an interesting distinction

I just happened to catch President Bush's speech to the Republican National Convention, and when he started talking about his belief in the wisdom of the American people, I was reminded of an amazing claim on the part of the president's former press secretary, Scott McClellan, from a few months back, as reported in the Harper's Weekly Review:

"McClellan says that he does not believe that the Bush Administration 'deliberately or consciously sought to deceive the American people' when it dispensed with 'honesty and candor' in favor of launching a 'political propaganda campaign' to justify the Iraq War."

Now, I'm sort of explaining a joke that the Weekly's already made, here,* but... just to clarify...

Bush's propaganda campaign—which was designed to convince the American people that we should invade Iraq and was neither honest nor candid (the phrase "culture of deception" is included in McClellan's book title, note)—was not a deliberate or conscious attempt to deceive anyone.  So!  Dispensed with honesty and candor, launched a political propaganda campaign—did not intend to fool anybody.

OK!

So, like, when me and the other guys in the street gang threw morality and concern for human life to the wind, and we conspired to murder those hobos with baseball bats and then throw their bodies in the river, we totally had no intention of causing anybody any harm.

I get it!  As Peter Venkman once said:  I love this plan!  I'm excited to be a part of it!

All together now:

Four more years!  Four more years!

* Some have said that Bush defeats satire^a by making you feel that any commentary on his administration is sort of explaining a joke that's already been made...  I remember Bloom said in 1999 that satire was no longer possible in this country; thank you, President Bush, for helping me understand what the man meant.

^a Like rock beats scissors? –ed.