...more recent posts
Monday, Jul 14, 2003
Defining Phrases
There are certain utterances that taint public figures. Nixon's include "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more" and "I am not a crook." My favorite from the Reagan administration is "Mistakes were made." Clinton has a few, including "definition of the word is."
The concept of defining phrases is part of the underlying methodology of Dr. P, namely to find pithy utterances that a) are clearly out of touch with reality, or b) pull back the veil of civility that obcures true character.
I've got a nomination for a phrase for Rummy. It's the title of Rummy's latest meditation on epistemology.
[Reading guide: When Rumsfeld speaks normally, he's lying. When Rumsfeld stutters, he's spinning a yarn.]
I don’t know. It appears – there’s discussion about that inside the government. … But it’s possible. But uh I just don’t know the answer. … I dunno. Call it what you want. … I don’t know that that’s necessarily the correct definition of organized resistance … I don’t know much more than what’s been said. … But it’s not clear that i-i-i – it’s not known that it’s inaccurate, in fact people think it’s accurate … Look, you’re gonna have to ask George Tennet or the people involved in that. I-I was not involved. I do not know. All I know is what the president said, what George Tennet said. And, and it seems to me that George Tennet’s statement e-e-explains the whole thing. … That I don’t know. I have no knowledge of that. … Not to my knowledge. … I mean, I don’t know what else one can say. The president said (swallow) that uuuuh (swallow) in retrospect those words didn’t ah wouldn’t should not have been in the speech, not that they’re known be inaccurate. ... The way he phrased it was accurate. ... I probably should have said we know where they were instead of we know where they are. …Exactly. We did believe that. And they may have been there. Eh we’ve been out looking at those sites and (swallow) some of those sites and have gone through some fraction of them. … I wouldn’t say that. … They have found things. Um the – they have not found things that that when one aggregates them and looks at them that they would say "a-ha there it is". But they are – they are finding things. And then what they do is they take the materials and they send to several different laboratories to be tested, then it comes back and it’s not what you thought it might be … Uh, I’m not gonna say that … But basically we don’t know. And we intend to find out. And I believe we will find out … I dih – I didn’t say that. I said we found (full-on carp-faced pause) the uh (pause) ‘suits’ that one – Iraqi would wear were they going to use those weapons … I don’t know. I-I-I I’m sure there were a lot of scientists a lot of interrogations. I don’t doubt for a minute that some people are saying that. … Now. Um. Where’s the truth? Maybe they’re both true. … Mmm eh uh you could have one person told one thing and another … I think it’s unlikely … we won’t know precisely what we’ll find … I don’t dismiss them, uh wha wha how’d you phase that they said there was no what? … Well that may be. Well there were pieces of indications of cooperation. I don’t know what “significant pattern” – in other words, I’m not gonna say that they’re incorrect. Um nor-nor can anyone say what I said was incorrect. … We ah – we have said we don’t know what it will cost (laugh). Uh we have said it’s not knowable how long it will last – the war. We never said it would be fast or slow. We didn’t know. Ah we also ehm indicated that we could not know about whether a lot of very harmful things could happen. … We never said that we knew what it would cost. We said that because it’s the truth. It wasn’t known. … I don’t know! I have said I don’t know. … Wuh-wuh-well if we knew we would say. We have avoided saying x number of years or x billions of dollars because it would be deceptive. … If it’s not knowable isn’t it a bigger s-s-s disservice to the American people to guess than to say the truth “you don’t know.” … It was a mistake to have those words in there – not that they were inaccurate. Not that they even may not be true. … if we knew, we would dearly love to tell people … Instead of stating anything, we’ve said we don’t know. … I never ever made a conclusion as to how many forces it would take because I didn’t know what Iraq was going to look like at the end of the war. Why would I think I was wise enough to look into the future and know an answer like that. I never did. … I have no idea. You don’t listen! I’ve said I don’t know the answers to those questions.
Disclaimer: This is not an official ABC NEWS transcript, nor is it a official US DOD transcript. It is not outside the realm of possibility that this transcript may not be unabridged.
Sunday, Jul 13, 2003
Je pas, je pas, je pas
Stephanopoulos attempted to pin down Rumsfeld on the dodgy dossier today. George wasn't fully prepared, in my humble opinion. While he had some of the WMD paper-trail (and video trail) lined up, he clearly didn't have the index cards in his debate file ready to handle Rummy's creative scramble. If ABC can't do their own research on the administration's historical record, then George needs to spend some time in the blogosphere. I would have loved to have seen George read Billmon's WMD quotes to Rummy's face.
Check your Tivo, because Rumsfeld's performance is truly spectacular. Once the transcript is available, I'm going to count up the repetition of "I don't know/We don't know/Not to my knowledge/Your aren't listening I said I don't know". That man is truly a marvel of shameless double speak.