They’re still creating their own reality

February 6, 2006

The frustrating part of watching today’s hearings on Bush’s warrantless-search program is how little reality seems to matter. Over the last seven weeks or so, various legal and policy arguments about Bush’s domestic surveillance have been offered as part of a defense. Some are questionable, some are in dubious gray areas, and some are just wrong.

The odd part is hearing senators repeat the ones that have already been debunked, as if they’re unaware of the inaccuracies, or just not terribly concerned either way.

I’ve lost count, for example, of how many GOP senators have defended the administration for briefing members of Congress on the program. The truth is the non-partisan Congressional Research Service has said these briefings were inadequate and possibly illegal. For that matter, these are also the same briefings in which lawmakers’ concerns were ignored. Republican spin notwithstanding, there was no oversight, and the “briefings” were little more than cursory, incomplete notifications to a handful lawmakers whose concerns were rendered irrelevant. Clearly, Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee know all of this. Why do they pretend otherwise? I have to assume it’s because they don’t care.

Similarly, I’ve also lost count of how many GOP senators have insisted that Clinton did the same thing Bush has done. It’s seems to be a particular favorite of Orrin Hatch. Of course the truth is, the surveillance the Republicans keep referring to was done before FISA was changed to cover physical searches in 1995. Clinton supported the change, signed the updated law, and followed it. Clearly, Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee know all of this and realize why the comparison doesn’t make any sense. Why do they pretend otherwise? I have to assume because they don’t care.

The whole point of debunking something is to highlight its inaccuracies. Whether someone apologizes for their mistake or corrects the record is up to them, but at a minimum, bogus talking points shouldn’t repeated ad nauseum as legitimate arguments. It’s just embarrassing. And the fact that most of the Senate Judiciary Committee seems wholly unconcerned about the accuracy of these talking points is just stunning.

It’s been nearly a year and a half since Ron Suskind published his seminal NYT article that gave birth to the phrase “reality-based community,” in which a senior advisor to the president said:

“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

It’s a sentiment that apparently has broad appeal within the president’s party.

Assuming, as is usually the case, that little in the way of the house and senate composition changes through the next two elections, all this twisting of reality continues, and no one is every really accountable. The 08 presidential elections come along, and in typically idiotic fashion, the populace again sticks its head in the sand and votes Republican, for someone who in all likeliness is one of the same ilk as the Republican Senators who are caving in to every whim of the administration. How then do we make progres, and more importantly, how many more year’s until we are no longer living under a Democracy? How far do we have to go down this slope before we wake up and realize what is lost? Im feeling more and more pessimistic about the future with every one of these “hearings”, which really are shams for the most part.

  • Go with what works, I guess. As long as 59 million ignorant bedwetters who do not really care about the truth (great values, huh) the GOP is going to stick with the gameplan. It is really remarkable, and telling about what our Nation has become, when our Senators and Representatives continue to mouth the lies. The term Banana Republic is an apt description, but we don’t really grow many bananas here. Cookoo Bananas, yes.

  • The question I want asked and answered under oath:

    Were any communications for any the following people ever investigated through this program:

    John Kerry
    John Edwards
    Hillary Clinton
    Wesley Clark
    Paul Krugman
    Marcos Moulitsas
    Duncan Black
    Molly Ivins
    Jon Stewert
    and a few other names could be added

  • The purpose of these hearings, whether it was the original intent or not, is to create such a barrage of noise that the issue becomes inscrutable to the median voter. So, nothing new, and I suspect this about as much as we can expect from Washington, on any issue of importance, for the forseeable future.

  • Y’know, I’ve always wondered about these “other new realities”. It seems to me that something similar happend in the comic book world and eventually, someone DID have to sort them out.

    I think we may see many politicians disappear inexplicably when the Crisis of Infinite Realities comes to a head.

  • The “reality” that the senior advisor to the president mentions is actually a “lie”. In other words, we will tell a lie, you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it and finally figure out that it is a lie, but by the time you do, we’ve moved on to another lie. And you will study it …

    Or, they will just continue telling the same lie over and over again until it becomes the truth.

    I think the only way to deal with this is to treat these people is to treat them like a puppy that is just being potty trained. From what I understand, the only way you can teach a puppy not to piddle on the rug, is to stick his nose in it as soon as he does it. If you wait too long, the puppy doesn’t understand the reason that his nose is being shoved into his piddle and thus does not learn the lesson.

    Like the puppy, the lier has to have his lie proven as a lie as soon as he says it, or else he will never understand that he has lied. And that means not just telling the lier that he has lied but also backing up that statement with proof of the lie. This requires a lot of preparation when talking with these people to ensure that any lies they tell can be debunked immediately.

    Until we are capable of doing this, I’m afraid that we will never be able to get in front of all the lies that these people are spewing.

  • You say “It’s just embarrassing”, but it’s not embarrassing if you’ve moved beyond embarrassment, as today’s Republican Party has. If someone stands up and asks “Have you left no sense of decency?”, the answer will be an unembarrassed “Decency is for losers.”

  • It is not that they don’t care. They are hoping no one notices. Given the lameness of the mainstream this strategy will likely work.

  • I still think we should be standing around the Capitol, thousands of us. No signs, nothing except a quiet presence and a quiet, unending chant: Shame! shame! shame! Over and over again.

  • It’s so sad that it’s come to this. I’m not talking about the Republican (or Democratic) scum … I’m talking about “The Fourth Estate” and its failure to report anything beyond the Bush line.

    I always have to come to TCR to get – not only point of view, but the basic, balanced story itself.

    While I’m on this, why haven’t they reported on the January 2003 Bush-Blair meeting at White House, at least to deny their collusion leading us into war? It was in The Guardian and on Britain’s Channel 4 last Friday. Still no MSM here.

  • We cannot rely on these hearings to make the truth clear. What will the Republican majority DO if they conclude Bush’s actions were illegal anyway? Would they impeach him? I don’t think so. Would they censure him? I don’t think so. The 2006 elections MIGHT make a difference, but the hearings are being held right now.

    I think we’ll have to wait for the ACLU lawsuit trial to get to the truth and for justice to prevail. It’s a matter of Constitutional law, probably not for Congress to decide.

  • of the non-reality issues being perpetrated by the Bush administration at least until Nov 06, and most likely until Nov 08, which is really depressing. The Democrats cannot get their act together and be more forceful. The political niceties get in the way of them making enough ruckus at a hearing to get any mainstream news coverage. Without some serious fact based temper tantrums on the part of the dems, this hearing and all others will just blow away like a frickin tumbleweed, and no one will give a damn. That there are so many factual errors and so much faulty logic being tossed around as if it were true and deductive is just sickening. How can these people stand being made fools of??? What a bunch of pussies. There, I said it.

  • g2000-” Bunch of Pussies ” …the BOP Democrats verses the GOP.
    One side ruled by fear and the other rules with fear.
    Sounds like a sicko domestic violence dynamic.
    We live in strange times.

  • I wonder if these guys realize they are making themselves irrelevant? Do they figure to give away their resposnibilities now and get them back when the Dems get control? They are acting like doormats.

  • It seems far to late in the day to be “stunned.” My awakening occurred during the Paul Wellstone funeral–all these talking heads on every show on every cable channel repeating ad nauseum that incredible things happened at the funeral, then I watch all four or five hours of it on C-span and none of it ever happened. Or how about the Swift boat campaign? The endless lies pre and post Iraq? Every time Republicans open their mouths none of it is true. So what else is new?

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