Birds of a feather....

This Palmeiro/Bush story would be absolutely astonishing if it wasn't for the small fact that Bush was involved. Palmeiro swore that he "never used steroids, period," shaking his finger at elected officials while saying it. Recall that in Jose Conseco's tell-all book, he mentions Palmeiro as someone he shot with steroids. Now Palmeiro has clarified his on-record statement by claiming he never "intentionally" used steroids. (I guess we're expected to believe that Conseco held him down and forced the illegal drug into Palmeiro's body).

Hmm, sounds very similar to a certain man in the White House who first said he'd remove anyone "involved" in the Plame leak only to recently change it to a crime must have been committed.

Better yet, Bush has recently come out and said that Palmeiro "is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him. He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do." As Kevin Drum wrote, "It's like listening to a small child. He doesn't want to believe it, so it isn't true. This is the man currently running our country."

Again, it would normally be astounding to have a U.S. president go on record and state in effect that he didn't believe MLB's drug test results. A smart president would've either been non-committal (which we've seen Bush do many times before on matters where he actually should have taken a side) or weighed in on the side of the hard evidence (resulting in Palmeiro's suspension). Nope, not George. He's going to publicly side with by-all-accounts the person who's lying, or at the very least appears to be very deceptive.

Given the cast of characters that surrounds GW (Cheney, DeLay, Rove, Bolton, Rumsfeld, etc.), it's not astounding that Bush sides with the slippery Palmeiro. In fact, it makes (sick, twisted) sense.