Taking Ethics Seriously

by hilzoy

Via AmericaBlog, from today's Press Conference"

"Q Yes, sir. Back in October of 2000, this is what you said --

PRESIDENT BUSH: Okay. Whew.

Q "We will ask not only what is legal, but what is right; not what the lawyers allow, but what the public deserves." In the CIA leak case, has your administration lived up to this campaign promise?

PRESIDENT BUSH: In the -- pardon my -- I didn't hear you.

Q In the CIA leak case, has your administration lived up to this campaign promise?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, Deb, look, I said the other day to the press corps that was assembled in Argentina that there's still an ongoing investigation. We take this investigation very seriously, and we'll continue to cooperate during the investigation."

Because, as we all know, answering the question whether this President has asked himself what is right with a simple 'yes' or 'no' would involve commenting on an ongoing investigation. Right.

(There was no follow-up to this question; I didn't cut out some other part where Bush actually answered it.)

Comments

[Tim]

Once he's been programmed it apparently takes a complete drive format to get a different talking point.

[Ugh]

Once he's been programmed it apparently takes a complete drive format to get a different talking point.

Yes. One wonders if he would give the same answer to a question about the Knicks.

[xanax]

hilzoy:

Can the blog police nail you for blogging faster than the speed of thought? And, if so, can you attend blogger-safety school to keep the points off your license?

Inquiring minds want to know.

(By the way, that's not to imply you blog faster than you think... just faster than we mere mortals do).

[hilzoy]

xanax: like I said, I'm procrastinating. (Remember that grant? The one I'd rather forget? I got a minor reprieve, which has alas ended.)

[xanax]

Well, hil, if Pulitzer handed out "productivity in procrastination" prizes, you probably wouldn't need the grant.

[Matt Weiner]

God, hilzoy, you don't know how much it comforts a mere mortal to see someone so much more famous cop to the same thing. Now I'd better go prep....

[hilzoy]

Well, it's not as though there's a lack of bloggable material out there. I pop over to firedoglake, and find this from the New Yorker. It's the BLind Sheikh and Jill Stewart discussing Patrick Fitzgerald:

"STEWART: I will try. But [Fitzgerald] is much more evil than McCarthy. [Andrew McCarthy was also a prosecutor in the 1993 bombing case.]
YOUSRY: She says, sir, that he is more of a devil and more evil than McCarthy.
ABDEL RAHMAN: Oh yeah!
YOUSRY: Uhm.
STEWART: Yeah, he is—
ABDEL RAHMAN: We thought that McCarthy was more dangerous.
YOUSRY: We thought that McCarthy was really a, a devil.
STEWART: A devil. Well, Fitzgerald I think is more so. He’s, uh . . . he’s like a crusader.
YOUSRY: She says, sir, that—
STEWART: He has it in the heart.
YOUSRY: Fitzgerald is different from McCarthy. Fitzgerald believes in all these things in his heart, he has the faith of doing them in the same way the crusaders did; crusader, I mean, same as the crusaders’ battle. He is more dangerous this way.
ABDEL RAHMAN: Ah!
STEWART: “This will never happen again. There will never be a bomb [that] explodes [in] an American Embassy again!” You know.
YOUSRY: When he stands up to speak, he says, this will never happen again to any American Embassy. We have to exterminate them all, we have to defend ourselves. He believes in that.
ABDEL RAHMAN: Yeah.
YOUSRY: He is not saying it in the same way McCarthy did, to gain the support of the jury. "

[hilzoy]

And Matt: famous?

[rilkefan]

Teach me to read the dialogue before the intro - I thought that was Jon Stewart doing an edgy bit.

[Matt Weiner]

Compared to me, sure. (I have got done some prep done between these two comments! I have!)

[Matt Weiner]

Proof.

[hilzoy]

Heh.

Heh heh.

Noooo!!!

[Fledermaus]

we'll continue to cooperate during the investigation

Ah, only in Bush land are obstruction and perjury considered cooperation.

And I am really wondering how long he be able to keep up the "No Comment" response to every question no matter how it phrased. OK, OK he can probably keep it up forever but pretty soon I think he is just going to blow his top if they keep asking him about it.

[Gary Farber]

Blush.

Of course, this is why I can never run for public office (and expect to win, at least). One of a large bunch of reasons, anyway.

[hilzoy]

Jeez, Gary. I am impressed!

In other news, I finished this iteration of the hated draft. Now I can do stuff I actually want to do ;)

[hilzoy]

The hated grant, that is.

[Gromit]

*snicker*

[Gary Farber]

"Jeez, Gary. I am impressed!"

Eh. That's cumulative over more than ten years of writing incriminating stuff online; and in my earlier decades of activity in the sf community, well, there was a certain amount of overlap between that community and those around for Arpa-net and the founding of the internet, so there's also a certain cumulative effect there. And I did a few things in the sf community over the decades. Some of which even got talked about.

But it ain't nuthin' compared to how quickly you'll get name recognition with a little mainstream ascension. Or even just by being brainless but partisan. So: perspective.

Then there's Gromit's point, which surprises me not at all; that's why it bugs me.... (Plus, it seems pretty disrespectful to me, actually.) I'll just have to settle for this.

[hilzoy]

Gromit: bravo ;)

[Slartibartfast]

OTOH, although this is hardly fair...

[dr ngo]

Gary: The Google Fight results look somewhat different if you spell Gandhi and Tolkien correctly. ;}

[dr ngo]

Or Israel.

(Or is misspelling the whole satirical point, and I'm the last to get it?)

[dr ngo]

(Apparently so. I tend to read the most recent thread first, so only _after_ the comments above did I get down to the thread "Manipulating Intelligence," in which everyone proved they knew how to spell and made clever remarks about it.)

(As with many cocktail party conversations that just slide ride past me, all I can do is mutter "I'm sorry" and try to disappear into the wallpaper.)

(I'm sorry)

[liberal japonicus]

Don't forget, Slart, you can take about about 115,000 of those isreal cites because they refer to a function in MatLab and perhaps another lump because Isreal can also be a person's name.

[Dantheman]

hilzoy,

Methinks you are too easily impressed.

[blogbudsman]

Someone named Deb - "We will ask not only what is legal, but what is right; not what the lawyers allow, but what the public deserves." In the CIA leak case, has your administration lived up to this campaign promise?"

And what about commenting about an ongoing investigation does the press not understand? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

'Ol blogbudsman can answer her question. Yes!

Another accusation has been investigated in incredible detail at breath taking expense and has been determined to be unfounded.

All attempts to criminalize the party in power will be investigated seriously and proven groundless. We can only trust that the American people, upon discovering the desperate deceit they've been exposed to by the MSM and liberal elite, will continue to voice their support at the ballot box.

Does that answer your question there, Deb? Do you hear me now? Blog on!

[Phil]

Of course, only when the trail started to get warm did the White House get shy about "commenting on an ongoing investigation." And of course, there's this.

[washerdreyer]

The powerline numbers are roughly doubled by sites which don't mention the word "blog."

[Gary Farber]

"All attempts to criminalize the party in power will be investigated seriously and proven groundless."

Very sporting of you to speak of the Clinton Administration this way.

[blogbudsman]

Gary Farber,

My pleasure.

[blogbudsman]

My pleasure, Mr. Farber.

[243]

How odd

[CharleyCarp]

OT: Have had a day of some drama working to prevent passage of a rider in the Senate. Could any folks who are (a) against torture of prisoners and (b) live in Maine or Oregon, drop me a line? Off line?

[CharleyCarp]

And yes, the Sausage Factory is way worse up close than even I imagined.

[derrida derider]

"Politics for Dummies" has it right there on page1, para 1:
"At a press conference, never answer the question you were asked; always answer the question you wish you'd been asked"

I've got no love for Bush (worst President ever - bar none), but this is pretty standard stuff for any politician.