Back on June 1st of this year, Steve Benen was looking for nominations for a contest that would seek to proclaim George W. Bush’s most egregious act of, well… lying.

He settled on the name Mendacity Madness. So I emailed him about something that really struck me as absurdly blatant.

I wrote…

Here’s the mendacity nomination (the details of which you are probably aware):

In June 2003, the CPA issued Memorandum 17 [PDF] which helped ensure that contractors in Iraq would not be subject to Iraqi law.

Here’s a link to another PDF on the issue.

Here’s the Frontline page on this issue.

And then in the last few months, I believe when he was speaking at Georgetown Law?, he was asked specifically about the legal standing of contractors in a war zone. I heard the audio on Air America.

He said something to the effect that ~Boy, you stumped me… That’s a really good question… I have no idea, but I’m going to find out the answer.~

So, mendacity or a lack of situational awareness? I suppose it’s anybody’s guess, as always, with George W. Bush.

I know there are links to info and even audio for the Georgetown question, but I couldn’t quickly find them… I’ll keep looking…

Anyway, that’s the one I’d like to nominate.

Well, I couldn’t find the audio, but this evening, Steve posted a link to YouTube which has the moment in question with all the stunning context of video.

Though, I was wrong. It wasn’t at Georgetown, but at the Johns Hopkins International Studies School.

And on second viewing, I’d have to say my vote is less for mendacity and far more for lack of situational awareness.