“Stay the Course”

One thing that amazes me about the Bush administration is their willingness to make outright, bald-faced lies that can be easily refuted.  The latest example, as nicely summarized at Think Progress, was Bush disavowing “Stay the Course,” now that Republicans have realized this slogan is a failure…

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he?s looking for something between ?cut and run? and ?stay the course.?

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we?ve never been ?stay the course,? George.
We have been ? we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and
help achieve the goal, but we?re constantly adjusting to tactics.
Constantly.

The reality:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the
temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a
timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We?re just going
to stay the course. [12/15/03]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We?ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

BUSH: And that?s why we?re going to stay the course in Iraq. And
that?s why when we say something in Iraq, we?re going to do it. [4/16/04]

BUSH: And so we?ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

Dan Froomkin's latest column nicely summarizes what this all really boils down to:

But as I wrote in Friday's column , even the best and most flexible tactics, in pursuit of an ill-chosen strategy, will not achieve the desired goals.

Cutting
through the rhetoric, it's quite clear what Bush's Iraq strategy has
been up until now. In short: American troops will be there to provide
security as long as it takes for a democratic central government to
take hold. But there will be no clearly defined metrics against which
to measure success, no ultimatums to the Iraqi government, and no
timetables — because those would embolden the enemy.

Thus far,
Bush has remained steadfast in this strategy — even as American
casualties spike, as the country descends into a state of civil war,
and as the central government has yet to provide any evidence
whatsoever of its ability to take real control over anything.

The administration does this because they count on the so-called liberal media not calling them on their outright lies.  It will be interesting to see what happens in this case.

How the Republican party entices voters

Looks like the Republican Senatorial committee has been taking lessons from Vernon Robinson.  Thanks to my friend Rich for passing on this series of websites they are using to attack Michigan Senator, Debbie Stabenow.  As Rich put it, these would be pretty funny, “if they weren't blatant appeals to xenophobes.”  There's three versions, check them all out. 

If the Senatiorial committee is not bad enough, the Republican Congressional Committee is absolutely and appallingly shameless in their lies.  From the Carpetbagger Report:

Both major-party candidates for a congressional seat are
decrying an ad sponsored by a national Republican committee that
accuses the Democrat of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex
line.

The ad, which began airing Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at
the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, “Hi, sexy. You've reached
the live, one-on-one fantasy line.”

Arcuri's campaign said an associate mistakenly dialed an 800-number
sex line two years ago from Arcuri's New York City hotel room, and
released records supporting the claim. The number shares the same last
seven digits with the number for the state Department of Criminal
Justice Services, which was dialed the minute after the first call was
made.

The worst part, is that the RCCC says there is nothing wrong with this ad and continues to run it.  Is there nothing Republicans won't do in trying to hold onto control of Congress?