By “certainly has been aware,” he meant “unaware.”
During yesterday’s White House press briefing, Tony Snow tried to play down the neglect uncovered at Walter Reed by portraying it as old news. President Bush “certainly has been aware of the conditions in the wards where he has visited, Snow said, affirming that the administration was aware of Walter Reed’s conditions “before the articles appeared in the paper.”
The White House has since backtracked from Snow’s comments. In a small addendum added to the bottom of yesterday’s briefing transcript on the White House website, a note now reads that Bush “first learned of the troubling allegations regarding Walter Reed from the stories this weekend in the Washington Post,” and that he is “deeply concerned” by the conditions:
Following the reversal, Snow told the Washington Post that “he did not know why the president, who has visited the facility many times in the past five years, had not heard about these problems before.”
Asked yesterday if Bush may talk about this scandal at some point in the future, Snow answered, “No.“
Frankly, I found the idea that Bush was aware of the conditions at Walter Reed unbelievable, not only because Bush seems only dimly aware in general, but also because The Base doesn’t give a shit about the conditions at Walter Reed, so who would bother bringing it to his attention?
Certainly some classic weasel-wording from the Snow-meister.
President Bush “certainly has been aware of the conditions in the wards where he has visited”, Snow said…
But of course, he never visited building 18. That wasn’t on the Potemkin itinerary, you see.
I caught the tail-end of an Ed Schulz piece this afternoon in which he mentioned somebody being “surprised” that such conditions could exist.
What’s going on at Walter Reed may be shocking, but nobody should be at all surprised. Anyone who thinks a couple of megalomaniacal draft-dodgers like George Bush and Dick Cheney give two fat shits about the GIs who are fighting their little vanity war needs to have his or her head examined.
Bush cares about the vets? Wake me when he increases their benefits, okay?
Well, of course, the President knows all and is aware of everything. He’s the Commander-in-Chief, for god’s sake–that’s his job. It’s just that–despite this amazing all-knowingness–he was unaware of the conditions at Walter Reed.
Why is this so hard for you people to understand?
“He’s the Commander-in-Chief, for god’s sake-–that’s his job.”
Did I mention that it’s hard work?
That’s right. I understand he “thinks about Iraq every day, every single day.”