Sex, Lies and Politicians — Condi & the President?
Whether we like a politician — or not — we, the American electorate, are obsessed with the sex lives of our political leaders. And we want details! Admit it, when you’re in the supermarket checkout line, you can’t help but read the tabloid headlines about who’s doing what with whom. The more perverse and scandalous — the bigger the headlines.
So, if you were in the supermarket checkout line this week you may have noticed that The Globe, owned by American Media who also publishes the National Enquirer, and The Star, reported that the First Lady, Laura Bush, moved into a Washington hotel after confronting the President about an affair with Dr. Rice. The “source” for this, according to Accuracy in Media was former naval officer Wayne Madsen, conspiracy theorist extraordinaire, whose stories are typically based on unnamed intelligence agency insiders. The tabloid and left-wing press occasionally pick up his stories as he banks off of his resume of having served in naval intelligence and having worked for the National Security Agency (NSA). After reviewing his website and reading about some of his conspiracy claims — like the USS Cole bombing was actually caused by an Israeli cruise missile — we think that somebody at the VA should investigate if Mr. Madsen took part in any of those CIA-sponsored LSD experiments. Madsen’s current claim of an affair involving the President and Dr. Rice hasn’t been picked up by the mainstream media and, surprisingly, is even openly doubted by many of those in the left-wing blogosphere, such as Wonkette, and even internet astrologers like Astroworld. Of course, if Dan Rather were still the anchor at CBS news with its “high standards” of journalism, we’re sure that this report would have led off the Evening News days ago.
Initially, we were not going to blog about this — writing it off to just another tabloid rumor — but after receiving a number e-mails on the subject, we reconsidered. The Accuracy in Media editor, Cliff Kincaid, is to be congratulated for his column, Political Dirty Tricks Against Bush?, that has been cited in a number of online publications and “defangs” the bite of this rumor.
June 24th, 2006 at 8:38 pm
I don’t know why we’re even dignifying this gossip by addressing it. It’s a tabloid story. The same tabloids that say alien vampire babies are being born. Secretary Rice (and Pres. Bush) are WAY too busy to be frolicking around in any extramarital trists. Rice gets little sleep on the road and is constantly traveling and working.
If Rice was spending her spare time having an affair with Pres. Bush or anyone else for that matter, I don’t think we’d have been seeing some of the amazing accomplishments that Dr. Rice has made that would have reuired her full attention — from the diplomatic progress in Iran, to the delaying of the missile launch in North Korea, to the success of the STate Department under her Transformational Diplomacy — these feats clearly show that Dr. Rice is fully and wholeheartedly committed to doing her job to the best of her abilities.
There’s a reason why most civil people look down upon gossip.
June 24th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
I agree with Josiah. This is “tabloid trash”. No one with an IQ higher than a can of Spam reads “The Globe”. And, I venture to say that anyone who does read the supermarket checkout-line tabloids does not vote. They couldn’t find their way to the polling place.
June 24th, 2006 at 10:19 pm
We agonized about whether to post this one. At first, we ignored e-mails that quoted this story, as if it were gospel, as just more lunacy from the Left. Unfortunately, the story was starting to take on a life of its own — and after Accuracy in Media picked it up, we thought it was better to “get out in front of the story.” Besides, literally millions of Americans saw the cover of The Globe — so it’s a pretty safe bet that we’ll be hearing about it sooner, or later.
By the way, all Condistas owe a debt of thanks to Cliff Kincaid, the editor of Accuracy in Media, for debunking this rumor. His article is a must read. (You wouldn’t want to be in the middle of an interview and get “blindsided” by a question about this.) You can e-mail Mr. Kincaid at cliff.kincaid@aim.org. It would be a nice gesture for us to send brief individual e-mail messages to Mr. Kincaid expressing thanks for his work.
This time it was easy to “shoot down” the rumor, but as the election nears we’ll be hearing more of these attacks, desguised as rumors, and probably repeated by media outlets that are considered more reliable. Preparing ourselves to respond to these scurilous claims is important.
June 24th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
Tony,
It is a sad commentary that the tabloid press is taking on increasing importance in the United States. Remember Gary Hart? He might have occupied the White House if not for the tabloids. Remember Jennifer Flowers? Or Paula Jones? Their stories were broken by the tabloid press — unfortunately Clinton, unlike Hart, wasn’t side-tracked on his way to the White House.
June 25th, 2006 at 2:15 am
Who would ever beleive such trash!? Such stupdity only personifies their ignorance. Condi Rice has a very close relationship with Bush–and it should be respect as such!
June 25th, 2006 at 4:12 am
I beleive theses tabloïd and trash 100% because they are funny , well read by a lot of people, and trusted by numerous people also. The same who belivied there is aliens on earth, as mikael jackson, …..
The propaganda usign tabloïds is very funny and very powerfull. To win the election need to know how to use well this terrific weapon.
Bill Clinton was good in this sport. Hillary ? not sure but she have a good advisor close to her.
Bush look from france same than a raincoat, water cann’t rest on it.
Condi ? I am sure Condi is very clever. Does Foreing affairs not a science of complete disinformation ?
The tabloïd games are more difficult than chess. Need to play well and with science to be a real winner.
June 25th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Update: The blogosphere has been picking up this story, but fortunately it is mostly citing Cliff Kincaid’s article debunking it. However, for the first time this false rumor appeared in the MSM as a syndicated article from the Dallas Morning News that was published in the Witchita Eagle and probably other newspapers around the country. Granted, it was just a tabloid headlines review, but there was no mention of the Cliff Kincaid article.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:32 am
Richard,
The main difference between the Tabs breaking the stories on Gary Hart and Bill Clinton and this one on Condi is: The stories on Hart and Clinton were TRUE.
I learned many, many years ago that the tabloid headlines are misleading but not enough to be out-n-out false. Example: When I was a kid, a year or two after the Kennedy assassination, my mom and thousands of other ladies bought one with headlines reading: “The Man Bobby Protects Jackie From.” Inside the article, the man was “the social climber”, “the gold digger”, “the opportunist”, etc. Many disappointed readers thought there was one particular guy after the widowed Jackie.
I’d be interested to know what the inside story of this globe article has to say. I’d venture to say it is very generic, to say the least.
Tony
July 14th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
Tragically extreme left wing reporting doesn’t exist just within the gossip rags. I think we can all testify to that. Papers are only interested in one thing, the big buck.
I like what Alamtara had to say. Rather than going into panic mode lets use their own crap against them. They want to play hard ball, lets play hard ball.
“How do we do this?” You might ask. Hell, I haven’t got a clue but there’s got to be some people out there who would love a crack at this.
Any suggestions Alamtara?
Tommy