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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[Leitrim]

Pardon my syntax. This is my first posting in a long while. The Washington Post reviewer obviously swallowed this outrageously distorted POS pack of lies. How can scum like David Corn getpublished? How do you counteract a biased book review?

[DaBroasta]

How can scum like David Corn getpublished

Corn is often found where there's crap.

[MJY1288]

Corn stays the same from the time you swallow it till the time you flush it. No matter how Corn is digested, it ends up in sh*t

[MJY1288]

BTW, did you know that the DNC is helping those who are willing to write a book that trashes George W. Bush?

Just as they have purchased thousands of Hillary's book

[Bluntpoint]

[MJY1288]

ROFLMAO, No wonder there isn't anyone in line :-)

[what's up]

LOL! How did you get that graphic so fast?

[Libertarianize the GOP]

There is a difference between a lie, a broken campaign promise and a difference in terminology.

[Bluntpoint]

Google and a sick, inquiring mind.

[Petronski]

George H.W. Bush ("Read my lips: no new taxes")

Sorry David, that's not a lie. It's a broken promise. One might expect a published author to distinguish the two.

[Petronski]

The only question remaining is whether this book, being sh!t, will float in the toilet bowl, or unlike all other sh!t, actually sink to the bottom.

[Bob J]

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[Bullish]

David Corn's eyes have always appeared slightly downs syndrome looking to me.

[NonValueAdded]

And the reason we're posting this on FR is?

[Viking2002]

David Corn is a lipless lizard who never met a fact he couldn't spin into total fantasy.

[what's up]

David Corn is one of those nastiest of nasty leftists. I, for one, don't mind knowing what he's up to.

[gcruse]

And the reason we're posting this on FR is?

Because it is from a legitimate news source?
And because it all we ever posted was pro-Bush
Bot-pablum, the forum wouldn't be any more
engaging than Teletubbies?

[sinkspur]

But it sucks, cruse. Not even you defend a panty-wearing weasel like David Corn, do you?

[cyncooper]

Corn is lying about Bush lying.

[gcruse]

For God's sake, Sink, Morford gets posted every column he puts out. It's always a lively thread. Without targets, FReepers will just pick on each other, or wander off.