Bush Fib- no. 5

This is an old lie of George W. Bush, but combines the elements of nastiness, false machismo, and dishonesty. It's worth recalling.

Surely you remember Karla Faye Tucker. She was the drug-addled woman who joined her boyfriend in murdering a man and a woman with a pick axe in Texas in 1983. She was convicted, sentenced to death, and was executed in February 1994 after then-Governor George W. Bush denied her plea for clemency.

In 1999, Bush was interviewed by Tucker Carlson, then a reporter for Talk magazine. As dailykos.com noted on 6/28/04, Carlson asked Presidential candidate Bush about his reflections on the execution of K. Tucker, who apparently had become a Christian in prison and had gained the support of Newt Gingrich and other public figures in her bid to stay alive.


"He (Larry King) asked her real difficult questions, like, `What would you say to Governor Bush?'"
"What was her answer?" I (Tucker Carlson) wonder.
"`Please,' Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, `don't kill me.'"
I must look shocked - ridiculing the pleas of a condemned prisoner who has since been executed seems odd and cruel, even for someone as militantly anti-crime as Bush - because he immediately stops smirking. "It's tough stuff," Bush says, suddenly somber, "but my job is to enforce the law."



Bush later (as reported by Timothy Noah in slate.com) gave a statement meant to appear a denial, though, if you read it carefully, really landed short of denial:

Mr. Carlson misread, mischaracterized me. He's a good reporter, he just misunderstood about how serious that was. I take the death penalty very seriously. I take each case seriously. I just felt he misjudged me. I think he misinterpreted my feelings. I know he did.

Although I doubt Carlson "misread" the Governor or "misinterpreted (his) feelings," this certainly does not mean that Bush had not made the statement, only that it was interpreted in a manner, Bush argues, that is inaccurate. (Here Carlson in an inteview with Kelly Lauerman of salon.com in 9/03 addresses the remark.) And Bush might "take the death penalty very seriously," which does not mean that he is not enthusiastic about it or even giddy when it is imposed on someone who had committed a murder(s) as heinous as the ones Tucker committed.

But the lie involves another aspect of the statement: it never took place, at least not on Larry King Live, as this transcript of the program demonstrates. Maybe Mr. Bush was succumbing to pressure from supporters of the death penalty, or perhaps he needed to demonstrate that the man from Texas was not "all hat, and no cattle," and that the swagger was just part of Macho Man. (Perhaps this is a familial trait- remember his father: "Read my lips: no new taxes.") In either case, the man who famously would bellow "bring 'em on," apparently began his career of deception even before almost being elected President in November, 2000.