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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Politics / Media Oh, and You Know Who Didn't Catch Osama bin Laden? George Bush

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 1:05 PM

No doubt the Seattle Times editorial board is in the habit of intentionally misleading their readers, but within the broad context of lying op-ed pages it turns out they're not the lyingest liars out there. No, that honor perennially goes to the Wall Street Journal, as epitomized by longtime Republican operative Karl Rove's review today of President Barack Obama's recently released campaign film.

"As for the killing of Osama bin Laden," Rove writes:

Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation. Even President Bill Clinton says in the film "that's the call I would have made." For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are.

Uh-huh. Yeah. I suppose Bill Clinton said those words. Though as Greg Sargent points out over at the Washington Post, taken in context, Clinton clearly didn't mean them as the dis Rove implies. Clinton's full quote:

“He took the harder and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, `I hope that’s the call I would have made.’”

Personally, I hope the call I would always make would be to not selectively quote a person so as to make it appear they said the opposite of what they mean. But then, I'm just some lowly blogger, so what do I know?

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Comments (17) RSS

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Time for another blogger ethics panel!

Posted by Geocrackr on March 22, 2012 at 1:11 PM

Wait a minute, Karl Rove lied? He's usually such a reliable source of information.

Posted by Proteus on March 22, 2012 at 1:27 PM

GWB whiffed it.

Fact.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on March 22, 2012 at 1:38 PM

George Bush's take on the subject of Bin Laden: "I truly am not that concerned about him".

And of course he had him once, at Tora Bora, and let him go.

Posted by Fnarf

on March 22, 2012 at 1:39 PM

Tomorrow, in a special issue of the WSJ, Rupert Murdoch will confront Rove about his lies.

Posted by dirge on March 22, 2012 at 1:49 PM

Karl Rove is still alive??

Huh.

Posted by merry on March 22, 2012 at 1:54 PM

Do the Bushes and bin Ladens still vacation together?

Posted by DOUG.

on March 22, 2012 at 2:01 PM

Because if the Bush League had been able to track and kill bin Laden in, say, October 2004, they wouldn't even have bothered to do it, right? That wouldn't have been something they'd have been "concerned about." It might have distracted from the message of those stupid Wolves ads. Which was, um, oh wait.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on March 22, 2012 at 2:05 PM

Face it Rove, Obama is way more capable and far smarter than any Republican, living or dead. And you just hate that so you lie. But we're not falling for anymore lies out of your clownhole. Bugger off!

Posted by Vince on March 22, 2012 at 2:14 PM

And of course he had him once, at Tora Bora, and let him go.

That could be the teaser line for a great hit Gay Rom/Dram.

God. It writes itself. DIBS!

Posted by tkc on March 22, 2012 at 2:35 PM

@4,

Can't stir up fear if the bogeyman's dead.

Posted by keshmeshi on March 22, 2012 at 2:51 PM

And McCain specifically said he would not do what was done to kill him.

Posted by MikeB on March 22, 2012 at 3:10 PM

@11 is spot on correct.

The GOP thrives on fear and submission to authority (which is much easier in times of war or suspected terrorism).

The GOP not only wanted Bin Laden alive and active, they needed him alive and active.

In an implicit way, the death of Bin Laden may have done more to hurt the republican's chances in the next election than anything else.

Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 22, 2012 at 3:15 PM

What Karl Rove likes to do, and I give him a little kudos for his propaganda, is that he like to go after one of the strong points, or the strong point of his opponent and ties to minimize it or mock it. The whole “Swift Boating” thing of John Kerry was text book Karl Rove. Kerry saved the life of one of his boat mates, got a Silver Star and a Bronze Star, not small feat, (George HW. Bush also got a Silver Star from his combat in the Pacific) Rove had to trash it with all the means he had and he did.

Rove is the master of taking things out of context, and this is an example. He misquotes President Clinton, tries to downplay Obama’s work to find and kill Osama bin Laden, something that George W. Bush stopped doing for years, (even broke up the task force)

If Rove is focusing on it, it should be a wake up call for the Dems. Number one, the GOP and Rove are going to focus on it in their super PAC ads and try to denigrate it. Number two, the Dems have to fight back and fight back hard. Not with the Shock! Shock! Outrage! Shock! response, but using their Piñata that Karl Rove wants to keep in the Closet: President George W. Bush, and his seven and half years of not finding bin Laden, and why he felt it was super cool to change the focus in capturing bin Laden to invading Iraq..

Rove is sleazy, but he isn’t stupid. He is going after something he knows that will sway independent voters, and he likes to address the problem head on.

Posted by ferret

on March 22, 2012 at 4:13 PM

Good cop, bad cop. It works for the Republicrats. Unfortunately not so much for us. Since the most recent bad cop reserves to himself the right to assassinate any of us he pleases.

Posted by Linda J on March 22, 2012 at 5:28 PM

@15: Oh, I get it, you're saying both parties are just two aspects of the same thing, and there's no difference between the two. Hence "republicrats."

Posted by UR So smrt on March 22, 2012 at 6:17 PM