Bush will divulge secrets — so long as it’s self serving

March 2, 2006

Dan Froomkin raised a good point today about the White House response to the new Katrina video.

Apparently as a rejoinder to the new video, the White House yesterday suddenly sent around a transcript that it previously said didn’t exist, from a conference call on the following day. It includes a second-hand account of Bush’s activities from Michael Brown, the Bush-appointed FEMA director who later resigned in disgrace, describing the president as engaged, watching TV and asking questions.

What a remarkable coincidence. A damaging video is released about the president’s handling of the Katrina crisis, and whaddaya know, a transcript that the White House went to great lengths to hide suddenly appears and is released to the national media.

As Mike “Brownie” Brown said yesterday, “Everybody has been looking for that transcript.” Everybody, that is, but the Bush gang, which was holding onto it for a politically opportune moment.

This is a part of the video controversy that might get — indeed, is getting — lost in the shuffle. The White House had this transcript but refused to share it with Congress. For months, the Bush gang and their lawyers said it would irresponsible to release the transcript because it contained confidential discussions between the president and his advisors. It would set an awful precedent, the White House said, to share it with anyone because presidential aides need to know that their conversations with Bush are private. If transcripts were available, even to Congress, the president might not get the advice he needs.

It was a principle that the White House clung to — until yesterday when it all flew out the window. The transcript that had to be hidden away was suddenly faxed to Newsweek, without a moment’s hesitation. As Jane Hamsher put it:

Once again, the White House proves that when Congress asks for documents for the purposes of a legitimate investigation — well, that’s just beyond the pale, executive privilege, national security, blah blah blah, fill in the blank. But leaking those very same documents to spin the press in a convenient moment of CYA, or if something needs to be declassified as part of a larger PR smear campaign, well that’s just fine and dandy.

We’re dealing with people of principle. Weak, malleable, and easily discarded principles.

Is anyone going to be influenced by a second-hand account from Heckuvajob Brownie that Bush was engaged, watching TV and asking questions?

What TV was he watching? I hear the Simpsons is popular, and better than the Bill of Rights.

What questions was he asking? Is D’oh! a question or an answer?

And then we have the emails that show Brown was more concerned with his dinner and his shirt than the unfolding disaster.

So if this is the best the White House can come up with, I anticipate lower approval ratings for Helluvajob Bush.

  • Brownie’s second hand account was curious in its heavy handed mentioning of the quality and quantity of Bushes questions.
    Sounds like a scripted patch supplied to Brownie when someone on Bush’s staff realizing that the initial video could be damaging.

  • Well said, CB. What we have here is a[nother] specific and documented case of the sadministration actually lying to Congress. How can Congress now trust any of the “investigations” it has performed where it has requested documents from the White House? How can the 9/11 Commission stand behind its own work now knowing that this sadministration has no problem lying about the existence of documents? Everything and anything done in the past has a huge taint to it, especially now. And this also on top of the news that Bush was specifically informed prior to his speeches inthe runnup to the war that the aluminum tubes were probably not for nuclear use purposes. When will the American voting public WTFU?

  • What I find surprising — although i really shouldn’t be surprised by anything this administration does– about the transcript is the spin. The WH is using this to show how engaged the president was, how he was actually asking questions. This makes the administration’s response even more appalling. If the President was engaged then how is it possible that the response was that bad? This is mind-boggling. Nevermind how frightening it is that the administration has to release a transcript of a second briefing to show that yes the president sometimes asks questions and can occasioanlly show interest something, which in this case turned out to be a hurricane that basically destory a city and will become the most expensive natural distance in this nation’s history. What I can’t figure out is why he even wanted to be president in the first place. I guess all of us at some point in our lives have taken jobs just because thats what came along.

  • describing the president as engaged, watching TV and asking questions

    I’ll bet he’s always engaged when he watches TV. They don’t call it the “boob tube” for nothing. I’d like to think it was Rocky and Bullwinkle, because he might at least have soaked up some culture while he was watching, but it was more likely the Flintstones. That would explain where he gets his ideas about evolution.

  • President Forrest Dump has united the arabs and moslems against America. Now he is finally uniting
    America    , against him. In sports “piling on” is considered very unsportsman like. Fortunately, this isn’t sports. I say the more the merrier. He looked like a whipped dog at the embassy opening from Afghanistan which PBS showed a part of. We’ve almost become use to a new scandal every week from the Shrub administration. It’s become more of a contest watching to see which stories get filtered out by the Bush sympathetic media. An easy way to remember, the Bush administration spent twice as much on spin and propaganda as they did on port security.

  • Once again the Bush administration proves its callous disregard for the well-being of the nation’s citizens. It’s a disgrace that they are not held accountable for their malfeasance by their Republican colleagues in Congress who seem to believe party loyality is more important than the well-being of the nation and its citizens.

    They make a mockery of America’s previously long-held democratic principles. Is this the type of “democracy” they want to export to other countries?

    They know that they can lie and be dishonest without repercussions. So much for their “morals and integrity”–they don’t have any!!

  • How come thousands of innocent people keep dying on Bush’s “watch”?

    He’s “watching” the people of this country like a mother who “watches” her young kids by leaving them in a car with the windows closed on a hot summer day for an hour or two.

    It’s time for responsible people to start writing their papers to ask for editorials questioning the administration’s work in light of this video, and to write to their Senators to demand some action against this fool.

  • A civil war erupting in Iraq, Katrina, and 9/11. How much does one dumbass from Texas have to screw up before the Republicans will impeach him? The cost has been pretty damn high so far.

  • Are the 29-33% of polled people who still support this lying incompetent twit just willfully ignorant of what is going on in this country? How can ANYONE support someone like this? i worry that there is nothing this administration cant get away with. Does bush have to get caught on video doing lines in the oval office before anyone realizes what is going on? Watching that little room with bushie in it, and his absolute lack of curiousity for an event of such magnitude is just disgusting. This guy really doesnt give a shit about the people of new orleans. Maybe Kanye West was right when he said GB doesnt care about black people. I mean, if its true that they were fully prepared, then it follows that they wanted to see most of new orleans exterminated by natural disaster. They couldnt have done much less, given the warning they had, or it would have been outright criminal, and as it is, its already borderline criminal. This looks a lot what people go to jail for, and its called negligent homicide, or manslaughter. There is no excuse any more for having a president who is asleep at the wheel. Either he is an outright liar, or he is an outright dimwit. There is no inbetween anymore, however, the two oddly enough arent mututally exclusive. I cannot for the life of me believe this is where our country now sits…what the hell happened ???

  • G2000 brought up Shrub in the oval office. Probably sitting there watching cartoons waiting for Laura to bring him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Karl and Dick will come by and make sure the secret service aren’t allowing George to get any hard candies or pretzels. Has Uncle Dick allowed George to ride his bicycle since he put the British policeman out of work for 14 weeks. He knew he wasn’t supposed to try to talk and wave while riding. It’s a good thing George wasn’t chewing gum too or we could have had an international incident.

  • You know, I think it’s a good thing that this has come out – Proves that El Presidente and I share a common trait: We both nod off in meetings.

    Then again, there’s the matter of the president hosting folks like Enron’s leadership, etc… That’s just sickening.

    Mark my words, the valiant Islamic Insurgents will wreak their vengeance upon our major cities.

  • What is the definition of instant gratification? I don’t know, but this is the best thing I’ve seen in a while. Some one at ThinkProgress had it up.

    Bush in freefall

  • Bogieville or bogie, whichever you are today, what do you think of El Presidud and his poll numbers? I’m not 100% sure but I think it was the vice president, the one that can think but is evil, that hosted the folks from Enron and the oil companies. Bubble boy George isn’t part of that loop. He only signs after the deal has been worked out for him. He doesn’t have time for details. Karl and Dick gave Laura money to take George for a happy meal. The reason Bush didn’t ask many questions at the pre-Katrina briefing was because Condi wasn’t there for him to ask if he can have a bathroom break.

  • Americans of all political stripes need to be writing this guy to ask for some accountability, and Dems must lead the way. This guy has been given the ball, and he keeps dropping it. Guess what happens when he drops it?

    That the video shows a briefing about the levees breaking is absolutely appalling- because of what else it doesn’t show. Where was the “And if the levees break, we’re going to. . . ” or the, “Mr. President, I want to make sure I’ve personally made you aware that the levees protecting the city may break, and that means that. . . ” For Christ’s sake, we didn’t even hear someone ask, “Well what happens exactly if the levees break? What should we do to be prepared?” Instead: dead silence. A “let’s just hope nothing comes up that we have to haul ass to take care of” attitude. And all this while so many regular people were in imminent peril of their lives.

    I hope all Dems will wake up tommorrow and wonder, “Have we allowed the Republicans to give us a complex that is keeping us from accomplishing our objectives?” And once Dems think that over, I hope they’ll start treating this news with the kind of response it deserves, and really start speaking out about it. The president owes it to America to tell us what was going on in his head about this one.

  • Swan, this is exactly why the businesses he ran all turned to shit. He’s a moron. He doesnt really know what to do, he’s not curious, and for the most part, he’s passing the time til he can drinking (pre Bornagain) or biking (post bornagain) Same thing, different day, era. He avoids anything that requires thought. That display on video is like what you see when you realize youve joined the management team at the wrong firm, and noone knows what they are doing, and they all just nod and hope that the other guy is going to be responsible, but we can clearly see now that this is a group of little boys, and not a one who has any of the power has a clue what they are doing. How much more of this inanity do we need to see in order to realize that we are adrift with noone at the helm. This is why all the good people at CIA are leaving, at FEMA have already left, etc. Its because they realized along time ago this is a sinking ship, and its best not to be a part of such an “organization” (and i use that term very loosely)

  • Get a load of this yahoo headline from 9:30 pm: “New Video Shows Blanco Saying Levees Safe”

    And then look at the actual quote: “We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video. “We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060303/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_video

    Since when is “I think we have not breached the levee at this time” the same as “the levees are safe”??

  • So long as the Democrat Party is held hostage by the Lunatic LEFT, their senior politicians will be unable to achieve executive office or be able to govern should a miracle grant their unearned desires. Dwelling in an Alternate, Optional UnReality is not demonstrating a capacity to recognize the benefits and costs of potential policy options. The perpetual reassurrance of each other that President Bush is a dullard, a constant, mind-numbing theme on these threaded discussions, consumes electrons while advancing no departures from the present course of our national politics. He is NOT a fool. His “gentleman’s ‘c’ average” was marginally superior to Senator Kerry’s GPA, and Senator Kerry was the best the Democrat Party had to offer in 2004. President Bush has a Master’s Degree (MBA) from Harvard. Former Vice President Gore never completed his advanced degree studies in the Divinity School or the Law School, both of which he attended at Vanderbilt University, a noted Party School in the Old South. Why he never finished either course of study is never discussed, and we all know why. Mr. Gore was the very best that the Democrat Party had to offer the Nation in 2000. The record shows that Mr. Bush is a man with a superior education to his two opponents competing in two Presidential Suffrages.

    Now can we discuss policies and operational initiatives, actual and proposed. Such as: How will President H. R. Clinton deal with a Middle East saturated with a well-founded distrust of any proposals she may table to keep those oil tankers steaming through the Straits Of Hormuz? Arabs and Persians have long memories and they cherish their animosities. This is a topic that needs to be aired prior to the Democrat Convention in 2008.

  • That’s real funny if the press is going to try to play fast and loose w/ that Blanco video, because if Bush was being briefed on the 28th, on video, that the levees might break, shouldn’t his people have let the Gov. know that somehow???

    Very ridiculous indeed that this story gets tagged w/ the headline it gets tagged w/. Somebody should tell them to take that headline down.

  • “Swan” suggests that Governor Blanco needs a Federal Daddy to guide her through the fens, bayous, and bogs of Louisiana Politics. We witness once again the yearning to infantilize the Democrat Party, withdrawing it as an organization worthy of notice. Respect, alas, was withdrawn in Florida during Mr. Gore’s petulant attempt at a slow-motion coup d’etat.

  • Junior will never be held accountable. He hasn’t been (caught) getting blow-jobs in the Oval Office.

  • Oh, no, no, no… I wasn’t referring to a vice president… altho one may likely have been present… I was referring to a president… A fellow named Clinton…

    And I can guarantee you that I am a different Bogie – it seems that my favorite nickname has already been assumed within this space.

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