The Non-Denial Denial

Dear Mr. President,

I replayed at least 6 times that short 15-second clip of Friday’s press conference where you sort-of-but-not-quite deny that your White House spilled the beans on your cyber-war against Iran and your personal selection of “nominees” for assassination and I have to tell you, you’re not very convincing. Weasel words, Mr. President, weasel words. Those long pauses while you carefully choose each word so you can’t be impeached for lying like Clinton was, is pretty obvious. Not a single use of “deny,” “not true,” or “did not.” Your were real lawerly, giving yourself plenty of wiggle-room. Nor did I see anger and outrage there, but rather, that deer-in-the-headlights look. Here’s the whole shebang (with “…” indicating your pauses): “The notion that … my White House would purposely… release… classified national security information … is offensive.” Frankly, I find this statement offensive, Mr. President, for I believe you’re lying. I believe you wanted this information out there to burnish your image for the election and it sortofalmost backfired. Until you got the diversionary action going in Congress to investigate who leaked instead of what leaked and then got an obeisant press to kill the real story. Not a word anywhere in the papers today about leaks or Kill List or covert wars but that whole charade might have left a lot of people wondering, What the heck is going on here? covert wars? Kill Lists? Targeted Assassinations? People might start thinking, Maybe this isn’t the Change we voted for in 2008. Last Tuesday’s low turnout reflects the turnoff of voters to your false promises of Hope and Transformation. Not a good sign for you or for democracy. We’re on the verge of something big here, Mr. President, and it doesn’t bode well for people of your ilk. A new book by William J. Dobson, “The Dictator’s Learning Curve” depicts modern despots as savvy, sophisticated and more nimble than in the old days. They pepper their speeches, he says, with references to “liberty,” “justice” and “the rule of law,” and instead of arrests and firing squads, they secretly change the rules and use confusion to blur the line between what’s lawful and what’s not. And the more sophisticated ones use tax collectors and health inspectors to shut down dissidents and opposition groups rather than thugs wielding weapons. Of course, if all else fails, then the goons go in and brute force, the old standby, prevails. Revolution in America is long overdue, Mr. President.