Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

“It’s just so basic: Never defend an indefensible position. No good ever comes of it.

The more you dig in, the worse you look, the more you compound the damage. It’s much better to confront the truth, no matter how difficult that is, apologize and move on.

To do the opposite, to borrow the great line from Talleyrand, is not only a disgrace, it’s a mistake.

We were reminded of this lesson again this week by President Obama and CBS News.

Obama on Thursday at last apologized to Americans who are losing their health insurance policies under the Affordable Care Act, even though he had reassured them over and over and over that there was no way that would happen.

On Friday morning, CBS correspondent Lara Logan issued an unusual on-air apology for a clearly problematic 60 Minutes report on the 2012 attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.”

So finally, the President essentially said: “I was wrong, I lied, I made a mistake, please forgive me.” But now, to make this right, he now needs to say,  ”By the way, I am going to fix it by delaying the individual mandate for one full year. And we are going to go to real American computer companies and bid the job to develop a real website which will actually work. You WILL be able to keep your doctor and your plan, if you wish. I WILL work with the Republicans in the Congress to fix all of the issues which have now been revealed to not make sense. The IRS will NOT be the agency to enforce compliance. Instead, the Department of Labor will be. And none of the current or former IRS employees will be moved to Labor.”

If he doesn’t do all if this, he should be impeached for violating the Constitution. He certainly didn’t promote the general welfare, he lied to the American people, and indirectly to the Congress, and he abused his power by coercing the Democrats to go along with his lie. So, technically, he lied to the Congress, which is an impeachable offense. Sadly, he is so arrogant, he won’t do any of the above.

As far as CBS and 60 Minutes are concerned, you would think they’d learned a lesson in 2004, when both entities stood by Dan Rather and his doctored, false documents, and backed his lies about President Bush’s activities when he was in the Texas National Guard. To have its reputation damaged by backing those lied should have made the producers of 60 Minutes and the executives of CBS double and triple check its sources to make certain egg wouldn’t land on its faces again by backing another false story on such a serious topic as Benghazi.

Neither CBS nor the President has any good option now. Each defense is about as solid as standing in dinghy with holes on the bottom, on top of quicksand, in the middle of Chesapeake Bay. Which is not solid at all. The trust each may have had with the American public is now gone with the wind. Pretty much, forever.

The old expression “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” could easily read “lie to” in lieu of “fool”. And the problem got both the President and CBS/60 Minutes, is that they have lied so many times, as Hillary said “at this point, what difference does it make.” We are tired of all the lies, innuendo and utter nonsense our public officials and entities seem to think they can get away with, due to their standing in our society.

So, to sum up, how many people think President Obama will do any of what is suggested he should? Raise your hands. Anybody? No? Or 60 minutes? Again, anybody? Man, we are a cynical bunch, aren’t we?

We certainly have some damn good reasons to be, don’t we!