archy

Our daily dose of Bush hypocrisy
Today Scout nicely brings two bits of news together. The first is a story about POWs from the first Gulf War who sued to get compensation out of the frozen Iraqi government assets. When a judge awarded tham almost a billion dollars last fall, the Bush Justice Department (now that's an oxymoron) blocked payment. Now the administration is pursuing it's own suit to reverse the award. Now, wherther the POWs deserve a billion or some other amount and whether that money should instead go to the people of Iraq are both fair questions. What's galling is the fact that this is another case of this administration screwing military people while claiming to own patriotism. They can behave this way even after Ashcroft had an operation specifically to reduce his amount of gall. Amazing.

Scout ties this together with a classic Scott McClellan performance from last fall, when the DoJ first blocked the payments. In an exchnage that couldn't have been more than two minutes long, McClellan managed to say the following sentence six times: "There's simply no amount of money that could truly compensate these brave men and women for what they went through and for the suffering that they went through at the hands of Saddam Hussein." "No amount of money" is exactly how much the administration wants them to have.

McClellan isn't as good at this as Ari Fleisher was. Fleisher was brilliant; McClellan is a little pathetic. Where Fleisher could lie and lie again without the slightest trace of awareness, McClellan just repeats the day's talking point like a skipping record. My wife suggests he may still have some trace of conscience that interferes with his job. Don't most people in his occupation have a consciencectomy? Maybe it didn't take.