HASN’T ANYONE EVER TALKED TO A REPUBLICAN - OF COURSE THEY KNOW THEY'RE LYING

HASN’T ANYONE EVER TALKED TO A REPUBLICAN?

Even The Left Doesn’t Seem To Know That Republicans – Not Just The Leadership – Knew They Were Lying And Were Proud Of It, Knew Sons Would Be Dying For Oil And Took Pride In Not Caring

by

Thomas J. Bico

Editor-In-Chief

APRIL 9, 2004 – I mean come on people. I know you either lean this way or that, but you can’t tell me none of you actually know people on the other side of things, have contacts close enough to you that they let down their guard and speak as they really think, feel, and act?

Have none of you ever talked to any local Republican leaders? Have none of you ever talked to those Republican donors – the ones that make the Pioneers $100,000 bundling of cash for GWB possible?

Well I have. As a matter of fact, I’ve done it my whole life. I even did it during a certain period now known as the run up to war in Iraq.

What are you bothering trying to catch people in lies in front of panels? Even better, what is with all this timid hemming and hawing, by the panel but also by analysts and pundits and news casts and even people on the far, angry left?

In hearing people pick over Condi Rice’s testimony yesterday, in hearing people respond to Clarke’s statements, people are kicking over this excerpt or that quote and trying to say, "See, this finally, conclusively shows that Rice is a liar," "…that the President is a liar," "that the Bushies… that Limbaugh… that… that… are liars."

Here’s a hint to you all: they – and their supporters – know they are liars. Most Americans know they are liars. And they don’t care.

Americans are, frankly, okay with being lied to. In fact, they like it.

They want you to tell them, "Just take this pill and you won’t have to exercise or eat right – you will be slim and in perfect shape and health." People know this is BS, but it gives them something that makes them feel okay and have some hope for a little while.

Even more, Americans love people who openly, passionately embrace amorality and say to hell with all those things we’ve been told about what’s right or wrong. When the roaring 1990’s were at their peak, there was a billboard that stood boldly on I-10. It said:

…can’t buy you happiness.

…isn’t everything.

…is the root of all evil.

Blah, blah, blah.

It’s time for E*Trade.

This was Iraq as well. People were still in the glow of the Clinton days that had them feeling money was plentiful, easy to obtain in large quantities, and nothing bad really happens if you do some trampling of what is right to get it.

I – unlike, apparently, the rest of the media – talked to many Republicans who supported invading Iraq. They not only knew the "coalition of the willing" President Bush was pretending to put together was nonsense, they were glad. They not only knew there was a chance that WMD’s didn’t exist, they didn’t care. They not only knew we were going to, truly, just be trading some of our soldiers’ lives for oil, they were happy about it.

And no, I’m not joking or exaggerating.

Have none of you ever talked to people? People who say, "That’s the way the world has always been. Everything is about money."

Have you never heard someone say, "I don’t care if there are WMD’s, I’ll push the damned button myself just to have 85 cent a gallon gasoline?"

The Bush-brand Republicans think they are Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men. You tell them the President is lying. You tell them they are just trading American lives for oil. You tell them they are hurting the country by going it alone. And they look at you, take a swig of their putrid scotch and say, "Yeah. Well. That’s the way the world really works. It’s all about money. You stupid liberals can’t handle the truth."

They said the reason the French were opposed to us invading Iraq was because they had all sorts of deals going on with Iraq and were about to line up oil contracts as the embargo ended… ie it was all about money to the French.

They said they not only didn’t care that we had no coalition and that the President’s claim that we had one was a lie – they were glad, because we were going to be doing most of the fighting anyway – why should we send rebuilding contract money to anyone else. They considered – and this was their biggest miscalculation – truly that it would be the cakewalk Cheney talked about. They had images in their heads from the first Gulf War of those Iraqi soldiers in the desert kissing the hands of our troops as we came upon them, surrendering instantly and en masse. And they truly believed that we could – and would – only have to launch a few airstrikes and voila (though they avoided using this word from the evil French language,) the Iraqis would drop to their knees, kiss our hands, and, as Cheney said, welcome us with flowers.

Even beyond that, they believed not only wouldn’t the war cost us money, it would more than pay for itself, because as soon as the flowers were out, the oil would flow and pay for the rebuilding and the war.

That is really what they thought. They never considered for a second that there would be difficulty in reorganizing the nation afterwards or – more naively – that the Iraqis might not just let us go take their oil. In fact, it was entirely clear that they never even considered this flowers-in-the-street, please-come-take-our-oil scenario might not pan out. They talked and talked about how easy it would be to defeat Saddam, but when asked - to a man – to name who they thought would be a good choice to take Saddam’s place after he was removed, not only did they not have a definite answer, they didn’t even have a single suggestion.

Not a single moment’s thought was given – again, we are talking about the masses of Bush supporters, top donors, and Republican leadership – to anything beyond the "flowers." It was purely an exercise in greed blinding all, that E*Trade ad playing out on a larger scale.

Now we have this comical absurdity of people calling up Bushies before some panel and trying to craft questions so as to see if they can be caught in lies, caught admitting they had lied, as if this would mean anything to their supporters or the nation.

The nation knows they are lied to, constantly, by every commercial, by every ad, every billboard, and yes by their government. In reality, the Bushies have it exactly backwards, as it is they who simply, "…can’t handle the truth," and, in fact, prefer if you never offer it to them. They don’t want to hear that pollution really is what gave their kid asthma, they don’t want to hear that it is wrong to have some 19 year-old kids die to secure oil fields, and… an idea they would find laughable… they would not ever consider something so "naïve" and "juvenile" as to think lying is wrong and shouldn’t be done.

Bush’s poll numbers are not falling because the nation now believes that he lied – they knew it all along. His poll numbers are falling because his lies aren’t paying off. If gas prices were 85 cents a gallon and Iraq was stable, people again would pretend they didn’t believe the President or Condoleza or anyone at all lied to them. The polls would be saying the nation thinks the President is honest and trustworthy, as they did when people expected both of the above to be the outcome.

So don’t bother analyzing and chopping up testimony about the run up to the Iraq War. Catching contradicting statements won’t determine whether the public considers the President or Condi Rice to be liars. Whether or not the President lied will be determined simply by the price of gas, the stability in Iraq, and the general economic situation. Because, as some Republicans told me, in reality, everything is about money... to a great many Americans.