Posted on 06/26/2002 11:30:37 AM PDT by Quilla
Did reporter Ron Suskind make up the titillating quotes by Andy Card (in which he called Karl Rove "a beast" and said that with Karen Hughes gone "the balance of what has worked up to now for George Bush, is gone, simply gone") that attracted so much attention in the July issue of Esquire? The Bush administration sure wants you to think so.
After the article came out, White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett said Suskind has a "hyperactive imagination" and that his story was "not an accurate representation of this White House." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer added, "We laughed, and we dismissed the article. In fact, we're taking up a collection to buy the author a tape recorder." Even Card himself went on the offensive, telling MSNBC, "I viewed this story as more fiction than nonfiction." Yet neither Card nor the White House has cited a single specific instance where Card was misquoted. Asked point-blank by FOX's Tony Snow, "Did you say it?" Card was ridiculously evasive: "You know, if you start playing that game, Tony--you know, 'Is the sky up or down or around or through?' No, my job is to make sure the White House works well for the president."
Similarly, on PBS's "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Card told Margaret Warner, "You shouldn't presume that all quotes that are in a magazine or a newspaper are accurate." But when Warner pressed Card on which quotes in the Esquire story were inaccurate, Card dodged again. "Well, if I were to go back and forth over every alleged quote in that article, it wouldn't be appropriate," Card said. "The important thing is the White House is working very well." And this week, when Card told The New York Times that "some [of the Esquire quotes] were taken out of context, some I said, and some I don't think I said," he again declined to detail which ones were which.
Sadly, the White House's effort to impugn Suskind's story without actually contradicting anything in it seems to be working. Newspaper articles referring to Card's interview with Suskind often note, as The New York Times did, that Card "was quoted" as saying something in the Esquire piece, not merely that he "said" it. Even Warner, in her PBS interview with Card, read him quotes that "it's alleged you said." Since when did an undisputed quote become an allegation?
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