- It's Tuesday - it must be 'No-Relation-to-Iraq Day.'
Or, if it's Thursday, it must be 'Anthrax-Unrelated-to-Terrorism Day.'
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- The Spin of the Day has taken hold inside Washington.
And it is sad - and destructive - for the world's greatest democracy.
Please let me explain:
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- Three weeks ago, when the first case of anthrax was revealed
in Florida, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson served as point man for the administration.
He saturated the airwaves with a message that the victim was "an
outdoorsman who probably got it drinking from a stream in North Carolina."
-
- Two days later, when the public was told the victim was
an employee of the parent company of the National Enquirer and the Star,
it became clear that Thompson had been 'spinning.' Rather than tell the
American people the truth, Thompson's agenda was not to tell the whole
truth because the Bush administration wants to avoid a public panic.
-
- Thompson then compounded the problem by again 'spinning'
about how much Cipro is available should an anthrax attack hit millions
of people. He tried to fudge how many doses are presently available. When
pressed by interviewers he grew testy and rude -- and then admitted we
do not have enough Cipro to take care of a national emergency.
-
- Furthermore, Thompson led the charge that these anthrax
outbreaks had no linkage whatsoever to Sept. 11.
-
- Well, that 'spin' didn't sell. And Thompson is suddenly
no longer the 'spinner of the day.'
-
- Now it is Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge who ran
yesterday's postal briefing in the White House press room. Gov. Ridge
clearly had briefed each participant at the press conference to - correctly
- link the anthrax in the postal system to "terrorism." This
was stated more than 15 times during the 37-minute press conference.
-
- Clearly, the White House Spin Machine had judged last
week's Thompson sales job to be a complete flop. So they marched out a
new salesman - the affable Ridge - with a new script. This one - that
all these cases of anthrax indeed are related and most likely come from
"terrorism" is closer to the truth and less an attempt to manage
a potential public panic.
-
- All of this leads to a bigger issue: the role of our
federal government in a national crisis. Clearly this is the biggest such
crisis in many a decade - and the administration and Congress are struggling
with all aspects of how to conduct themselves. Here is what they should
do:
-
- 1) Tell the truth - even when it hurts. Tommy Thompson
forever ruined his credibility by his poor performance. He never should
have tried to downplay something as serious as a case of pulmonary anthrax
especially when it was the first such case in 25 years!
-
- 2) "I don't know" is an acceptable way to answer
a question. Government would have much more credibility if it would admit
when it does not know the answer to something. The blowhards who hog TV
airtime never can bring themselves to admit they don't know something.
Perhaps they fear they won't be asked back on TV if they don't act like
a know-it-all expert.
-
- 3) Spinning and trimming and managing public opinion
always comes back to haunt the spinner. Washington, D.C., is so inept at
truly running things that they are good only at 'spinning.' It is analogous
to so many bright minds in business being horrible at inventing/creating
and so good at PR and advertising. Today Madison Avenue tries to sell
many inferior products - the same way government talks a better game than
it walks.
-
- 4) Level with the American people - and the world - about
the role of Iraq in both Sept. 11 and the anthrax attacks. The administration
is hopelessly split between the former President Bush-Powell faction and
the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz team over Saddam's role in all of this. The Bush-Powell
side is 'spinning' and 'steering' this War on Terror away from Iraq and
toward Osama bin Laden.
-
- As reported here one day after the Sept. 11 attacks,
the Bush-Powell side has personal political baggage: their ill-conceived
rationale for allowing Saddam to stay in power after his brutal - and
illegal - invasion of Kuwait. These "internationalists" are hiding
behind our so-called coalition partners' demand that we limit this War
on Terror to the universally despised Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
-
- The Rummy-Wolfowitz side knows full well that any war
that excludes Saddam Hussein is a sham war.
-
- The press is digging up details of lead hijacker Mohamed
Atta's meetings in Prague with high-ranking Iraqi intelligence officers.
The administration claims "this is not in itself a smoking gun."
-
- Oh, no? This debunking is pure, 100% spin - and it hurts
the Bush team's credibility.
-
- How will they 'spin' the revelations that the U.N. considers
these anthrax attacks the work of "Dr. Germ" - Dr. Rihab Taha,
the English-educated 45-year-old Iraqi female doctor who heads up Saddam's
biological/chemical program?
-
- Bill O'Reilly's new book is entitled "No Spin Zone."
-
- Washington, D.C.. has become a "Total Spin Zone."
-
- The administration will not win the War on Terrorism
- nor will it ever restore belief in D.C.'s truthfulness - until it drops
'spinning' and tries 'leveling' with the American people.
-
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- Posted by permission of NewsMax.com http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/10/23/190303.shtml
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