The Republicans’ Pinocchio Problem

Now Mitt Romney lies about hunting.

The former Massachusetts governor said he had been a hunter for just about all his life. Almost immediately his staff reminded him he had only been hunting twice. Presumably Mr. Romney forgot about all the times he never hunted.

Meanwhile, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is now engaged in intensive preparation for his congressional testimony. Will he accuse his former chief of staff of lying? Or will he admit that he lied himself when he said he was not involved in the U.S. attorney firings?

Of course, Scooter Libby was convicted of lying, to the applause of the neoconservative community, which calls for pardon because, for them, putting one’s hand on the Bible with an oath to God Almighty and lying is really OK, thank you.

After many tall tales about Iraq WMDs, a little perjury between friends is no big deal.

Not to be outdone, the president said he had ordered the surge because the commanders asked him to, when in truth, the Joint Chiefs and Iraq commanders pleaded with him not to order the surge. Of course, after overruling, disrespecting, and mispresenting their views, the president found a new commander, and now retroactively rewrites the truth about how the commanders at the time asked him for the surge.

Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) famous stroll down the streets of Baghdad wasn’t exactly a lie, he just tried to present a fiction as truth, then attacked the media for reporting the truth. This photo op, which will be remembered alongside George Bush’s flight suit and Dukakis’s tank, was just another example of the Republicans’ Pinocchio problem when false image masquerades as truth, and integrity yields to falsehood.

Remember when the president told a Buffalo audience in 2004 that nothing had changed because he was getting court orders for eavesdropping, while at the very moment, he was engaging in the most massive acts of unauthorized extra-judicial eavesdropping since the Constitutional Convention?

Now we have new cases of American troops losing their lives under friendly fire, with the Pinocchio brigades out in full force, telling false tales even to the families of heroes.

The list goes on, so let’s end today with this:

To the 21 Republican senators who are running for reelection, would you put your hand on the Bible and testify before God Almighty and answer this question:

“We believe the president’s policy in Iraq is the best thing for America and the best military strategy for the troops, which is why we always vote for it. True?”

What would Pinocchio say about that?