I assume that reporters were afraid to be the first to speak up, lest they be hammered by the vile people running the place.
Counterpunch, October 2, 2003
Has Bush Become a Threat to the Ruling Elite? Who Got Us Into This Mess and Why? By SAUL LANDAU
Have some heavy weight members of the old wealthy families reached a consensus that George W. Bush constitutes a clear and present danger to their fortunes' future? Have the CPAs of the truly well-born advised the families that the current occupant of the White House may have misplaced his mittens?
Sporadic editorials from establishment house organs like the New York Times, Washington Post and LA Times should alert the newly enlivened Democrats that they could receive substantial support from some of the upper crust. The message also arrived at the office of WH Adviser Karl Rove--a man as sensitive to potential power shifts as he is insensitive to human suffering.
But how does Rove go about repairing the damage done to the confidence of the well born--and the others who voted Republican because they thought W would bring stability and economic prudence--without having the president admit that he made serious errors of judgments about war and peace (life and death) and economic priorities? President Bush has asked for $87 billion more to "deal with Iraq and Afghanistan" while he has little to show for it: 300 plus servicemen and women dead, thousands wounded, thousands more sick with strange infirmities. And Saddam remains missing along with Osama bin Laden and the Anthrax scoundrel.
full: http://www.counterpunch.org/
=== Washington Post, Thursday, October 2, 2003 Can't They Just Admit It?
By George F. Will
Rachel Lapp: "You said we'd be safe in Philadelphia!"
John Book: "Well, I was wrong!"
-- "Witness" (1985)
In that movie about an Amish woman and her child who become accidentally entangled in drug-related police corruption, she is reassured by the detective's assessment, which turns out to have been spectacularly mistaken. However, her trust in him and the essence of his character -- trustworthiness, which is not the same as infallibility -- are established by four forthright words. A John Book Moment would serve the Bush administration.
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This president or a successor is likely to have to ask the country to run grave risks in response to intelligence from what the government will call "solid sources." So, unless the public is convinced that the government is learning from this war -- learning how to know what it does not know -- the war may have made the public less persuadable and the nation perhaps less safe.
Americans know that government, whether disbursing money or gathering intelligence, is not an instrument of precision. Hence they want the government to have the confidence -- in itself, and the public -- to say, as John Book did, that it was wrong.
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