Herbert: Truth and Deceit (Downing Street Memo)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/opinion/02herbert.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

When he accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1968, Richard Nixon said, "Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth - to see it as it is, and tell it like it is - to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth."

We've now learned, thanks to Vanity Fair, that a former top F.B.I. official, W. Mark Felt, was the legendary confidential source Deep Throat. I can't think of a better time to resurrect the Watergate saga.

The trauma of Watergate, which brought down a president who seemed pathologically compelled to deceive, came toward the end of that extended exercise in governmental folly and deceit, Vietnam. Taken together, these two disasters, both of which shook the nation, provided a case study in how citizens should view their government: with extreme skepticism.

Trust, said Ronald Reagan, but verify.

Now, with George W. Bush in charge, the nation is mired in yet another tragic period marked by incompetence, duplicity, bad faith and outright lies coming once again from the very top of the government. Just last month we had the disclosure of a previously secret British government memorandum that offered further confirmation that the American public and the world were spoon-fed bogus information by the Bush administration in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. Best. Herbert. Ever. kicked & recommended

[corbett]

2. Kickin' For The Truth

All the duplicity that's fit to print!

[seemslikeadream]

3. Downing Street MINUTES

[RamboLiberal]

8. You can say Minutes but I think it will be known as Memo

And who cares whether it's minutes or memo - as long as it gets out!

Let's not argue over the semantics.

[Goldeneye]

4. Maybe this is the begining.

internet, Conyers, Star Trib, Moveon, Kerry, NYT. I hope this gets interesting :popcorn:

[gandalf]

11. Getting a bit overly optimistic, eh...

Kerry, NYT are representatives of the establishment. As long as they don't do too much damage, people like Herbert and Krugman are allowed to write their rants. But when it comes to the important things (like selling a war), the NYT fully supports the WH line without hesitation.

[lady lib]

5. Out of the darkness comes a light...

eom

[Tuesday_Morning]

6. Great essay

I'm gonna email this one all over the place!

[TexasLawyer]

7. Try to get your hometown papers to run this

on their op-ed page. E-mail it to your paper's editor. This is a must-read for all Americans.

[Paddy Maynooth]

9. Remember to thank Bob Herbert for this very fine piece of work!

Here's his e-mail address from the Web site:
E-mail: [e-mail]


I just sent him this message:


Thanks, Bob.

I have my doubts as to whether the corporate media are aggressive enough, but I look forward to seeing how this story pans out.

Best,
...

[enough]

10. Herbert distills it to the essence:

snip>

There you have it in a nutshell. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, drunk with power and insufficiently restrained, took the nation on hair-raising journeys that were as unnecessary as they were destructive. Now, in the first years of the 21st century, George W. Bush is doing the same.

snip>