And you thought Rafael Palmeiro's stringent denial of steroids in front of Congress was right out of the Bush playbook...
As much as it is painful, people are going to have to begin to accept that Lance Armstrong doped himself up to win the Tour de France, if not more. His Republican-like denials on Larry King aren't enough.
Why? More on the flip.
Exactly what did Lance talk with Bush about on that bike ride? Judging by his appearance last night on Larry King, he was talking about how to deflect criticism and disown a problem of his own making.
Everything about Lance's defense cries "victim" and "fault the process, not the crime". On Larry King last night he talked a lot about these samples weren't collected in a proper manner. From an AP article today, Lance said:
"For the head of the agency to say he actually doesn't believe in the code ... if your career is riding on the line, wouldn't you want a B sample?" Armstrong told the AP. "The French have been after (me) forever, and `Whoops!' there's no B sample? The stakes are too high."
It's all about "Lance is a victim" and "it's all about the code", and people violating "the code." He's faulting the people involved, not the findings. Kinda like, oh, Dick Cheney on Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Vice-President Cheney responded to ElBaradei's report mainly by attacking the messenger. On March 16th, Cheney, appearing on "Meet the Press," stated emphatically that the United States had reason to believe that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear-weapons program. He went on, "I think Mr. ElBaradei frankly is wrong. And I think if you look at the track record of the International Atomic Energy Agency on this kind of issue, especially where Iraq's concerned, they have consistently underestimated or missed what it was Saddam Hussein was doing. I don't have any reason to believe they're any more valid this time than they've been in the past."
But what is more instructive is what was not mentioned. No denial that the "B" samples weren't his (though I kept begging Bob Costas to ask him directly, "Is that your urine in the cup?").
More Rovian stuff from Lance:
"A guy in a Parisian laboratory opens up your sample, you know, Jean Francois so-and-so, and he tests it -- nobody's there to observe, no protocol was followed -- and then you get a call from a newspaper that says `We found you to be positive six times for EPO.' Well, since when did newspapers start governing sports?"
Right out of the Republican playbook:
- Blame the French.
- Blame the media.
As much as everyone would like to believe Lance Armstrong, it's not only time to start accepting the fact that he's drugged up, it's time to use this as testing ground to thwart future lies by any politician. I just wish Bob Costas and Larry King had some balls to ask the toughest questions.