This is the new portrait of Dubya that was recently unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. It’s the first time the National Portrait Gallery has ever exhibited portraits of the sitting President and First Lady (and I mean “sitting” as in “incumbent”, not “sitting” as in “seated”, even though they are both seated in the pictures).
Our Hero, Senator Bernie Saunders of Vermont, has wasted no time in firing off an angry letter to the National Picture Gallery to complain. Not about displaying the portraits, but about what he feels are inaccurate and deceptive statements in the description plaques next to the portraits. The description of the portrait of Dubya includes a statement to the effect that the September 11, 2001 attacks “led to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq”. Bernie has pointed out to the NPG that:
When President Bush and Vice President Cheney misled our country into the war in Iraq, they certainly cited the attacks on September 11, along with the equally specious claim that Iraq possessed vast arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. The notion, however, that 9/11 and Iraq were linked, or that one “led to” the other, has been widely and authoritatively debunked … Might I suggest that a reconsideration of the explanatory text next to the portrait of President Bush is in order.
Here’s a link to a PDF of the entire letter, courtest of Bernie’s own website.
It’s a minor point compared with some of the other efforts to buff up Dubya’s image, but history is in the details, and it’s the little mistakes that make the big lies believable. Given ‘em hell, Bernie!
