Who’s Lying? Any doubts that Democrats would try to use the Iraq war against George W. Bush were erased late last week with the release of two ads accusing the president of lying. The first comes from the left-wing activist group Move On (founded during the Clinton impeachment to defend a president who lied), and the second from the Democratic National Committee. Both ads are designed to capitalize on revelations that forged documents suggesting Saddam Hussein sought uranium from Niger contributed to one of the president’s claims in the State of the Union address. And both ads make the same subtle point: Bush lied!
The ads are similar. Let’s look at the one from the DNC:
In his State of the Union address, George W. Bush told us of an imminent threat.
PRESIDENT BUSH: “Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” [2003 State of the Union]
America took him at his word.
But now we find out that it wasn’t true.
Far worse, the Administration knew it wasn’t true.
This dramatic political rhetoric is complicated by one minor detail: It isn’t true.
Start with the first claim. Did George W. Bush tell us of an imminent threat? Not quite. Instead, he directly challenged those–primarily Democrats–who wanted to wait until a threat from Iraq was imminent. Said Bush: “Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option.”
The DNC edits President Bush’s next statement to suggest that he is saying something he never intended to say. Here is the claim in its entirety: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
As Cliff May asked in a devastating column on National Review Online last week: “Precisely which part of that statement isn’t true? The British government did say that it believed Saddam had sought African uranium.” And, not insignificantly, the British government stands by that analysis today. What’s more, CIA director George Tenet admitted Friday that the agency screwed up in its vetting of the president’s speech last January.
Having failed to establish that President Bush lied, the DNC ad compounds its whopper by claiming the “administration knew it wasn’t true.” Knew what wasn’t true? Neither the DNC ad nor the Moveon.org ad refers to the forged Niger documents–indeed, that nation is never mentioned.
False allegation after false allegation, and the ad crescendos with this priceless line: “It’s time to tell the truth.”
Good advice.
The Gephardt Five
And now, an election-cycle koan: If a Democratic presidential frontrunner falls into obscurity, and nobody’s there to hear him, does he make a sound? Apparently, he does–the sound of less than ten hands clapping. That’s the bad news for Richard Gephardt. According to the Drudge Report, Gephardt fans on Meetup.com–the Internet rallying point that helps people get together with others who share their obsessions–had to scotch their Washington, D.C., “Gephardt in 2004” meeting when fewer than five people signed up.
Nationwide, it doesn’t get much better. Despite Gephardt’s stirring tributes to the Corporate Subsidy Reform Commission Act and his played-to-the-hilt unveiling of daughter Chrissy as a lesbian, Meetup boasts only 305 “Gephardt Supporters Worldwide.” For some perspective, consider that Howard Dean has 60,616 and John Kerry has 5,698. Wesley Clark, who hasn’t even decided if he’s running, or if he’s a Democrat, has 4,261. Even no-hoper Dennis Kucinich has 1,084.
For additional perspective, consider that more people on Meetup were excited about getting together to chat about beekeeping (5) than about getting together for Gephardt in D.C., a place where Gephardt has spent the bulk of his adult life, to help him realize his presidential ambitions. Worldwide, Gephardt did outpoint “Adult Fans of Legos” (305 to 182). But he lost to soapmakers (576) as well as to dumpster divers (317).
Free advice from THE SCRAPBOOK: If Gephardt ever intends to play catch-up on the Internet, he might want to start planting organizers within the record-buying ranks of Insane Clown Posse fans. Their Meetup enthusiasts like to “discuss the wild antics of Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J. as well as the Era of the Sixth with fellow juggalos and juggalettes.” We have no idea what “the Era of the Sixth” or a “juggalette” is–but Gephardt had better start learning if he ever wants to catch Howard Dean.
No Roman Holiday
Say what you will about the cooled relations between the United States and Germany over the last year–at least we didn’t resort to making Nazi references or invoking beer-bellied stereotypes. Which is exactly what Italy has done, sparking a refreshingly new intra-European rift.
It all started two weeks ago when Italy’s prime minister Silvio Berlusconi compared a German member of the European parliament (which Berlusconi currently heads) to a concentration camp guard. Then the minister for tourism, Stefano Stefani, was quoted in a newspaper as saying Germans “have been indoctrinated to feel first in the class” and that they “noisily invade our beaches” and take part in “belching competitions after drinking enormous amounts of beer and stuffing themselves with [french fries].”
It wasn’t the most business savvy thing to say, considering that 10 million Germans visit Italy each year. At first, Stefani refused to back down, but last Friday it was announced that he had offered his resignation and even said “I love Germany.” We’re not sure Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is buying into this, however, since he has yet to change his current travel plans–rather than go on a scheduled family outing to sunny central Italy, he has chosen to remain in Germany, vacationing in sunny central . . . Hanover.
No word as to whether or not he’ll be taking part in the belching competition.
Harvard Nixes the Valedictorian
Two weeks ago, Jonathan V. Last reported in these pages on the case of Blair Hornstine, the Moorestown, N.J., valedictorian who sued her high school for $2.7 million when the administration tried to name a co-valedictorian to share the award with her (First in Her Class, July 7 / July 14). Hornstine had won a court injunction, which kept her as the sole valedictorian, and the damages portion of her trial is still pending. But last Friday there was a development that won’t be a surprise to readers of Last’s article: The Harvard-bound super student is Harvard-bound no longer.
The July 11 Harvard Crimson reports that the school has revoked its offer of admission because of five plagiarized essays that Hornstine wrote for a local newspaper. Steven Kudatzky, an attorney for Hornstine who had called the charges of plagiarism against his client “another example of Blair being singled out and victimized,” could not be reached by the Crimson for comment on Friday. Neither could any of her other attorneys.
