Audacity with Mendacity: A Bush Trademark

Definition of audacity combined with definition of mendacity, according to Webster: intrepid boldness (with) dishonesty

President Bush had the chutzpah last week to tell the world and the American public that his choice of Harriet Miers as nominee for Supreme Court Justice was the best possible choice, and the Ms. Miers was the best available candidate, bar none. The intrepid boldness of this lie was outrageous, even by Bush standards. Surely not even George W. Bush can believe that Miers’ success in helping him evade appropriate scrutiny in deeds of misconduct qualify her as a Supreme Court justice. But, as Nazi propagandists of the Hitler administration taught, a bold lie is more believable to the gullible than a weak one. No weak lies for George W. Bush. Bush lies with audacity, repeatedly, and unrepentantly.

But what else would you expect from a president who first was declared winner in a disputed election and then who turned around and repeated his oath of office after an openly corrupt election, and then had the audacity to tell the American public that he had accrued political capital, and intended to spend it, as though he had won a tremendous landslide victory!

Bush’ audacity has become so profound now that even conservatives question it. Only Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are so intrinsically dishonest and evil that they can defend the Harriet Miers nomination without smirking, choking, or vomiting. Even Charles Krauthammer rejects the nomination.

But when you are George W. Bush, and all your programs and initiatives are built on bold lies, from the need for a war against Iraq to the so-called benefits of a "Healthy Forest Initiative" which cuts down entire forests to "save" them from natural fires, the spiral of bold lying creates a powerful vortex that is inescapable.

How can one expect an honest Bush explanation of a pending attack on Syria, when we know that Bush has expressed a desire for regime change in that sovereign nation and has asked Israel for recommendations on who should be the next ruler of Syria? When you start with a lie, you have to finish with a bigger lie, and so Syria will no doubt soon become recognized as a serious, imminent, and highly lethal threat to the security of the United States of America, just like Iraq, Panama, and Grenada were during the two generations of Bush administrations.

It is so bad that if Bush decided to tell the truth now, no one would believe him. If Bush called a press conference and told the world, "I am a megalomaniac with a bloodthirsty quest for power and a desire to promote the interests of the international oligarchy, and will kill anyone or anything that stands in my way", the press would guffaw and say, "Come on, now, Mr. President. What are your REAL motives?"

Harriet Miers was a perfect attorney for the president who combines audacity with mendacity as a personal trademark. Will a grand jury remove Bush from power before the Miers is set into that court? How many Democrats and Republicans will continue to support this program? The entire world outside the U.S. border recognizes this situation, but the Fox News team somehow missed it and will defend mendacious audacity as long as Bill O’Reilly can obtain an audience of dumbed down true believers who would make Eric Hoffer proud of his analysis and George Orwell sick with realization that his worst fears came true.

But hold on, folks. The spinning world cannot spin that much further. Centrifugal force has its limits, and maybe somehow, some way, a friction brake can be applied. Maybe some sort of lobotomy will occur. Maybe mendacious audacity will prove to be either self-limiting or limited somehow by some heretofore-undetected law of the universe. It is too bad that Hunter Thompson is no longer with us to provide sorely needed insights, but if Dr. Gonzo were here now he would find the strange scene compelling and no doubt see parallels with Nixon and Agnew and he would urge us to lubricate our neurons and ride the wild ride. We are in an extended period of weirdness that started around 1984 and we may as well watch it and suppress our fears as best we can until the cycle reaches its conclusion.