JLFinch posted a diary about HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson telling an audience that only pro-Bush bidders get contracts, which rocketed to the rec list.
Rock Strongo has the Secretary's follow up in a diary that similarly deserves rec status. The good Secretary, it seems, was speaking hypothetically.
The initial story made me mad. The follow up got me thinking: Haven't we seen this before?
The sad reality is that Sec. Jackson's behavior is par for the course for the GOP, which loves a good story even if it's pure fairytale without a ring of truth to it.
Who could forget that "Mission Accomplished" banner and Bush's Commander in Chief strut? They loved that story in May of 2003, but sought to distance themselves from it later:
The president told reporters the sign was put up by the Navy, not the White House.
"I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way," the president said Tuesday (Oct. 28, 2003).
A couple of months later, Bush had another mission accomplished moment, showing up unexpected to enjoy Thanksgiving with the troops in Iraq. Nevermind that the turkey was plastic. This story would keep getting better:
White House communications director Dan Bartlett walked into the media cabin on the return flight from Baghdad and announced that Air Force One had come within sight of a British Airways flight over water. The British Airways pilot, Bartlett said, radioed to ask, "Did I just see Air Force One?," and, after a pause, the Air Force One pilot radioed back, "Gulfstream 5." After a long silence, Bartlett said, the British Airways pilot seemed to realize he was in on a secret and said, "Oh."
Except that, like the turkey, this was fake, too:
A gripping account, except: There was no British Airways flight involved. And President Bush's pilot had no such conversation with any aircraft.
As one last example, let's zoom in on Sec. Jackson's description of the contractor story as a "hypothetical." From Rock Strongo's diary:
She acknowledged that Jackson did not tell the audience the story was made up. But, she said, Jackson used the "hypothetical" story to describe the ruthless politics of Washington. She said the secretary was trying to convey that Washington is a place where political opponents, rather than stabbing you in the back, "will stab you in the chest."
"Hypothetical," like Bush's commitment to alleviating America's addiction to oil?
One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.
Yes, the GOP loves its fairytales. It's the fables that will come to haunt them.