a peek inside the mad house

From Hotline on Call:

We heard Mike Allen refer to this on Larry King Live, and this morning, The Note offers up this nugget: "Sources close to the Vice President say that there was actually a statement prepared either by Cheney, or with his help, to be delivered Sunday morning after the accident. It was something the White House suggested -- and might have been prepared with some White House help. But it was determined by his advisors and by him that morning that it was too 'convoluted,' and might not be the best way to proceed. They decided it might be best to have somebody who actually witnessed the accident explain what happened. For some reason, they thought that would seem more 'credible,' hence, the involvement of Katherine Armstrong. They now see that this was likely bad judgment."

Here's what Allen said last night: "And, Larry, the vice president and one of the staff members actually had worked up a statement that they considered releasing on Sunday morning but it was so obtuse and elliptical that it was decided that that would just cause even more of a frenzy, so they waited to do it this way."

So they couldn't even swallow the lies that they were preparing to give on the story. I wonder what it said, because the story that they did come out with via a lobbyist and an appointed ambassador, was pretty pathetic. Maybe they thought saying the same thing through a different source really would be more believable.

Meanwhile, when did the President hear about it? What about Scotty? Was Scotty's communications team crafting the story? Was Karl Rove? These folks are pathalogical lairs. Forthcommingness and honesty is just about the last thing that would come to mind.

Sure, Clinton's first reaction was to duck the hard truth about his womanizing nature, but he didn't shoot anyone in the face, neck, and chest. Nor did he lie to go to war in Kosovo or Haiti. As far as I can tell the CYA of the Clinton White House was on unnecessary non-scandals that were turned into scandals by zealous GOPers like Barbara Comstock. The CYA of the Bush White House involve Iraq, outing a CIA agent for political gain, information on key legislation (Medicare plan B, Energy policy, spending bills for Iraq/Afghanistan, etc.), warrantless domestic spying, Katrina, and much more.

Dick Cheney firmly believes that the executive can do whatever it wants and doesn't have to share any information. In fact, information sharing is a sin or necessary evil in the Cheney world view. And this was just the latest example.