News of the administration’s search for a lying czar raised eyebrows in official Washington, where many insiders believe that the White House already has enough personnel to handle the creation and dissemination of war-related lies.
Specifically, many insiders wonder why an administration that already has adviser Karl Rove and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would also need a lying czar. “The Bush administration has a lot of world-class manpower, lying-wise,” one insider said. “This whole lying czar thing seems like an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.”
But White House insiders disagree, saying that those who believe a lying czar is unnecessary are oblivious to the overwhelming volume of distortions that are sorely in need of coordination at a high administrative level. “On any given day, the Defense Department and the State Department will produce lies that are directly in conflict with each other, and that’s counterproductive,” one insider said. “A lying czar would change all that.”
Professor Davis Logsdon, who holds the Clifford Irving chair at the University of Minnesota’s School of Communication, says that the need for a lying czar reveals certain weaknesses in the current Bush cabinet. “When I hear that the White House is looking for a lying czar, one thing becomes clear,” Dr. Logsdon said. “They really miss Rumsfeld.”
Elsewhere, responding to criticism, the National Gardening Association said it would no longer use the term “hoe.”
