Digby offers a key reminder to all of us: “In the midst of all the excitement over the GOP congress’s under-age cyberstalking, I hope that we don’t lose sight of the other white meat — Woodward’s astonishing revelations in his new book ‘State of Denial.'”
It’s an important point. At least as far as public relations is concerned, perhaps no one is more thrilled by the Mark Foley predator-gate scandal than the president and his top aides because the timing is unusually fortuitous — it’s stepping all over Bob Woodward’s devastating revelations.
For example, Iraq war commander Gen. John Abizaid told two retired generals in 2005, “We’ve got to get the [f***] out.” In March 2006, Abizaid visited Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and “indicated he wanted to speak frankly. According to Murtha, Abizaid raised his hand for emphasis, held his thumb and forefinger a quarter of an inch from each other and said, ‘We’re that far apart.'” That’s about the same Republicans and the rest of the far-right was smearing Murtha as a terrorist sympathizer for recommending a redeployment plan.
For that matter, the book characterizes Donald Rumsfeld, whom Bush has refused to fire, as “an arrogant, indecisive bumbler who won’t take responsibility for his mistakes — or even admit any.”
Slate’s John Dickerson put it:
The book paints the administration as clueless, dishonest, and dysfunctional. The behind-the-scenes anecdotes are irresistible. Laura Bush telling her husband he should fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Vice President Cheney pushing aides to call the chief weapons inspector in the middle of the night with coordinates for a site in Syria that might have those elusive weapons. Secret White House visits by Henry Kissinger. Bush having to tell Rumsfeld to return Condoleezza Rice’s calls. Memos describing Rumsfeld’s “rubber glove syndrome” — he didn’t want to leave fingerprints on decisions.
State of Denial is a significant blow to the president both politically and strategically. Politically it comes after the 9/11 anniversary restored some of Bush’s popularity and improved voters’ feelings about his administration’s competency…. As a policy matter, the book undermines Bush’s attempts to strengthen the national will for the long and drawn-out fight ahead…. [Woodward] charges the president has not been straight with the American people about how bad things are in Iraq and how much worse it’s going to get.
Indeed, on 60 Minutes last night, Woodward all but called Bush a liar.
I’d encourage readers to check the video, but this small portion of the transcript helps highlight the problem.
WOODWARD: It is the oldest story in the coverage of government, the failure to tell the truth.
WALLACE: When you say the Bush administration has not told the truth about Iraq, what do you mean?
Mr. WOODWARD: I think probably the prominent, most prominent example is the level of violence.
(Footage of Iraqis fighting in the streets)
WALLACE: (Voiceover) Not just the growing sectarian violence, Sunnis against Shias that gets reported every day…but attacks on US, Iraqi and allied forces. Woodward says that’s the most important measure of violence in Iraq, and he unearthed this graph, classified secret, that shows those attacks have increased dramatically over the last three years.
Mr. WOODWARD: Getting to the point now where there are eight, 900 attacks a week. That’s more than 100 a day. Four attacks an hour, attacking our forces.
WALLACE: (Voiceover) Woodward says the government had kept this trend secret for years before finally declassifying the graph just three weeks ago. And Woodward accuses President Bush and the Pentagon of making false claims of progress in Iraq, claims contradicted by facts that are being kept secret. For example, Woodward says an intelligence report classified secret from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concluded that “The Sunni Arab insurgency is gaining strength and increasing capacity despite political progress.” And “Insurgents retain the capabilities to increase the level of violence through next year.” But just two days later, a public Defense Department report said just the opposite: “violent action will begin to wane in early 2007.”
What are we supposed to make of that?
Mr. WOODWARD: The truth is that the assessment by the intelligence experts is that next year–now, next year’s 2007–is going to get worse, and in public you have the president and you have the Pentagon saying, `Oh, no, things are going to get better.’ Now, there’s public and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one’s supposed to know. Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they’re doing. They know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn’t know? The American public.
WALLACE: President Bush says over and over, as Iraqi forces stand up, US forces will stand down. The number of Iraqis in uniform today, I understand, is up to 300,000?
Mr. WOODWARD: And they’ve stood up from essentially zero to 300,000. This is the military and the police.
WALLACE: But US forces are not standing down. The attacks keep coming.
WALLACE: They’ve stood up and up and up and we haven’t stood down, and it’s worse.
And how did Woodward go from stenographer to reporter again? Kevin Drum makes the compelling case that he didn’t — his stenography simply reflects an establishment that is fed up with Bush’s dangerous incompetence.
Foley is a major scandal, but let’s not forget that revelations from “State of Denial” are too.