The Trust Gap

Published: February 12, 2006

We can't think of a president who has gone to the American people more often than George W. Bush has to ask them to forget about things like democracy, judicial process and the balance of powers — and just trust him. We also can't think of a president who has deserved that trust less.

This has been a central flaw of Mr. Bush's presidency for a long time. But last week produced a flood of evidence that vividly drove home the point.

DOMESTIC SPYING

After 9/11, Mr. Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the conversations and e-mail of Americans and others in the United States without obtaining a warrant or allowing Congress or the courts to review the operation. Lawmakers from both parties have raised considerable doubt about the legality of this program, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made it clear last Monday at a Senate hearing that Mr. Bush hasn't the slightest intention of changing it.

According to Mr. Gonzales, the administration can be relied upon to police itself and hold the line between national security and civil liberties on its own. Set aside the rather huge problem that our democracy doesn't work that way. It's not clear that this administration knows where the line is, much less that it is capable of defending it. Mr. Gonzales's own dedication to the truth is in considerable doubt. In sworn testimony at his confirmation hearing last year, he dismissed as "hypothetical" a question about whether he believed the president had the authority to conduct warrantless surveillance. In fact, Mr. Gonzales knew Mr. Bush was doing just that, and had signed off on it as White House counsel.

THE PRISON CAMPS

It has been nearly two years since the Abu Ghraib scandal illuminated the violence, illegal detentions and other abuses at United States military prison camps. There have been Congressional hearings, court rulings imposing normal judicial procedures on the camps, and a law requiring prisoners to be treated humanely. Yet nothing has changed. Mr. Bush also made it clear that he intends to follow the new law on the treatment of prisoners when his internal moral compass tells him it is the right thing to do.

On Thursday, Tim Golden of The Times reported that United States military authorities had taken to tying up and force-feeding the prisoners who had gone on hunger strikes by the dozens at Guantánamo Bay to protest being held without any semblance of justice. The article said administration officials were concerned that if a prisoner died, it could renew international criticism of Gitmo. They should be concerned. This is not some minor embarrassment. It is a lingering outrage that has undermined American credibility around the world.

According to numerous news reports, the majority of the Gitmo detainees are neither members of Al Qaeda nor fighters captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan. The National Journal reported last week that many were handed over to the American forces for bounties by Pakistani and Afghan warlords. Others were just swept up. The military has charged only 10 prisoners with terrorism. Hearings for the rest were not held for three years and then were mostly sham proceedings.

And yet the administration continues to claim that it can be trusted to run these prisons fairly, to decide in secret and on the president's whim who is to be jailed without charges, and to insist that Gitmo is filled with dangerous terrorists.

THE WAR IN IRAQ

One of Mr. Bush's biggest "trust me" moments was when he told Americans that the United States had to invade Iraq because it possessed dangerous weapons and posed an immediate threat to America. The White House has blocked a Congressional investigation into whether it exaggerated the intelligence on Iraq, and continues to insist that the decision to invade was based on the consensus of American intelligence agencies.

But the next edition of the journal Foreign Affairs includes an article by the man in charge of intelligence on Iraq until last year, Paul Pillar, who said the administration cherry-picked intelligence to support a decision to invade that had already been made. He said Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney made it clear what results they wanted and heeded only the analysts who produced them. Incredibly, Mr. Pillar said, the president never asked for an assessment on the consequences of invading Iraq until a year after the invasion. He said the intelligence community did that analysis on its own and forecast a deeply divided society ripe for civil war.

When the administration did finally ask for an intelligence assessment, Mr. Pillar led the effort, which concluded in August 2004 that Iraq was on the brink of disaster. Officials then leaked his authorship to the columnist Robert Novak and to The Washington Times. The idea was that Mr. Pillar was not to be trusted because he dissented from the party line. Somehow, this sounds like a story we have heard before.

•

Like many other administrations before it, this one sometimes dissembles clumsily to avoid embarrassment. (We now know, for example, that the White House did not tell the truth about when it learned the levees in New Orleans had failed.) Spin-as-usual is one thing. Striking at the civil liberties, due process and balance of powers that are the heart of American democracy is another.

I was incredibly impressed by the Democratic response after the state of the union adress. I've talked to others who feel the same as I do. Here's the full text of that response.

I realy hope that the democrats adopt this speach as their election platform, because if they do, they will indeed win this years midterm elections and win big.

--------------------------------

The Democratic Response: Virginia Governor Tim Kaine

CQ Transcriptions
Tuesday, January 31, 2006; 10:38 PM

KAINE: My fellow Americans, good evening.

I'm Tim Kaine, the governor of the commonwealth of Virginia. And it's an honor tonight to give the Democratic response to President Bush on behalf of my commonwealth, my fellow Democratic governors and the Democratic Party.

I worked as a missionary when I was a young man and I learned to measure my life by the difference I can make in someone else's life.

Coretta Scott King embodied that value. And tonight, as a nation, we mourn her passing.

Our faith and values teach us that there's no higher calling than serving others.

Our federal government should serve the American people. But that mission is frustrated by this administration's poor choices and bad management.

Families in the Gulf Coast see that as they wait to rebuild their lives. Americans who lose their jobs see that as they look to rebuild their careers. And our soldiers in Iraq see that as they try to rebuild a nation. KAINE: As Americans, we do great things when we work together. Some of our leaders in Washington seem to have forgotten that.

I want to offer some good news tonight: There is a better way.

In Virginia -- and other states -- we're moving ahead by focusing on service, competent management and results. It's all about bringing people together to find common-sense solutions to our common problems.

That's how we in Virginia earned the ranking of America's "Best Managed State."

You know, no matter what political philosophy you hold or what state you call home, you have a right to expect that your government can deliver results.

When there's a crime or a fire, you expect that police and firefighters have the tools to respond. When there's a natural disaster, you expect a well-managed response. When you send your children to school, you expect them to be prepared for success. And, you have a right to expect government to be fiscally responsible, pay the bills and live within its means. KAINE: Tonight we heard the president again call to make his tax policies permanent, despite his administration's failure to manage our staggering national debt.

Over the past five years, we've gone from huge surpluses to massive deficits.

Now, no parent makes their child pay the mortgage bill.

Why should we allow this administration to pass down the bill for its reckless spending to our children and grandchildren?

There's a better way.

Two years ago in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans worked together to reform our budget.

By focusing on results, we were able to keep the budget balanced, preserve our strong credit rating and protect the essential services that families rely on: education, health care, law enforcement.

States all across this country are doing this right now, as the federal government falls further and further into debt.

Think about what's occurring in education.

The administration's No Child Left Behind Act is wreaking havoc on local school districts. KAINE: Despite the insistence of Democrats in Congress that the program should be funded as promised, the administration has opposed full funding and is refusing to let states try innovative alternatives.

Now the Republican leadership in Washington is actually cutting billions of dollars from the student loan programs that serve working families, helping to get their children through college.

There's a better way.

Last year, governors from across the country worked together in a bipartisan fashion to reform the senior year of high school to make it serve our students better.

Many states are working to make high-quality pre-kindergarten accessible to every family.

Congressional Democrats have a plan to educate 100,000 new engineers, scientists and mathematicians in the next four years. KAINE: And in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans alike worked together to make record investments in education.

The results: more accredited schools, better student test scores.

Look at what's happening in health care. Skyrocketing costs are hurting small businesses and pushing millions of working Americans into the ranks of the uninsured.

The White House has made efforts to cut Medicaid funds for our most vulnerable citizens. Our seniors were promised that the new federal Medicare drug plan would make it easier and cheaper to obtain their medication.

Instead, many have fallen victim to the program's poor planning. They find getting their medicine to be more complex, more expensive and less reliable.

There's a better way.

Health care reforms have to focus on making the system serve consumers better. Many states, following the lead of Illinois, have set up simple ways to help seniors purchase safe, American-made prescription drugs from other countries at a fraction of the price they would pay here.

And the administration actually fought against that Democratic effort.

In Virginia, we've worked to provide health insurance coverage for nearly 140,000 children who weren't covered four years ago. KAINE: And Republicans and Democrats alike have come together to fight the administration's efforts to slash Medicaid and push more costs onto the states.

The president called again tonight for our commitment to win the war on terror and to support our troops. Every American embraces those goals. We can -- we must -- defeat those who attack and kill innocent people.

While the images of the World Trade Center are seared in the minds of all Americans, so too are the memories of those who died on sacred ground here in Virginia in the attack on the Pentagon.

Our commitment to winning the war on terror compels us to ask this question: Are the president's policies the best way to win this war?

We now know that the American people were given inaccurate information about reasons for invading Iraq. KAINE: We now know that our troops in Iraq were not given the best body armor or the best intelligence.

We now know the administration wants to cut tens of thousands of troops from the Army Reserves and the National Guard at the very time that we're facing new and dangerous threats.

And we now know that the administration wants to further reduce military and veterans' benefits.

There's a better way.

Working together, we have to give our troops the tools they need to win the war on terror. And we can do it without sacrificing the liberty that we've sent our troops abroad to defend.

Our support has to begin here at home.

That's why we in Virginia -- Democrats and Republicans -- have reformed and enhanced our Department of Veterans Services to help our veterans and their family members access the federal benefits that they've earned. KAINE: And we're working to provide state re-enlistment bonuses to honor those Virginians who stay in service to commonwealth and country.

When it comes to energy, Americans are using more than ever, paying more for it, and are more dependent on the Middle East than ever before.

There's a better way.

Last summer, I joined Democrats in Washington and in other states and called on oil companies to share in our sacrifice and return some of their record-breaking excess profits.

Democrats at both the state and national levels are leading the way on energy reforms, calling for greater public investments for alternative, advanced energy technologies. These investments will promote energy independence, boost the nation's economy, create jobs and strengthen national security.

The failure of the federal government to implement and enforce a rational immigration policy has resulted in a confusing patchwork of state and local efforts. KAINE: Of course, we should welcome those who seek to lawfully join and contribute to our American family -- and we must.

But at the same time, we have to ensure that our homeland defense efforts begin with consistent federal action to protect our borders.

The administration is falling behind in other critical areas: preserving the environment, keeping our workplaces safe, protecting family farms, keeping jobs in America.

Our communities are then left to deal with the challenges and the consequences of these federal failures without a reliable partner.

But we managed to find a better way.

The better way is to focus on service. It's about measuring what we do in terms of real results for real people.

It's not about partisanship or political spin. It's about protecting the rights endowed by our creator, fulfilling the principle of equality set out in our Declaration of Independence, and ensuring that the light of liberty shines on every American. KAINE: If we want to replace the division that's been gripping our nation's capital, we need a change.

Democrats are leading that reform effort, working to restore honesty and openness to our government, working to replace a culture of partisanship and cronyism with an ethic of service and results.

Our greatest need is for America to heal its partisan wounds and become one people. You know, those are words Thomas Jefferson expressed after he was elected president. And they ring as true today as they did in 1800.

Tonight we pray, earnestly and humbly, for that healing and for the day when service returns again as the better way to a new national politics. KAINE: We ask all Americans to join us in that effort because, together, America can do better.

Thank you for listening, and God bless the United States of America.