Bush: Master Misleader

During this morning's presidential press conference, in which Bush was having a darn good time laughing and joking (nice to see that he can laugh in the midst of all of the murder and mayhem going on in Iraq), he set up yet another straw man argument. The AP recently pointed out that this tactic has become de rigeur for the administration. That's what you do when you have absolutely nothing else to stand on - you make up stances that your opponents didn't hold in the first place and then go on to debunk them.

And, it happened again today when Bush was asked about Senator Russ Feingold's proposed censure resolution:

Q -- not to change the tone from all this emphasis on bipartisanship, but there have been now three sponsors to a measure to censure you for the implementation of that program. The primary sponsor, Russ Feingold, has suggested that impeachment is not out of the question. And on Sunday, the number two Democrat in the Senate refused to rule that out pending an investigation. What, sir, do you think the impact of the discussion of impeachment and censure does to you and this office, and to the nation during a time of war, and in the context of the election?

THE PRESIDENT: I think during these difficult times -- and they are difficult when we're at war -- the American people expect there to be a honest and open debate without needless partisanship. And that's how I view it. I did notice that nobody from the Democrat Party has actually stood up and called for getting rid of the terrorist surveillance program. You know, if that's what they believe, if people in the party believe that, then they ought to stand up and say it. They ought to stand up and say the tools we're using to protect the American people shouldn't be used. They ought to take their message to the people and say, vote for me, I promise we're not going to have a terrorist surveillance program. That's what they ought to be doing. That's part of what is an open and honest debate.

The Democrats haven't said that because that's not what they believe. Feingold and others believe that Bush acted illegally when his administration decided to spy on Americans without warrants - bypassing the law already in place via the FISA courts.

The Republicans responded last week by attempting to make this practice retroactively legal, thus admitting that Bush didn't have the right to break the laws currently in place.

If that's the best that Bush and his cronies can come up with, it only provides reassurance that Feingold's censure resolution was the right move at the right time. He's backed them into a corner and the only way they can get out of it is to become further complicit in the crimes. And that strategy is just pathetic and desperate - an analogy for the state of the Republican party itself.