Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

the much-hyped uranium from Niger, emanated from the highest reaches of the government.
The question must be asked: What did the President know? And, if not, why didn't he know
it? If, as may be the case, the President did not understand his intelligence briefings, why
didn't he ask to have them explained to him? And did he know that he didn't understand
them?
When President Clinton left office, America enjoyed tremendous respect and admiration
around the world. As a candidate, Bush repeatedly emphasized the need for humility in
the conduct of our foreign affairs. What would he have done differently in Kosovo? Been
more humble. How would he approach the Middle East? With humility.
But as soon as he became president, Bush managed to spend Clinton's surplus of international
goodwill in astonishingly short order. He ditched Kyoto, the anti-ballistic missile
treaty, the germ warfare protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention, the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court, and the land mine treaty.
And did it all with a decided lack of humility. He didn't say, "We hope you don't
mind, we're very sorry, but we have to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. I feel terrible that
we're not able to live up to our responsibility to take a leadership role in addressing the impending
global warming crisis." Or something like that. I'm no diplomat. But there must have
been some way to be nicer about it.
No. He had to go piss the world off. Not once. But twice. You see, the day after 9/11,
we got the world back on our side. All over the planet, there were spontaneous outpourings of
sympathy, support, and genuine affection for the United States. It was a terrible way for it to
happen. But it gave Bush a second start. Then he pissed them all off again. His administration
showed an almost reflexive contempt for even the idea of listening to the rest of the world.
Like when Cheney told the world that he "didn't give a shit" (quotation marks mine) about
weapons inspectors. And Bush's response to whether the largest simultaneous antiwar protests
in human history had made any sort of impression on him. "Size of protest," he said, "it's
like deciding, well, I'm going to decide policy based upon a focus group." A ten-millionperson
focus group.
Several months ago, I saw former President Clinton on CSPAN giving a speech about
globalization to the Council on Foreign Relations. He spoke for a couple of hours, with just a
few notes, displaying an incredible depth and breadth of understanding. In a way, it made me
miss him.