Progressive Minds

In his latest op/ed for Newsweek magazine, Jonathan Alter says what many journalists are too cowardly to say: George W. Bush lied.

Well, George Bush lies about many things, so you may be thinking, 'Mr. Alter, could you please be a little more specific!'

Well, the particular Bush lie that Jonathan Alter refers to is his statement in Buffalo, New York in April 2004 that "Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires—a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way."  And Alter makes the case that Bush KNEW he was lying when he made that statement.

Moreover, Alter takes journalists to task for not asking Bush about that statement, when he held a presss conference this week.

From Newsweek magazine:

"The news conference wasn't a complete truthfest. No reporter managed to ask the president about his statement of April 24, 2004, when Bush told a Buffalo audience: "Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires—a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." This statement was false, and Bush knew it when he said it. The president lied in Buffalo, just as surely as Bill Clinton lied when he said: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Of course, Bush's Buffalo lie got a tiny fraction of the airplay of Clinton's Lewinsky lie."

The Political Power of Truth