Bush to press: I don’t know Jack!

OK, we all know this is a load of crap, but the need to lie straight to the camera, to the press, to the American people has to be called to account.

Here’s what the Prez said during Thursday’s press conference in answer to question about photos taken with Jack Abramoff:

"You know, I, frankly, don't even remember having my picture taken with the guy. I don't know him."

That is a flat-out lie.

As just about everybody has noted, Abramoff was the most hooked-up lobbyist in Washington this century. He peppered the administration with close associates. He logged-in at the White House numerous times.

And, as Josh Marshall has discovered, the White House and Bush cronies are involved in an all-out cover-up of W’s relationship with Jack. Photos of Bush and Abramoff are being destroyed—digitally wiped from data bases, deleted from CDs, pulled from files—in a fast-track scrubbing of the memory banks.

God, you guys, that is so 22 years ago!

The problem is, people have seen the photos. People have seen Abramoff mix and mingle with Bush & co. And people know this smells bad (ReddHedd has a nice rundown of the shenanigans and public opinion).

Reporters in the White House pool know it, too. If the good ladies and gentlemen of the press can’t quite bring themselves to call the President a liar, the least they can do is call what this administration is doing by its proper name: cover-up.