Woodward Nailed the Bush administration tonight

[Must_B_Free]

While you are all so busy bashing Woodward, you may have missed the fact that Larry King asked in so many words are they lying about not deciding on the war plan.

Woodward recited three or four consecutive questions that he asks Bush on the tape, to which Bush answers "Yeah".

He said they are trying to fuzzy thie situation, but it's captured on tape for the court of public opinion.

I see these as the first significant charges against Bush. This is it finally. That was what was communicated on CNN Larry King tonight.

So what are you complaining about?

[wtmusic]

1. I've always thought Woodward would end up

with the most credibility out of the current crop of "whistleblowers".

It would be wonderful if after the WH has been encouraging people to buy the book he just came out and said Georgie was lying, thieving criminal.

[Must_B_Free]

4. Was this a masterfal drawing out of the situation?

It's almost like Bush style multi win ploy isn't it?

First he goes on every talk show in the world and confuses everyone by alluding to something and raising the buss about what is he really saying. He even gets the Bushes cheerleading for the thing. Then a week he pulls the rug out from underneath the whole thing.

he has them nailed like a rat in a trap now. Plus he did the biggest PR campaign for a book ever.

And it's all on tape. He got the talking about baseball and bragging and Bush even called him back to brag some more!

[glarius]

6. Are you kidding? He played the same game after his first book on Bush

In the beginning people thought it was nailing Bush, but after a few Woodward "interviews" on TV, Bush came across as not such a bad guy after all...He's doing the same thing...He just wants to sell books!...He's a phony IMO

[wtmusic]

8. No phony

he just refuses to editorialize. It's amusing that Rove doesn't appear to know what the hell to do with him.

[Must_B_Free]

9. That's just it - exactly

he's not editorializing. for 2 good reasons
1. he's selling the book - hge's saying read the book and see for yourself.
2. it's attempted to be objective material. it's source with conversations on tape.

[glarius]

10. Rove doesn't have to do anything....Woodward by not "editorializing" is

doing no harm to the Bushies....No offence but I still think he's a phony....:)

[bluedog]

11. I agree

I suggest we get the 3 men on Larry King or Russert.Woodward.Powell.and Bandar.to see who the hell is telling the truth........its time to let it all hang out.enough with the "Cat and Mouse Games"

[RafterMan]

14. LOL

Yeah, Larry'll really put the screws to 'em.

It'd be fun to see, though. More spin than a poolhall.

[RafterMan]

13. Not a phoney

I could see the truth in the first Bush book and so could others. Go back and reread it and you'll see the same Bush we all know and hate.

I think most people just didn't want to see those things at that time, so they focused on the good, or interpreted what they saw in a positive light. Given the atmosphere at the time, I don't see any amount of Woodward editorializing changing this.

[glarius]

15. I'm not talking about the book....I mean when he goes on TV and more or

less explains away the uncomplimentary things in the book....I think he's effecting the thinking of the Americans who haven't read and won't read the book....They are in the majority and they are getting their impressions from TV....IMO
This is just my opinion and I could be wrong, but that's how I see it.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Everyone already know Bush is a damn liar.

Woodward didn't bring forward anything new. And Woodward may have one of Bush's many lies on tape but it wasn't under oath, so it doesn't matter. He won't get impeached and kicked out for it. This man gets away with everything! It really pisses me off!

[madmax]

3. Woodward Returns by Eric Alterman

column | Posted April 22, 2004

"STOP THE PRESSES by Eric Alterman
Woodward Returns

Well, Bob Woodward has partially redeemed himself. His last book, Bush at War, read like a superhero comic book mistranslated from its original Serbo-Croatian. Everyone in the Bush Administration was portrayed as they might have wished: brave, steadfast, determined to protect America from evildoerdom, no matter the cost.

Because Colin Powell and his aides evidently decided to tiptoe off the reservation in preparation for their long-overdue departure, the new book, Plan of Attack, has texture. There are conflicts. Not everybody can be right about everything. And while the book does gloss over many of the Administration's most nefarious characteristics--its serial dishonesty with Congress and the media, for instance--the trust Woodward earned with his hagiographic first account put him in good stead to expand our understanding of how these people go about making their catastrophic decisions and then denying them. Here's what I learned:

1. For foreign policy purposes, Dick Cheney is President: Cheney wanted this war from way back when; it was Bush who needed convincing. As Slate's Tim Noah points out, "The closest Woodward comes to showing Bush making a final decision is when Bush pulls Rumsfeld aside in early January 2003 and says, 'Look, we're going to have to do this I'm afraid. I don't see how we're going to get him to a position where he will do something in a manner that's consistent with the UN requirements, and we've got to make an assumption that he will not.'" When the President is not around, Administration officials refer to Cheney as "the Man," as in, "The Man wants this" or "The Man thinks that."

2. That's too bad, because unfortunately Cheney is nuts. As Powell puts it, Cheney was in the grip of a "fever," no longer the "steady, unemotional rock that he had witnessed a dozen years earlier during the run-up to the Gulf War. The vice president was beyond hell-bent for action against Saddam. It was as if nothing else existed." Woodward gives us the backstory: Cheney, confirmed by his equally fevered aide "Scooter" Libby, repeatedly pitched--as he does today--the apparently imaginary meeting between Mohamed Atta and Iraqi intelligence in Prague. Powell/Woodward aptly term this contention "worse than ridiculous." It goes on. "Cheney would take an intercept and say it shows something was happening. No, no, no, Powell or another would say, it shows that somebody talked to somebody else who said something might be happening. A conversation would suggest something might be happening, and Cheney would convert that into a 'We know.'"

More: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20040510&s=alterman

[I_like_chicken]

16. I think the most damning part of the article is this:

6. The United States Constitution is meaningless to these people: The Bush Administration decided to lay out $700 million on a "massive, covert public works program" in Kuwait in 2002, even though, as Woodward aptly notes, they did not inform Congress. This is a violation of Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution, which vests the power of the purse in Congress, along with various statutes that bar the executive from unilaterally moving money out of areas explicitly mandated by spending bills. It is, moreover, an explicit violation of the post-9/11 emergency supplemental bill, which gave the President discretion to direct the $40 billion it appropriated but specifically required him to "consult with the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Committees on Appropriations prior to the transfer" of any funds. There is no evidence of any such consultation, and indeed the White House is not claiming any exists.

I mean if this isnt grounds for impeachment, then we might as well tear up the constitution...oh wait, we already have...

[countmyvote4real]

5. and hardly anybody saw or will see it.

Friday night=low TV viewers.

Of course the WH press “corpses” are aware, but all they will do is "lie" there and perpetuate the Buschco propaganda. I do believe that Truth must eventually come out, but it’s an entirely different thing for it to be seen or even recognized as such.

[acmavm]

7. Three things are going to force these issues to come out. 1.) The draft.

2.) Asking for more money for Iraq. They are trying to dodge this bullet by putting their grubby hands out until January, but people are starting to ask a lot of questions, people in both parties.
3.) A major insurrection in Iraq.

[ethereal]

12. Woodward's Book

Reading it now. It does reveal a lot. However, it also paints our fearless leader as being decisive and in control. One unfortunate effect of the timing of the release of Woodward's book has completely overshadowed John Dean's "Worse than Watergate" which clearly and eloquently lays out a case for impeachment.


John Dean? Where are you? Get thee some more interviews, son!