Bushco credibility plummets over torture and secret prisons

in two news articles and one editorial, the nyt today looks at the rapid erosion of the precious little that's left of the bush administration's credibility...

condoleezza rice long ago forfeited any right to exasperation over being questioned, particularly exasperation borne of the arrogance and dishonesty of an administration that refuses to answer any of them with anything resembling the truth...

Rice was pelted with questions on Tuesday about covert prisons and a mistaken, secret arrest, as she grappled with what has become an incendiary issue in Europe. She declined to answer most of them in two European capitals.

Even though aides to Ms. Rice said they realized that the secret-prison issue would dominate a good part of her trip, at times she has shown exasperation over the debate.

at least the press has roused itself from its slumber enough to even ASK the questions they should have been asking all along... and, thank goodness, despite condi's stonewalling, the facts are no longer being swept aside... a lot of folks simply are no longer buying what she's selling...

[I]t would be hard to imagine a more sudden and thorough tarnishing of the Bush administration's credibility than the one taking place here [Berlin] right now.

[...]

In Britain, members of Parliament from both parties reacted with even greater skepticism to Ms. Rice's statement, saying it had neither answered their questions nor allayed their concerns about American policy.

in the u.s., folks aren't buying it either...

It was a sad enough measure of how badly the Bush administration has damaged its moral standing that the secretary of state had to deny that the president condones torture before she could visit some of the most reliable American allies in Europe. It was even worse that she had a hard time sounding credible when she did it.

Of course, it would have helped if Condoleezza Rice was actually in a position to convince the world that the United States has not, does not and will not torture prisoners. But there's just too much evidence that this has happened at the hands of American interrogators or their proxies in other countries.

it only stands to reason that "she had a hard time sounding credible..." it's really hard to sound credible when you're not telling the truth...

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