not a very bright man who has nothing but contempt for a world that refuses to dumb down for him.

Sadly, however, Bush isn't performing for the larger audience, but for his ever shrinking and now pretty much just what's left CORE SUPPORTERS.

The 30-percenters don't want effectiveness as in good government, they want Lord Pissy Pants, they get off on petulance and imperiousness. This is the group that cheers when Bush kicks out anyone who doesn't smile at his vapid countenance; the group that buys Bush Dolls in the flightsuit and rubs it against their genitals. This is the group that fantasizes about Bush appearing in a faux military outfit at a public square where all 30,000 1,826 of them can scream "Booo-che, Booo-che, Booo-che".

A classic example of how Bush being a petulant and imperious little knob is a turn on can be seen in this post yesterday from the ever-reliably insipid K-Lo who in four paragraphs goes from dispair to cheering...must be seen to experience disbelief.

This is the group to which Bush is playing. He likes being an ass, but most of all he likes being cheered for being an ass.