Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Joe Conason is deeply disturbed that the Washington Post and the New York Times didn’t think the Downing Street memo was big enough news to bother reporting much about.

George Bush is a liar and there’s proof of it.

Yawn.

Maybe the real story is this: George Bush is a liar and there’s proof of it and the average American doesn’t really give a shit.

I think most of us have always assumed that politicians lie. It used to be though — and I don’t think I’m just imagining this — that we thought they’d tell the truth when it came down to the REALLY important stuff. Stuff like going to war, for example. Sure, they might spin the truth a little bit. They wouldn’t tell outright lies, though. Would they? Maybe they would. The thing is, we expected them to tell the truth about the important stuff.

Now we don’t even expect it.

Worse — and this is the really creepy part — many of us apparently don’t even care.

There’s your real news story, Joe Conason.