Nothing to Hyde?

CBS reports that Bush knew Iraq info was false. According to the article the White House chose to play semantic games:

CIA officials warned members of the PresidentŐs National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa.

The White House officials responded that a paper issued by the British government contained the unequivocal assertion: “Iraq has … sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” As long as the statement was attributed to British Intelligence, the White House officials argued, it would be factually accurate.

This was delivered in the state of the Union speech, which is a duty of the president as described in the U.S. Constitution Article II, Section 3. Since the state of the Union speech is a duty of the President, it would be covered by the Oath of Office. How serious an offense is it to lie to the American people?

When leading the charge against Clinton over his misleading statements regarding sexual activity, had this to say about lying Presidents:

The Presidency is an office of trust. Every public office is a public trust, but the Office of President is a very special public trust. The President is the trustee of the national conscience. No one owns the office of President, the people do. The President is elected by the people and their representatives in the electoral college. And in accepting the burdens of that great office, the President, in his inaugural oath, enters into a covenant – a binding agreement of mutual trust and obligation – with the American people.

Shortly after his election and during his first months in office, President Clinton spoke with some frequency about a “new covenant” in America. In this instance, let us take the President at his word: that his office is a covenant - a solemn pact of mutual trust and obligation – with the American people. Let us take the President seriously when he speaks of covenants: because a covenant is about promise-making and promise-keeping.

For it is because the President has defaulted on the promises he made - it is because he has violated the oaths he has sworn - that he has been impeached.

…

For if the President did so violate his oath of office, the covenant of trust between himself and the American people would be broken.

Today, we see something else: that the fundamental trust between America and the world can be broken, if a presidential perjurer represents our country in world affairs. If the President calculatedlyand repeatedly violates his oath, if the President breaks the covenant of trust he has made with the American people, he can no longer be trusted. And, because the executive plays so large a role in representing the country to the world, America can no longer be trusted.

Henry Hyde, the silence from you and your colleagues is deafening.

kherr @ 22:17 CDT | link | politics