Friday, July 11, 2003

Parsing Mr. Powell

I love this from a Powell briefing in Africa:

But to think that somehow we went out of our way to insert this single sentence into the State of the Union address for the purpose of deceiving and misleading the American people is an overdrawn, overblown, overwrought conclusion.

It's a non-denial denial!

"...went out of our way" -- Who said the Bush administration ever needed to go out of its way to lie?

"...this single sentence..." -- Right, the one that implied that Saddam was threatening us with nuclear weapons?

"...for the purpose of deceiving the American people..." -- But for some other purpose it would be OK?

"...overdrawn, overblown, overwrought..." -- Every "un" but "untrue"!

A good lawyer must have crafted that sentence, eh?