The Masters of Spin
Why the Bush administration is the most arrogant in memory

NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

June 20 — The long, hot summer has begun in Iraq. American GIs are dying almost daily. So are Iraqis. But that hasn’t stopped President Bush from embarking on a fund-raising spree premised on his triumphal role as commander in chief. Who needs reality when you’ve got spin?

THE PRE-WAR spin was all about weapons of mass destruction and the price of U.S. inaction. Bush said we couldn’t afford to wait until there was a mushroom cloud. Critics who suspect the intelligence data about Saddam’s nuclear program was hyped are brushed aside like gnats on an elephant. Bush says they’re engaging in “revisionist history,” which is on a par with calling Watergate a third-rate burglary.