David Corn, the Nation

The Washington Post ^ | 12/17/2003 | Godfrey Hodgson

[Leitrim]

Trust Buster

By Godfrey Hodgson,

THE LIES OF GEORGE W. BUSH

Mastering the Politics of Deception

By David Corn

Crown. 337 pp. $24

George Washington, at least according to Parson Weems, never told a lie. Subsequent presidents, as David Corn admits, have not always lived up to his standard. In a rich gallery of examples, we remember Lyndon Johnson (the Gulf of Tonkin), Richard Nixon ("I am not a crook"), Ronald Reagan ("I did not trade arms for hostages"), George H.W. Bush ("Read my lips: no new taxes") and, of course, Bill Clinton ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman").

It is Corn's contention, however, that George W. Bush not only knows how to lie but has done it on a grander scale, deliberately, systematically and to good effect, ever since he entered politics, and before that, too. "George Bush is a liar," he begins. "He has lied large and small. He has lied directly and by omission. He has misstated facts, knowingly or not. He has misled. He has broken promises, been unfaithful to political vows. Through his campaign for the presidency and his first years in the White House, he has mugged the truth -- not merely in honest error, but deliberately, consistently, and repeatedly to advance his career and his agenda."

Corn alleges that between his (unsuccessful) campaign for Congress in 1978 and his campaign for governor of Texas in 1994, Bush changed his position on abortion from "pro-choice" to "pro-life"; that he claimed to have been in the Air Force when he was in the Texas Air National Guard; and that he lied about an arrest for drunken driving. Corn also contends that in the 2000 South Carolina primary, Bush allowed his staff, if he did not order them, to put about the crudest calumnies about his dangerous rival, Sen. John McCain. He maintains, too, that the president did not speak the truth when he said he did not meet Kenneth Lay (of Enron) until after 1994, when records (so Corn says) show that Bush's oil venture company, Spectrum 7, was a partner with an Enron subsidiary in Texas in 1986.

Corn, the Washington editor of the Nation, makes no pretense of political impartiality. This is a fierce polemic, but it is based on an immense amount of research. In my judgment it does present a serious case for the president's partisans to answer in relation to both domestic and foreign policy, a case that ought to be in voters' minds when they cast their ballots in the 2004 presidential election.

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[sinkspur]

Yeah. But Morford and Justin Raimondo are fags, a target-rich environment for sure.

[cyncooper]

I also notice that Corn points to the most famous, if one of the most trite, of Clinton's lies.

I wonder what Corn makes of "There were two John Huangs" that visited the White House, for one example that springs easily to my mind of a bald-faced lie told during that era.

[gcruse]

Oh, I gotcha. LOL If David Corn was queer,
posting his stuff would be okay. Surprised I
didn't think of that.

[Snuffington]

Corn is the "thinking man's" Michael Moore. Complicated by the fact that those of that ilk aren't quite known for thought. But he avoids baseball caps and displays a panty-waist instead of a beer-gut, and that's distinction enough for that crowd.

[Lizavetta]

Spare us your selective outrage, Mr. Corn.

Where was your dislike of lies during the 90's when Thing 1 and Thing 2 were in the White House?

[cwb]

The libs know they have only one way to defeat Bush...and that is to make him into liar. It's been going on since the beginning of his term. They also know that since they can't match Bush or the Republican's on national security issues, they have to claim that Bush lied about those issues related to national security. The Democrats have pretty much conceded that they can't match the Republicans in this arena (thanks to their loons)...so now, they have to show that Bush lied about the threat to make it irrelevant. Good luck.

[MJY1288]

David Corn has an advantage when it comes to talking sh!t. He has no upper lip, so it flows out of his mouth much easier :-)

[Dane]

The Washington Post reviewer obviously swallowed this outrageously distorted POS pack of lies

And this is supposed to be surprising by the Wash Compost, how?

[Mo1]

David Corn is a complete Loon .. which explains why the far left love him

[Lancey Howard]

How do you counteract a biased book review?

I think I heard of this David Corn before, and I know I have seen that pretty little communist who runs the Nation magazine (Katrina von-something) on TV.

Other than that, these people are fairly irrelevant. My suggestion? Continue to ignore them.

[MJY1288]

David Corn looks a bit like those big eared little trolls on Deep Space Nine, I believe they call themselves "Feringee's" :-)