It's virtually axiomatic that the first impulse by practically all elected officials and bureaucrats when they face a problem (the politically correct term is "issue") is to lie. Most of the time they follow the impulse, only to discover later that they've begun weaving a web of falsehoods in which they become trapped. President Clinton discovered this when he declared that he "did not have sex with that woman." In the process that followed, he was exposed as a perjurer (felon) when he was impeached in the House, but, of course, was not convicted in the Senate.
This is the exact statement of 05 November 2008 on the official Web-site of the office of the governor of Illinois: "Governor Blagojevich Congratulates President-elect Obama and Discusses U.S. Senate Seat To fill President-Elect Barack Obama's Senate seat, Governor will use deliberate process to select Suitable replacement". There's no attempt here to explain the discrepancies in the use of capital letters, as well as the obvious grammatical mess (run-on sentence and, no, there wasn't a period at the end), except that this was prepared in a state office and that just about says it all.
A couple weeks or so later, Obama's campaign manager, David Axelrod, confirmed publicly on television that Obama and the governor had talked about the seat vacated by Obama upon his kick upstairs. Axelrod later recanted (surprise, surprise), so another lie was born (this guy would not have been mistaken), this time trapping Axelrod, who would have been worse than road-kill if he hadn't corrected the "issue" of "misspeaking." After all, of what use is being a campaign manager if not for some plush reward handed out by a satisfied candidate, not one who has been caught in a lie because of a hired hand's recanted "misspeaking?" What rubbish!
Not surprisingly, in a later press conference, Obama used the plural "we" when talking about the back-and-forth with Governor Blagojevich, but realized almost immediately that he should have said "I," which he then did, in explaining that he had NEVER talked with the governor. So...the web was being built, and Obama will sooner or later have to admit some things.
If Obama had simply said he had discussed the matter with the governor, this would be a non-problem (or non-issue, to be politically correct...there are no problems these days). Any half-bright observer would have expected Obama and the governor to discuss this matter, and would have expected that a quid pro quo would be operative. That's how the crooked way government often if not most often works. As he so profanely put it, the governor had a valuable property and he wasn't about to give it away, certainly not for a paltry expression of "appreciation." The governor already was under investigation so he was apparently told by Obama or his gofer that there would be no payoff; otherwise, the stink would have gone ballistic.
So...why haven't these people come clean? They could have avoided all the current problems (okay, issues) by simply telling the truth at the very outset. Instead, they've pointed up once again that the political machine in especially Chicago actually represents an orgy of incest in which the participants take great pleasure in greatly enhancing each other's status/wealth/power/whatever by any underhanded way possible. The LIE is the tool of choice in effecting protection for this racket, but the liars quite often are too clever by half and wind up with their web of deceit choking them. Or...that's another way of saying they're dumb as a gourd and consider the great unwashed out here in the boondocks even dumber, too dumb to see through it all.
Perhaps the most grandiose LIE in the latest campaign was regurgitated by Obama's choice for Secretary of State. It's doubtful that Senator Clinton will ever mention again her trip to Bosnia in 1996. Her excuse for cooking up that scene, simply that she "misspoke," is laughable – no greeting party and dodging sniper's bullets on the tarmac as she and Chelsea ran from the plane for their lives. She had the tale (LIE) rehearsed and told it over and over, apparently never dreaming that someone would produce a comprehensive film of what actually happened – a greeting party including the Bosnian president and small children and a truck loaded with paparazzi clicking away as she and Chelsea grandly marched from the plane on the tarmac.
This sort of blatant dishonesty should have exempted Clinton from consideration for State or anything else and actually should have landed her before the Senate Ethics Committee. She was caught in the web of her own deceit when there was never a reason for it, though she might have thought such a cooked-up farce could gain her some sort of military bona fides – facing down the enemy, maybe, or smart enough to retreat in the face of annihilation. But then, of course, she did have the guts to call General Petraeus a LIAR...right to his face in a public Senate hearing. Get that...the general a LIAR?
Okay...Clinton's LIE was necessary as the primary tool for gaining the presidency and saving the nation. Egad! Is it any wonder that the Congress had an approval rating of just 12% last month, up from 9% in the summer, according to Rasmussen (24 November 2008)? She will be a laughingstock as she meets with foreign officials who are well aware of her perfidy and the reward for it.
The BIG LIE! Tell it often so the dummies out in the boonies will be snowed by it. Three cheers for Obama and Clinton. The voters have spoken.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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