When is a lie not a lie?

This is the question posed by Richard Cohen [1] in a good Washington Post op-ed piece earlier this week. I feel this may not have received the attention it deserves, and I wanted to call attention to it. Cohen demonstrate's that the media may hopefully be becoming more critical of the administration's lapses in veracity.

Commenting on the President's admission during the November 8 Press Conference that he did not tell the truth about Rumsfeld's pending dismissal, Cohen explains:

The president had his excuses ready. He lied for the sake of the troops....

In fact -- and this is a fact -- the lie about Rumsfeld was consistent with the White House's political line that everything is just hunky-dory in Iraq and that only Democrats and advocates of same-sex marriage could think otherwise. It would have been inconsistent with the political line for Bush to have admitted doubts about Rumsfeld. It had nothing to do with the troops, who really don't give a damn who the SecDef is, since he is junior to their second lieutenant as far as they are concerned.

In this way, Bush lied about the lie and then, as has become customary, draped an American flag over it: the troops, the troops. Actually, if he cared so much for the troops he would have gotten rid of Rumsfeld months ago.

Cohen elaborated further on the press' reaction to President Bush's press conference performance and its significance to the Democratic Party:

[I]t was downright exhilarating to see Stephanopoulos express shock at Bush's lie, and it would be equally exhilarating if the new Democratic majorities evinced a similar moral indignation. Instead of reassuring the administration's serial fibbers that they will not be required to answer for their statements about Iraq, they should instead be vowing to take apart the ship of state plank by plank until they find the rot -- not impeachment, mind you, just accountability.

This is not a matter of vengeance or, God forfend, politics, but of restoring the people's faith in their government. How dare these people lie to you and me and send Americans to die in Iraq for reasons that turned out to be wholly nonexistent? One way to return to the truth is to find the liars. I ask this not for myself but -- and I mean it -- for the troops.

The full text of the op-ed is available here [1].