Bush lies & blames commanders for surge

The fact that Bush has given infinitely fewer press conferences than his modern predecessors has always been a bone of contention for me.  But to be fair, I can’t say I blame him.  In fact, after six years, I can’t imagine why anyone in the White House would think that allowing Junior to wander unsupervised through the press room would be a good idea.  Yesterday was no exception. 

For the time being, I’m going to ignore the irony of this president, within hours of jetting off to Crawford [1], chastising Congress for going on vacation (770 vacation days [2] and counting for Mr. Lazy-in-Chief).  No, the real main event was when the press were pressing him on the dismal performance of the Bush/McCain troop increase - a surge almost universally opposed by the American people.  And this child in a grown-up suit had the audacity to claim that it was never his idea; he was only following the advice of the commanders in the field.  Which would be fine.  If it were true. 

The problem is that all the joint chiefs, along with the head of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and the Marines sort of, you know … universally opposed the surge [3]!  Oh, and there was also the little matter of the commanders in the field who, wait, let me think … oh yeah … universally opposed the surge [4]!  That is, they opposed it until Bush fired them all and replaced them with a more pliable bunch. 

I would sooner fault a bird for flying than Bush for lying – it’s just in his nature.  But it would be nice if the mainstream media would call him out once in a while.