Trust

Someone  has said that a politician holding high office will continue to be effective if his constituents believe in what he says, knows that he is telling the truth, thinks that he can be relied on to be honest and fortright.  I listened to Bush on the evening news tonight and to Cheney -- why does that guy have a crooked mouth? -- lambasting those who disagreed with their failed policies on Iraq.  Their house has come tumbling down because even their own partisans know that they have lost the only medium of exchange a public officer has -- trust.

I'm reminded of Nixon and his secret war in Cambodia -- telling his stooges, "Tell them something, but do something else."