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The Current Crisis
The Lie Gets Worse
Our president’s mastery of “partisan message management” will do him in.
WASHINGTON — I do not know about you, but to me this sequestration imbroglio is getting interesting. Last week I wrote of my surprise that a basic untruth was being repeated over and over again by the White House, to wit, that the Republicans were responsible for the monstrosity of sequestration. I wrote that as I recalled it sequestration was an idea introduced by the White House to coax the Republicans and the Democrats into a deal in the summer of 2011 to raise the ceiling on the national debt. Remember that deal? And another thing, there would be no tax increase. President Barack Obama himself endorsed the 2011 idea of sequestration before claiming in his third debate with Mitt Romney that “The sequester is not something that I proposed.” And he went on, “It is something that the Congress proposed.” Really?
Recently most news stories that I read laid sequestration to the White House as part of the 2011 debt ceiling deal. Then Bob Woodward weighed in and made it obvious. He had written a book about the deal and if he remained silent he would have appeared to have lied in his book. Said Woodward, “My extensive reporting for my book, The Price of Politics, shows the automatic spending cuts [sequestration] were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of [Jack] Lew [at the time White House chief of staff and now secretary of the treasury] and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors…” “Obama,” Woodward added, “personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.” And Woodward gets technical, “They did it at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.”
He called this effort to blame sequestration on the Republicans “partisan message management.” To me it is a blatant lie. After all, practically everyone who has written about the debt ceiling deal and now sequestration knows it is a lie or at least a deceit.
As the inimitable James Taranto has painstakingly chronicled in the Wall Street Journal’s “Best of the Web Today,” all hell broke out after Woodward’s statement. Jay Carney, the President’s press secretary, tweeted that Woodward was “willfully wrong.” Apparently the press secretary does not know that Woodward already deposited his findings in a book whose veracity has heretofore not been questioned. Obama’s political aide David Plouffé got personal, alluding to Woodward’s age. Woodward is nearing 70, though the issue is not his age but the integrity of his reporting and, by the way, Plouffé is no paragon of virility. Then White House economic advisor Gene Sperling exchanged barbs with Woodward in a heated exchange.
Actually the only question is, “What did Woodward say in his book?” Was it accurate then? It appears that what he said was accurate. The President and the rest of his White House staff have been lying about sequestration for months. Finally, on Meet the Press, Sperling admitted as much when he said after much equivocation that “we put forth the design of” sequestration. Why did he not say that in the first place?
Things are going to get more interesting. For months, the President has been talking as though sequestration has to be very painful and very ugly. Now the government is closing the White House for tours because of sequestration. There will be other showy demonstrations of these painful cuts. But the cuts need not be so painful in a $3.8 trillion dollar budget.
The greater problem is that practically everything the President says has to be verified. He seems as Woodward says to forever engage in “partisan message management.” Soon the country will catch on. There is no dealing with a partisan message manager.
Photo: UPI
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment
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Appleby| 3.7.13 @ 7:13AM
Yes, the President lies relentlessly and consistently about things that are very easily checked up on. This doesn't seem to matter to his fans.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 9:32AM
He's not a Master of Anything. He's never DONE anything in his life so it's impossible that he's a Master in anything, unless you count: Master of Not Doing Anything his entire life.
This guy wouldn't last 5 Seconds with an Unbiased Media. He never woulda got the Nomination. He never woulda been Elected. He never woulda been Reelected.
He couldn't have won Pitbull Catcher in Harlem, if the Press hadn't Whitewashed his Black Half.
Does ANYONE believe that the Press would let a Republican hide behind Sealed Documents? If they thought that there was any Chance that a Republican might not be eligible for the Presidency? Does ANYONE believe that they wouldn't move Heaven and Earth to get to the Truth?
What if there were Rumours that the Republican was Gay? (GOOGLE: Barack Obama Gay Bathhouse Story) What if a coupla guys at his old College Newspaper claimed that this Republican had solicited them for Gay Sex? Would they have Fallen off the Face of the Earth, like the guys from The Harvard Review have? Or would they have a 5 Movies Deal with Harvey Weinstein, by now?
How Masterful is a Baseball Pitcher, if everything he throws is called a Stike because the Umpire's in love with him?
How Masterful is the Running Back, if everytime he gets the ball he scores a Touchdown because everyone on the other Team worships the smell of his Farts?
Maybe if "Some People" would stop Shining his Knob for being Born on Third Base, we could get on with the work of Saving the Country!
John II| 3.7.13 @ 10:22AM
To proceed with the sports metaphors:
How masterful (actually, the correct word is "masterly," but that would break the rhetorical rhythm) is a center if every time he dunks the ball in the basket it's because he's wearing stilts and an extra team of witless thugs is running interference for him?
How masterful is the goalie if he blocks every puck/ball (that should cover two sports) while studying his fingernails because his handlers have built a brick wall in front of the goal?
How masterful is an archer if he sinks every arrow in the bull's eye because one or another of his lackeys walks the arrow over to the target?
Well, I'm running out of sports, so how masterful is a Harvard law graduate whose degenerate teachers grade his work on a curve that still leaves results that have to be hidden from public scrutiny?
How masterful is an orator who collapses into stuttering gibberish just because his teleprompter fails?
How masterful . . . any takers?
John Navratil| 3.7.13 @ 10:26AM
TLP,
Remember the hubbub about 'W's transcript and his Gentleman's C's until it was shown the 'W's record was just a bit better than Kerry's? Whereupon silence.
Maxwell| 3.7.13 @ 11:37AM
I remember it too but also remember that Kerry was to release all of his .MIL records but never did.
R Martin| 3.7.13 @ 7:21AM
Soon?
I’m reminded of that scene in Romancing the Stone where Ralph (the DeVito character) is on the dock and his cousin, Ira, is pulling away on a boat with the emerald. Ralph asks when he’s coming back. “Soon”, Ira replies, “Very soon.”
That’s about how soon the country will catch-on that Obama’s an inveterate liar.
John II| 3.7.13 @ 10:27AM
Looks like promising Contest material to me.
Mike G| 3.7.13 @ 8:13AM
I heard those canceled tours of the White House were of the self-guided kind. Pity the poor tour guides who are now unemployed.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 9:06AM
THE SEVEN WORKERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE TOUR OFFICE ARE VOLUNTEERS.
John II| 3.7.13 @ 10:30AM
You misspelled "partisan message management."
Mike G| 3.7.13 @ 11:26AM
Can't wait to hear how he spins how the economy is hurting because of the "out of work" volunteers. That should be hilarious!
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 3:17PM
Apparently the Lame Stream Media figured out the cost of Secret Service is $18K per week. Dear Leader just got back from a million dollar golf outing with $1,000 per hour lessons ( they were not clear if that was on the links or in the steam room) and they had a 20 car motorcade last night to go 1/2 mile to dinner.
Apparently the new Platform is "Screw the children." They can't see the House that spent them into the poor house.
I am a little anxious. Did I spell anything wrong???
I was learning calculus while some were still on the past participles and conjunctive adverbs.
John II| 3.7.13 @ 11:11PM
You misspelled "presidential degeneracy" and "future passive infinitive" and "successive differentiation."
Albert Constantine Jr.| 3.7.13 @ 9:25PM
I'm sure they are heading right into the discouraged workers column.
Nancy in NC| 3.7.13 @ 8:30AM
Where's aware?
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 8:58AM
He's making an Ass of himself over at the Rand Paul Story.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 3:20PM
Aware is becoming 'aware" of his sexuality as his mommy's underwear is uncomfortable.
c. j. acworth| 3.7.13 @ 8:32AM
I hope Obama keeps pulling stunts like cancelling White House tours. If the Stupid Party will just highlight what Obama shuts down as opposed to the kind of extravagances he could be cutting back on, not only will the country laugh in his face (I understand SNL did a skit on the sequester recently), but he will very soon be percieved as petty and mean. That will turn laughter to anger as more and more folks see him as a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum.
Al Adab| 3.7.13 @ 8:39AM
Every lie begets another. What we have is a president with a clearly defined mental condition rendering him incapable of speaking anything but the "party line". Fundamentally transform America meant something and we are beginning to see just what. Does his mental state render him incapable of properly heading the executive office? It is time to study the 25th amendment.
TLP| 3.7.13 @ 9:37AM
Why should he tell the Truth?
Give one good reason why he should tell the Truth, EVER!
There isn't one, and that's why we will take our place in the History Books, right next to Greece, Carthage, Rome, and Great Britain, as just one more Superpower who Ignored the Lessons of History.
Al Adab| 3.7.13 @ 11:07AM
His political power increases with every lie he tells. The true believers will follow him anywhere and in the process lead our nation into history. There is no reason why he should speak the truth as that would decrease his influence as you rightly note.
Jim Adcox| 3.7.13 @ 8:42AM
To verify = to determine the truth. The assumption must be reverse. Start out by knowing that every word he speaks IS a lie, then determine WHY he is lying (other than it is his nature). Then announce the lie. Then proclaim the truth. Rinse. Repeat.
Jim Adcox| 3.7.13 @ 8:44AM
"The assumption must be reversed." Technology hath failed me again. (That's a lie. I didn't proofread.)
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 9:12AM
I framed the issue a week or two ago as Chicken Little Nursery School and "The Sky is Falling."
The conservative news has softened this same point referring to it as "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."
This is the danger to Dear Leader. More and more people are realizing he is a danger and a joke.
Von Mises Jr| 3.7.13 @ 9:16AM
BTW, look at Dear Leader's finger in the picture. I read a book in college about "Media Sexploitation."
His finger is the phalic sign. Take a look and it is clear that they are playing with your head.
Moe Blotz| 3.7.13 @ 6:30PM
Does that digit belong in his nose, as in pick me a winner?
jaytrain| 3.7.13 @ 9:22AM
If ever there was a time for the opposition to get their message in front of the people it is now ,. By that I mean prime time ad buys on the majors where the message is simple :1) This is an Obama White House idea and 2)These are the things which the WH has money for ( $ aid for Islamists in Egypt or Mihelle's latest junket )and here I would start with Homeland Security and the TSA . Remind the populace that every time they are standing , not moving , in an airport TSA line , that it is Obama's fault .
Bandido| 3.7.13 @ 9:31AM
Wrong, RET. The country will NOT catch on. And even if it did, it would merely yawn. Obama owns the media as Simon Legree owned slaves. Not a peep will be heard about any of his whoppers, other than the occasional Woodward-like ripple which amounts to nothing. Lawlessness lives in the White House.
loulou| 3.7.13 @ 11:19AM
I agree, Bandido.
It's a cult and facts do not penetrate.
Grzmlyk| 3.7.13 @ 2:27PM
Ditto.
Truth is simply what liberals want it to be, and thanks to the media (news + entertainment + Internet), academia, politics, and science, the die is cast. Liberals need truth like fish need bicycles.
If the truth mattered to leftists, they would see the corpse-strewn lanscape of misery wrought by socialism over the last century and concluded it is nothing but homicidal nihilism.
But they don't care about the truth. They care about assuaging their egos, and they never look to the effects of their policies - just how the imposition of their will makes them feel.
The entire point of being a liberal - its central conceit - is that you think you can overcome cause-and-effect reality and bend it to your will. That's the animating force. That and telling other people what to do.
Anthony| 3.7.13 @ 10:19AM
Sorry to bust your bubble Emmett, but you have to do some serious digging in the MSM to find any critique of Obozo and his sequestration lies.
And what about Benghazi????
So where are Woodward and Bernstein on Bengahzi and there demands for impeachment?? Why aren't these guys beating the bushes to get to the bottom of Obozo's deriliction of duty?
Four dead, as the cold blooded bastards, Obozo and Hillary simply watched and did nothing.
Seems to me Nixon did one hell of a lot less than this.
Well, we know why Woodward and Bernstein are quiet on Benghazi, same with the rest of the media whores; they are part of the regime.
No hunt for memos by Dan Rather on Benghazi, and no desire to make any up, not with his hero, the Muslim Marxist as president.
Oh, and while a few brave Rs fillibustered Brennan's nomination, 12 R senator whores had dinner with Obozo.
Too bad they all didn't choke on their meals.
Business as usual in Washington, wouldn't you say Emmett?
Job| 3.7.13 @ 3:00PM
"So where are Woodward and Bernstein on Bengahzi and there demands for impeachment?? "
Quite right Anthony, this regime commits high crimes and misdermeaners around the clock. Woodard must be getting old if this technicality is the first lie he had a hunch on since this regime has been in office.
pogybait| 3.7.13 @ 10:37AM
Yes, it is interesting to watch the entire festival of lies as we are gaining speed into the great abyss....if we survive the second term without martial law we will be fortunate indeed.
Minuteman78| 3.7.13 @ 10:52AM
And with the populace armed with some 60 Million firearms, won't that be a bit of a fight?
Mike G| 3.7.13 @ 11:29AM
I don't know about that--the feds keep buying up all the ammo. The people might be reduced to using rocks.
irish19| 3.7.13 @ 3:19PM
Already stocked up.
RichTex| 3.7.13 @ 11:02AM
Obama will claim he never lied about the sequester. To a Leftist, and this certainly includes all of the mainstream media, truth is all relative: whatever helps advance statism is true; what hinders it is false. Therefore, Woodward’s statements that the sequester was Obama’s idea is a “lie” regardless of whether or not it ever really happened.
RandyH| 3.7.13 @ 11:32AM
If he can get away with the Deaths of Americans in Benghazi, why won't he get away with this?
Controse| 3.7.13 @ 11:32AM
Woodward's phrase “partisan message management” in plain talk translates as "lying for political advantage." How come Woodward et. al. get paid big bucks to blow smoke?
Anthony| 3.7.13 @ 1:19PM
Great comment, I was also taken by Woodward's comment, which sounds like a leftist apologia for Obozo.
Gee Woodward, didn't Nixon only engage in "partisan information management collection"?
Moe Blotz| 3.7.13 @ 6:32PM
We should all indulge in more wilful suspension of disbelief.
cicero| 3.7.13 @ 3:17PM
Maybe the message will get out when the Republicans rent time on Dancing With The Stars, or American Idol, or maybe during the college basketball playoffs. Then the citizens of this country, or at least the 51% of the intelligentia who voted for Obama last Novermber, will have a chance of finding out about his lying to them, and us. To expect them to read a book, even by Woodward, seems a bit much. Besides, as Dame Hillary most famously said, "What difference does it make, now?".
As closely as the electoate follows the news on the fututre well being of this once great nation, you can be sure that they will be waiting with hearts aflutter to nominate and elect Hillary in 4 years, so she can carry on the tradition of leadership that the hoi poloi have been clamorikng for since their boy Bill titilalated their imaginations, lo those many years ago. Or maybe they will desire another first: gay, transgendered, handicapped, wombat. But don't get me started.
gene| 3.7.13 @ 6:28PM
Besides the "Mainstream Media" there are way too many people in this country who are giving their loyalty to this Barack fellow instead of to the Constitution of the United States. A whole lot of German people made the same mistake back in the 1930's.
Burlington| 3.7.13 @ 6:34PM
Who shot and killed Donald Young, the gay choir director at Trinity UCC within two weeks of the Iowa caucus.
hrgfue | 3.7.13 @ 7:51PM
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Enchanted| 3.8.13 @ 1:08PM
Let's see. barry curtailed WH tours to save money. Those people are volunteers. The definition of volunteer is that they are paid no salary. So pray tell how much money is he going to save? What a crock and people still believe him. The one thing I can always depend upon out of the WH is that it will be a lie.
ONTIME| 3.8.13 @ 3:01PM
This administraton is a lie from top to bottom, it is a leftist theft gang intent on rping this country and leving it in shambles, lies are only a part of what is happening and the fact is more people need to see the ties and plots being used to undermoine the rule of law, the Constitution and the Bill of rights, the judiciary is almost useless, the houses are in disarray and the Faker in the WH is getting more desperate because he knows his time is running out before a civil war breaks out...the bet is the American Public will cease to resist and the compliancy of the desintegration of institutions will create the chaos and confusion communism thrives on...
Cuffs| 3.8.13 @ 3:29PM
I love you Emmett! All conservatives have to
realize Obama has the media in his pocket.
The same people who control him, control
the media. Also, we have to consider the
decline in public education and pop culture.
The American people love Obama--he is their
Santa Claus and as long as people want something
for nothing, he will prevail.
FiddlerBob| 3.8.13 @ 4:30PM
Obama, himself, is a fabricated lie. So, of course everything he does and says is most likely a lie.
But don't waste time with verification. It's not necessary.
Once it's openly recognized that Obama is not a natural born citizen and is therefore not eligible to be President, everything that he and his fellow conspirators and traitors have done during his tenure will be nullified.
Tell your Governors, Senators, and Congressmen that it's time to uphold the Constitution and remove this fraud from the People's office.
wademcinnis| 3.8.13 @ 4:47PM
I am surprised no one has said something to the effect that the amount of money being argued about certainly must represent the very best use of our money since it will effect almost every aspect of our lives to hear the OBAMA drone on (no, that should be hiss on - notice the exaggerated sibilance when an "s" sneaks up on him at the end of a syllable; almost like a lisp). We could only wish the rest of the budget was as important and well-spent. One would think this aspect alone could come back to embarrass them as a perfect defense of how much money the government wastes when this small amount can be so crippling when applied as carefully as the administration's cadres have been instructed. Just think what could happen with a better motivation.
Ralph Novy| 3.9.13 @ 8:11PM
“The sequester is not something that I proposed.” And he went on, “It is something that the Congress proposed.” Really?
Yes.
Read the record, Junior.
Duh.
You know, boy, it isn't all that hard to be honest.
Just do it.
I reckon it takes "extra effort" to be dishonest.
How about you?