Wednesday, October 4, 2006

It?s the cover-up, stupid


Pat Murphy

It's the unchanging ending to every spectacular public scandal.

Lies, diversions, excuses—they all fail. Cover-ups lead to more questions and ultimately to downfall.

Washington hasn't learned from President Nixon's failed Watergate cover-up or the Catholic Church's delusional denials of hundreds of sexual predator priests, a disastrous strategy that has drained hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuit damages and muddied the church's reputation forever.

Now, Republicans are in full throat with denials and lies trying to cover up bungling on two fronts that belie the party's claim of being the "values" political force.

It's biggest blunder has been forging and foisting on the public the fairy tale that the attack on Iraq and the three-year occupation is showing progress on the path to crushing a growing bloody insurgency. Critics, meanwhile, are waved off as liberal crybabies or unpatriotic.

Troops on the ground, however, know progress is a lie. Other nations know it's a lie. Iraqis who're being killed by the hundreds every week know it's a lie. Retired generals who led operations are saying it's a lie. And documents being forced out of the Bush White House's secret files show it's a lie.

Now the frosting: Republicans are scrambling to cover up a cover-up in the unmasking of Florida Republican Rep. Mark Foley as a possible sexual predator in their midst.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, a pitiable glove-puppet installed by the corrupt and deposed Rep. Tom DeLay, was informed nearly a year ago of Foley's explicit e-mails to teenage male congressional pages.

The e-mails were covered up. Public disciplining of Foley was avoided, lest a possible deviant on a subcommittee writing legislation to protect children from predators was revealed. Politics over principle, once again.

And now Hastert is trying to cover up what he covered up for nearly a year: He denies he was told of Foley's behavior. Even GOP colleagues suggest Hastert is lying.

(The media shouldn't cluck about this: The Miami Herald and The St. Petersburg Times apparently also had the information and did nothing.)

A stubborn refusal to level with the public shows a terrible weakness of character.

Had Bush & Co. admitted it screwed up on Iraq and promised a new approach, the shame he and others will carry to their graves could've been avoided.

And a frank public repudiation of Rep. Foley a year ago would've bolstered highly touted Republican claims of "family values."

Instead, the two cover-ups merely make "family values" a slogan to replace deeds with cheap words.




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