Let Me Be Candid (Or Perhaps Not...)

As Another Bush Official's Departure Demonstrates, Candor Is In Short Supply In Washington

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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I saw a story in the Washington Post the other day in which a reporter granted a government official anonymity in order, as the newspaper put it, for the government official to speak more candidly.

Well, that made me wonder.

Do we no longer expect government officials to tell the whole story if they must take responsibility for what they say?

Even worse, do we believe that is acceptable?

For sure, the White House won no prize for candor last week. It gave the outgoing head of the General Services Administration, Lurita Doan, a big send-off by thanking her for making government buildings more energy efficient or some such, when in truth she was forced out.

She was the object of multiple investigations - suspicious dealings on government contracts, and asking government employees what they could do to help political candidates, which is of course against the law.

Even the government's watch-dog agency recommended she be disciplined to the fullest extent.

Yet, the White House spokesman declined to say if her resignation had anything to do with any of that. From the White House came only thanks and confirmation she was gone.

The government saw no obligation to say why.

Which leads me to this: Have decades of secrecy, spin and stonewalling conditioned us to accept less than the whole story from the government? Is telling the whole truth no longer a given?

Frankly, I'm not sure. What I do know is that more and more people seem skeptical of everything the government says and does. What we saw last week may be one reason why.

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E-mail Face the Nation.

[ubrew12]

The second half of the story is when she gets hired for a million dollar salary by one of the contractors she helped out while heading the GSA. We''ll hear even LESS about that half of the coin.

[rushlimpdrug]

". . . Is telling the whole truth no longer a given?
Frankly, I''m not sure."


Gee Bob, you may want to reconsider that
career in journalism.

Frankly.

[rowdytexan2]

More like she was forced out because often her figures did not support Mr. Bush''s lies, and pointed out his corruptness in lost funds.

[thgdriver]

So Mr. Schieffer, when Katie Curic is tossed out on her ear at CBS will we get the whole truth about that when it happens??! I said, before they trotted her out, that all that glitters will not be ratings gold and I was right. It''s nice being right.

[cyberus-2009]

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The second half of the story is when she gets hired for a million dollar salary by one of the contractors she helped out while heading the GSA. We''''ll hear even LESS about that half of the coin.

Posted by ubrew12
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And won''t hear about the pardon she probably already has tucked away in her lawyers office safe in case the next election goes south for the Republicans and someone starts tracking down details.

[ranger1948]

When i saw the title to this story i instantly thought it would be about obama

[idlepugilist]

Pointing out the obvious. Bob, you''re too kind to the likes of liars.

Bob Scheiffer - For an awful long time, I thought you were one of the best reproters around but you have now lost me as a fan. I do not like it when reporters
show their party preference rather than making an effort to remain neutral and report both sides of a story. CBS has made it painfully obvious that they show favor to OBAMA. If anybody thinks Mr. Bush is a bad President, they ain''t seen nothing yet. If Obama gets elected - over the next four yrs. we will not have a country anymore. It will be overcome by the Muslims - not the good ones either. Open your eyes and ears folks. Pay attention to his background and associates. Insist the media tell both sides of the story and THE TRUTH, NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH!!!And when you are placing blame for the way things are -REMEMBER THE 100 SENATORS AND THE 435 MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE WHO HAVE MORE CONTROL OVER THINGS THAN THE PRESIDENT DOES. AND if we are going to place blame for
wrong doing, don''t lets forget NANCY PELOSHI who actually committed a very big wrong right after she became speaker of the House and it only breifly got a mention by the media and NOTHING was done about it.Are the folks in Northern California going to re-elect her in November????

[theroo4]

If the Senators and the House of representatives have more control than the President, why can Harriet Myers and Karl Rove ignore Congressional Supoenas because Bush says they can? You or I couldn''t do that!!

[joyous88]

This administration went south with the faith

based initiative, really, nothing more than a bribe

of the religious, Bush purchased the votes of the

mindless christian right to get himself elected. That

lie was the beginning of a series of lies that the

neo cons and other republiCon types live on. At the

expense of the American people. The new republicon

party is a party fo fascists, liars, spinners, greed

driven capitalists. The Neo Cons are ANTI - AMERICAN

[joyous88]

and if you like the way our country is going, than

by all means , vote for McBushCain ,four more of the

SAME!

[erichsh]

As is usually the case with posters like joyous88, you won''t find any evidence of what policy positions they actually support - only hysterical screeds about what they oppose. So let''s deconstruct:

- he''s a left winger,
- he''s an atheist, and
- he''s a Communist (ant-capitalist).

And the millions of those who don''t subscribe to his cynical, extremist, narrow world views are:
- fascists
- liars, and
- mindless.

You gotta wonder how he personally treats family members, relatives, and people in his community who just might have a different POV than his. You can be as opinionated as you choose to be, "joyous", but you only expose your pompous, arrogant, self-righteous personality in the process.

[rushlimpdrug]

Posted by erichsh at 11:49 AM

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

[jn122736]

Posted by at 11:49 AM

Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

Posted by rushlimpdrug at 12:26 PM : May 05, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

rushlimpdrug, do you think erichsh was, perhaps, making a self-discriptive comment?

[ricknuber]

erichsh:

Once again, you vomit worthless ad hominem attacks. joyous88 has valid points to make. If you want to apologize for Bush and Company, go ahead...but do try to remember you''re solidly in the minority and you''ll need to do better than just calling everyone else a "liberal".

[ricknuber]

Dishonesty and secrecy are trademark for this administration. If they had any interest in democracy, why would they claim executive privilege over practically every aspect of their government?

It''s simple: the Bush administration has a lot to hide. They need to push the executive privilege argument in order to attempt to mitigate damage already done to the Republican brand. Democrats have done nothing to call them out for this, because they are eager to abuse the same powers once they capture the office.

[element51]

When I was growing up back in the 50''s I believed everything they taught me. It was, "govenment of the people, by the people and for the people". I trusted the government 100%. Then Viet Nam came along and I started to question some things. I trusted the government 75%. Then watergate came along and I started to wonder. I trusted the government 40%. Then Clinton came along and said he didn''t when he did and I started to become skeptical. I trusted the government 30%. Then bush came along and the lies were so obvious that I knew I had been had all my life. And now I trust the government 0%. And I''ll never trust them again.

[mcvet]

As is usually the case with posters like joyous88, you won''''t find any evidence of what policy positions they actually support - only hysterical screeds about what they oppose. So let''''s deconstruct:

- he''''s a left winger,
- he''''s an atheist, and
- he''''s a Communist (ant-capitalist).

And the millions of those who don''''t subscribe to his cynical, extremist, narrow world views are:
- fascists
- liars, and
- mindless.

You gotta wonder how he personally treats family members, relatives, and people in his community who just might have a different POV than his. You can be as opinionated as you choose to be, "joyous", but you only expose your pompous, arrogant, self-righteous personality in the process.


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Posted by erichsh at 11:49 AM : May 05, 2008
+ report abuse

Now Sparky we all, everyone of us, sat and watched as a wacked out Religious Reich NUT CASE called OUR congress back into session. REASON? HE, the leader of the Religious NUTS wanted to impose HIS will on a Judge in Florida who had decided FOR the Spouse of a Brain Dead Woman. It seems the REVERAND didn''t appreciate the Judges decision so he was bringing down the full wait of the Government on him. You know what is MOST disgusting about all that. IT''s the ONLY think I can think of that they actually did outside of spending us into a 9.5 Trillion Dollar Debt. Hows that?? Sieg Heil Bush

[joyous88]

you must be one of the 17 percent (17%)

that still think GW Bush is the christian god

[vincan-2009]

Turns out many of the former personnel in Bush''s whitehouse are getting jobs with important newspapers like the New York Times and news networks like CNN. What in the world is going on that media outlets would hire Karl Rove, Tony Snow, and many other suspects of criminal activity? I could understand this if they all joined Fox News.

[rushlimpdrug]

rushlimpdrug, do you think erichsh was, perhaps, making a self-discriptive comment?
Posted by jn122736 at 02:01 PM

Methinks ericsh is not happy with the true spelling of his last name s-h-it.

Those are the breaks eric.

Some get sh_t and some get bush.

[element51]

Vincan....There is a simple answer to your question. Even though we constantly hear the right wing whackos scream and rant about the "left wing media" the truth of the matter is that the media are in the pocket of the right wing. Most of the so called "journalist" are linked into Matt Drudge and pretty much follow his lead. The media is owned lock, stock and barrel by ultra right wing billionaires and as for investigative journalism you can forget it...it''s a thing of the past. These days the news, or lack of it, is nothing more than lies and half truths. It is used to manipulate the public and I must say that they do a dam good job of it. You have to dig for the facts as best you can then use your own brain to come to your own conclusion. Don''t trust what you read or see on TEEVEE. Don''t let them con you.

[truthyness]

Since we''re being Candid.....Along with all the other problems the Democratic Party has created for themselves, they should consider this; If Obama wins the Nomination, there will be somewhere between ''some'' and ''a lot'' of Hillary supporters, mostly White, leaving the party. What will the Democrats do if it becomes very noticable that Blacks are in the majority of the party and will this motivate even more Whites to leave it? And then consider the possiblity of a new BLACK DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

Anything can happen. Look at Michigan and Florida....What are they going to do about that? Make the American Flag with only 48 stars on it?

[bluestardad]

THERE IS NOTHING DIFFERENT BETWEEN THE NAZI INVASION OF POLAND IN 1939 AND THE BUSHIT NEOCON INVASION OF IRAQ IN 2003!

START WAR CRIMES TRIALS NOW!

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[imnho]

The whitehouse is starting to give corruption a bad name.

[zaper21]

i want oboma to iliminate clinton in the end of the primarys, but she sounds like she knows her stuff, so i will just wait to see.