Selling the Lie

Total disregard for the Constitution and the rule of law both at home and abroad? Acts that fly in the face of all that America stands for perpetrated by folks from the political party which routinely claims sole ownership of religion, moral clarity, and patriotism?

You say such a thing could never happen in America? Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says it has already occurred.

As reported by Eric Black at MinnPost.com, Hersh appeared on March 9 at a Great Conversations event at the University of Minnesota and talked about "new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an 'executive assassination ring.'" He said this operation was established during the Bush administration.

When I heard Hersh's claims, my first thought was that if they were accurate, those of the reactionary-right - folks who appear to live in perpetual fear of and who use fear to foment hatred for "the other" - would be found hunkered down in an undisclosed location wallowing in the pride in their "accomplishments."

I was mistaken.

Neither guilt nor shame nor introspective thought exists for those who are convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that they are right. If they believe value exists in committing heinous acts like those outlined by Hersh, both the acts and those who are a party to them must be defended. That defense must also be public, vociferous, and repetitious. Any other course of action would leave open the unacceptable possibility that they might be wrong.

Thus, immediately after Hersh's comments saw daylight, the minions of those same fear-mongers began popping up on cable news-talk shows like road apples at a parade featuring horses.

On Hardball with Chris Matthews, Ari Fleischer kicked off the defense initiative. Using the same verbal chicanery for which he was famous as press secretary to George W. Bush, he suggested that president Obama should thank his former boss for leaving him a world in which Saddam Hussein is no longer alive. He then repeated the thoroughly discredited claim that Saddam had been involved in the 9-11 attacks.

Fleischer knew exactly what he was doing. His two statements, presented in that order, construct a specious argument which contains the logical fallacy known as "undistributed middle term." There is some truth to be found within the first statement. However linking it to the second statement is a deliberate attempt to trick his audience into accepting the unwarranted conclusion that everything done by the Bush administration was above board and justified.

The groundwork having been laid, others soon followed to defend Fleischer's comments, repeating his "argument" as if it were unassailable fact. Coming to Fleischer's defense is itself an insidious ploy intended to shift discussion away from the nature of the original lie and to add a layer of insulation between it and the truth.

Chris Matthews, in apparent bewilderment at this onslaught of obfuscation, expressed the belief that we were witnessing an attempt to polish of George W. Bush's legacy.

I believe Matthews missed the real story.

On March 9, the Washington Post published statements made by Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., in which he outlined the strategy of the GOP. McHenry's comments first appeared two days earlier as part of a long article in the National Journal magazine titled GOP's Dilemma: Substance Versus Spin from which the following excerpt is borrowed:

Roughly 80 House Republican members have appeared on about 200 national cable programs since the start of the year, a conference spokesman said. On the economic stimulus bill, Republicans cite media coverage, public opinion polling, and Democrats' defensiveness to contend that they won the political debate.

"We will lose on legislation. But we will win the message war every day, and every week, until November 2010," saidn Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., an outspoken conservative who has participated on the GOP message teams. Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Waging the "message war" is the sum and substance of the appearances by Fleischer and the rest of the right-wing spin team. The goal of their strategy is to return America to the control of ideologues who see nothing wrong with committing atrocities which make a mockery of the principles which the Founding Fathers set forth in the Constitution, principles for which countless others gave their lives to protect and defend.