Thursday, September 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Backstory: The totality of the lies

By Michael Green

Few ever have accused Gov. Kenny Guinn of being a professional writer. That may be wrong. His grasp of irony would inspire a Nobel laureate.

Recently, Guinn joined other Republicans--Rep. Jon Porter and Attorney General Brian Sandoval--to kick off the Bush-Cheney re-election effort for 2004. The other two co-chairs, Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, were absent, presumably preparing for a cage match to decide which of them will run for governor in 2006.

Sandoval, the lead dog in this sled race, feels his campaigning doesn't compromise his duties in suing the federal government over the nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain. You may recall that when Guinn, Ensign and Gibbons backed the same ticket in 2000, they produced a letter in which Bush assured Nevadans that any decision on that subject would be based on "sound science."

Without any significant new scientific evidence, Bush since has chosen Yucca Mountain. That decision could, in theory, present problems for Nevada Republicans. But Guinn said he could get around that because voters should consider "the totality of the man."

Fair enough. Let us consider the totality of George W. Bush.

Almost immediately after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, his administration began demonizing anyone who dared to disagree with his interpretation of reality. That meant accusing anyone who doubted the need for war with Iraq of encouraging terrorism. Or agreed with U.N. inspectors obviously unwilling to find weapons of mass destruction or admit to being lackeys for Saddam Hussein. Or questioned the wisdom of experts who knew Iraqis would welcome us with open arms to guide them to democracy, just like in Florida. Or reminded Bush he derided the Clinton administration for "nation-building."

Since then, Bush finally admitted what everyone but those who want to believe anything he says has known: No evidence exists to link Saddam to Osama bin Laden's bloody work. Once considered a model of rectitude, Secretary of State Colin Powell demonstrated before the United Nations that he fell for Bush's lies or would lie of his own volition. The United States has yet to find weapons and now wants United Nations help, provided the U.N. puts up money and the U.S. has control. And oddly enough, Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton, won numerous contracts for rebuilding Iraq without any formal bidding process.

Meanwhile, Bush--and several of his fellow chickenhawks--spent time in the National Guard avoiding any kind of service, but he sure was willing to try to land a plane on an aircraft carrier so he could be shown declaring the war over. More American soldiers have died in Iraq since that pronouncement than they did beforehand. To those who say their policies are wrong, Bush and his lackey, Condoleeza Rice, claim it's just "revisionist history."

Well, that hits historians where they live. But before historians revised their interpretations of the past, some of my most illustrious predecessors claimed slaves enjoyed slavery and all women wanted to be barefoot and pregnant. Of course, considering how much Bush admires Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who would have felt very comfortable wielding a whip on a pre-Civil War Southern plantation, Bush still may feel that way.

On the domestic front, Bush claimed all would benefit from a tax cut. My tax cut was spent on higher gasoline prices with no basis in economic theory or fact, except how it benefits the oil companies Bush represents. Thanks in part to that tax cut, the budget is no longer balanced. The deficit is in the trillions and the cost of rebuilding Iraq at the expense of needed domestic programs will make the deficit worse.

And I say all this with some fear. What used to be called the "PATRIOT Act" might entitle Attorney General John Ashcroft to think I am a terrorist for doubting his veracity. It's no longer called that, by the way, because Bush's handlers figured out that Americans increasingly associate the PATRIOT Act with their effort to destroy our civil liberties; what matters is selling the product. Given how they have protected his association with energy companies, Dick Cheney appears to be the only American with a right to privacy; the rest of us are too great a threat to truth and honesty to be trusted.

Indeed, that is the key point about otherwise decent men like Guinn, Ensign, Gibbons, Porter and Sandoval. It's too easy to say that since Bush lied about Yucca Mountain, no Nevadan should trust him. "The totality of the man" is that he cannot be trusted on any subject at any time. And to those who think other presidential liars were worse, no one died at the Watergate building or under Bill Clinton's desk; only Lyndon Johnson's lies about Vietnam have approached this kind of deadliness, and at least he tried to do something to help victims of poverty and discrimination. Bush's lies have helped get young Americans killed and increased the wealth of his closest friends for reasons that he has yet to be able to explain without his nose growing.

Some Democrats have whispered the "sound science" letter Nevada Republicans produced from Bush in 2000 never was seen and thus never existed. These men wouldn't lie. They would only live a lie, and campaign for it.