McClellan: Bush on Coke "You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not"

[ballsalicious]

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/05/27/mcclellanbook_0527.html

McClellan on Bush and Cocaine:

McClellan tracks Bush's penchant for self-deception back to an overheard incident on the campaign trail in 1999 when the then-governor was dogged by reports of possible cocaine use in his younger days.

The book recounts an evening in a hotel suite "somewhere in the Midwest." Bush was on the phone with a supporter and motioned for McClellan to have a seat.

"'The media won't let go of these ridiculous cocaine rumors,' I heard Bush say. 'You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not. We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember.'"

"I remember thinking to myself, How can that be?" McClellan wrote. "How can someone simply not remember whether or not they used an illegal substance like cocaine? It didn't make a lot of sense."

Bush, according to McClellan, "isn't the kind of person to flat-out lie."

"So I think he meant what he said in that conversation about cocaine. It's the first time when I felt I was witnessing Bush convincing himself to believe something that probably was not true, and that, deep down, he knew was not true," McClellan wrote. "And his reason for doing so is fairly obvious — political convenience."

In the years that followed, McClellan "would come to believe that sometimes he convinces himself to believe what suits his needs at the moment." McClellan likened it to a witness who resorts to "I do not recall."

"Bush, similarly, has a way of falling back on the hazy memory to protect himself from potential political embarrassment," McClellan wrote, adding, "In other words, being evasive is not the same as lying in Bush's mind."

And McClellan linked the tactic to the decision to invade Iraq, a decision based on flawed intelligence.

"It would not be the last time Bush mishandled potential controversy," he said of the cocaine rumors. "But the cases to come would involve the public trust, and the failure to deal with them early, directly and head-on would lead to far greater suspicion and far more destructive partisan warfare," he wrote.

[grytpype]

1. Cocaine is a hell of a drug!

[lonestarnot]

17. "Rick James Biatch!"

woot! :woohoo:

[Fridays Child]

2. Uh, Scotty? The rationale for a flat out lie doesn't change the fact that it's a flat out lie.

But this is the world that right wing leaders and their sycophants, like Scott McClellan, live in.

[madeline_con]

3. I'm putting Scotty on ignore.

He's had his 15 minutes.

[orleans]

14. already? i'm going through these threads, k&ring anything w/his name in it. n/t

[Skittles]

22. the man is a repuke whore

who SUPPORTED A REGIME THAT HAS KILLED MILLIONS until he could MAKE MONEY BY TURNING ON THEM. :puke:

[orleans]

38. yessss....i know.....they're ALL whores

and i hope we can see more of them fucking each other!

(i mean--they all fucked us pretty good--it's about time they start fucking each other)

[Bob Dobbs]

4. busholini is a psychotic sociopath.

And there is plenty of other evidence to prove that.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. "We had some pretty wild parties back in the day, and I just don't remember."

That seems to say it all.

[bdamomma]

36. exactly, and couldn't care less about anything especially

being in the Vietnam war, he got his daddy to get him out of it. What scumbuckets they all are, even that Dick Cheney, other prioirities shit, I can't stand any of them.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. I have a visual reminder for him...

[gristy]

7. I need to become a politician

I spend too much of my time nowadays trying to remember shit. To have a job where not remembering is part of the job description would be heaven.

[Wizard777]

8. Why don't they ask Barry Seals?

Oh yeah, he's dead along with 23 other DEA Agents. Valerie Plame wasn't the first covert agent he outed.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. According to D Hopsicker, Shrub bought Seals' plane and used it when he was Gov of TX.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ciadrugs/W_plane.html

A trophy?

[Wizard777]

28. I've heard bonesmen are fond of morbid trophies.

From a profile perspective. I would have to say that Jr. despises Sr. and idolizes grandpa. Prescott Jr would be more accurate. He bears a lot of the same personality traits. Especially in the area of arrogance, sense of invincibility, and blatant criminality.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

31. Shrub might wish to emulate grandpa Prescott but it's George Sr. that is the most evil of the lot.

His criminality is not blatant but insidious. The most dangerous kind.

Our best poster to educate you on the BFEE (Bush Family Evil Empire) is Octafish. He has imparted his great wealth of information on DU.

Here is a link to his Journal
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Octafish

Prior to the Journals being available, you can just do an advanced DU search and plug in Octafish as the author.

[magellan]

9. Scotty contradicted himself multiple times there

A lie is a lie is a lie...except when someone has convinced themselves to believe something that isn't true or is evading the truth.

:wtf:

[lonestarnot]

10. OK who has that pic, the skinny one with the white shit hang'n out his nose?

I know it's here and it's not a doctored pic.

[trusty elf]

21. This isn't the one you mean!

:D

[bbgrunt]

11. sounds like Scottie was really

miffed with his treatment by bushco.....and is trying to redeem his reputation. Good. May more and more of the traitors come to the confessional. We won't forget their role in this catastrophe, but the little weasels will keep turning on each other and provide more evidence of their crimes.

[grannylib]

12. "...isn't the kind of person to flat-out lie" ????? He sure as hell

IS, Snotty...he's a real pro at it. Does it all the time. Opens his mouth and lies just LEAP out. He can't help it; it's a true talent - something he just does naturally, without even trying. Hell, I'd bet he was a real prodigy - bet he's been real good at lying ever since he was a kid torturing animals.

[Chulanowa]

13. Seriously man.. .a LOT of cocaine...

[MrSlayer]

19. LOL! The Chimp as Dr. Rockso!

I DO COCAINE!

[DS1]

15. I've been pretty damn fucked up before

but I know flat out that I've never done coke. I'd bet my life on it. Even if the bet was 1 dollar. I'd bet it, because I'd win.

[beac]

20. That must have been what Bush thought when he found those rolled up dollar bills in his wallet

the morning after a bender... "Yee-haw, I won me another one-dollar bet last night!"


:party:

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. ...

:spray:

[uppityperson]

16. mrbush seldom lies, he just twists things. Perhaps he was sooooo ddrunkkkk?

I believe that he may not know, since he was soooo drunk and taking, snorting, ingesting anything that came his way without asking what it was or knowing for sure.

He seldom lies, just twists what he says, or says something so outrageous that others assume he misspoke. And yes, he is evasive, and if you look at what he says, and twist it around, it usually makes a sort of sick truth.

[Marr]

18. Oh yes-- there has to be some complex psychological explanation for it- since

he begins with the assumption that Bush "isn't the kind of person to flat-out lie".

McClellan is a fool if he actually believes that. Bush doesn't care about facts one way or the other. Nothing complex or exotic-- just a common self-serving liar.

[MilesColtrane]

23. "You know, the truth is I honestly don't remember whether I tried it or not."

"I just remember being up for three days, then waking up in a pool of my own sick."

[Amerigo Vespucci]

25. Bush, according to McClellan, "isn't the kind of person to flat-out lie."

Makes me want to run right out and buy the book.

:eyes:

[annabanana]

26. " being evasive is not the same as lying "

This is clearly the very basis of the "I don't remember" testimony that's been all over the Hill this past year.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

27. Salmon Sez:

If you can't remember whether you did coke because of all the wild parties you had in your youth, you prolly did.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. I'd Say There's No "Prolly" About It

I'd say it's metaphysical certitude that he did.
The Professor

[Virginia Dare]

29. He woke up from a decade plus long drinking binge..

with serious coke-jaw. There's your first clue!

[jefferson_dem]

30. Exploding heads in freeperville today.

Check out sludge's headlines -

[shanti]

34. lying by omission

oh yes it is!

[bdamomma]

35. * doesn't remember ?yea sure he doesn't want to remember

once a fratboy always an ignorant arrogant fratboy.

[Javaman]

37. Well it could always be that moron* was shit faced drunk at the time...

you know, both times. When he* snorted and when he* was trying to recall.

:rofl: