A Matter of Truthiness

When one fib becomes due as it were, you must forge another to take up the old acceptance; and so the stock of your lies in circulation inevitably multiplies, and the danger of detection increases every day.

William Makepeace Thackeray, (1811–1863), 'Vanity Fair'

So, First Lady Laura Bush has had a small cancerous lesion removed from her shin. Porcupine hope it was not painful, will not be serious, and can be healed quickly. The cancer was a squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common form of skin cancer, said Susan Whitson, her press secretary.

However, the Washington Press Corp has a very different view of being kept out of the loop for some 6 weeks. "Monday's revelation was the second case this year of a belated White House announcement. In February, the White House waited almost a day before disclosing that Vice President Dick Cheney had shot a fellow hunter during a quail-hunting trip", sniffed the Associated Press. Porcupine has difficulty seeing any equivalency.

Mrs. Bush was seen with a bandage on her leg in late October at a reception for the King of Sweden, and had minor surgery in early November. It is bad enough to have intrusive journalists, capable of making three people lost in the snow on a mountain into a cliff-hanging drama, asking personal questions, especially when you are not an elected official, and have no duties. Imagine having to do so while in pain and awaiting the results of a biopsy. Even worse, imagine for a moment if Laura Bush had done the full 'Betty Ford', and had Barbara Walters do an earnest and oozing interview - right before the mid-term elections. Aha! Playing the victim! Trying to bump up the President's numbers! A STOLEN ELECTION!

A new round of criticism of the Bush family's secret nature and overall regard for truth has begun again. Porcupine has been given permission to borrow a list composed by an on-line friend, Farron Hite, dealing with 'truth' through various administrations: -

--Clinton never inhaled, and "never had sex with that woman"

--Bush Senior: "Read my lips, no new taxes!"

--Carter: lied about the fundamental character of both the Sandinista and the Iranian revolutions

--Ford: [while nothing comes immediately to mind, I’m sure there was
something]

--Nixon: “I am not a crook”

--Johnson: Tonkin Gulf Resolution and Warren Commission Report

--Kennedy: Lied about our involvement at the Bay of Pigs

--Eisenhower: Lied about the U-2 incident

--Truman: Lied about the level of penetration of the US government by Soviet agents and sympathizers

--Roosevelt: Misled the American people on several occasions with respect to the events leading up to WWII.

--Hoover: Lied about the damage to the American economic system caused by the collapse of the international financial system.

--Wilson: Lied about the Lusitania Incident

Need I go on?

So, perhaps we can place the relative importance of Mrs. Bush's very white lie about her personal health problem in its proper perspective, and behave like adults insted of jackals.