WHY WHY IS THE WRONG WORD

Why? via ap.com

Ask Why Then Brace Yourself For A Hit You Didn’t Want. It’s The Wrong Word.

No one asks the guy who accidentally whacks a finger with his hammer why he did it.

No one asks the cook why they cut themselves.

And no one asks the athlete why they lost.

Ask why and you won’t get an answer worth repeating.

Ask Richard Nixon why he needed to break into the Watergate.

Ask Bill Clinton why he didn’t resign like Nixon after the impeachment vote.

Ask Dick Cheney why he let Scooter Libby take the fall for outing a CIA agent.

They all had great answers that danced around the truth.

Where does a question starting with why go wrong?

It starts the domino effect of defensive answers and evasion. Not that that’s a bad thing, but if you need to understand something important, why is the wrong place to start.

Where’s the right place?

It goes like this:

Even The Big Guys Know Why Is The Wrong Word.

“President Nixon, what did you hope to gain from the Watergate break in? How did Watergate help you win a second term?”

Asking a nut case why they do anything leads you into their web of deceit. You’ll never win against a master of bullshit.

Nixon won the ’72 election in one of the biggest landslides in history, carrying 49 out of 50 states. His pollsters didn’t have a handle on the magnitude of victory ahead of time?

Moving along, “President Clinton, how difficult was it to remain in office when you faced adversity from all sides? What message did you send by ignoring the impeachment vote and pushing forward?”

No need to ask the man why he did or didn’t engage in sexual or non-sexual relations with “that woman” Monica Lewinski, just like there’s no need to ask a mountain climber why he climbed his latest mountain. It was there.

If Nixon didn’t know he’d win every state but one in 1972, maybe Clinton had a better information network and knew the Republicans on his tail had more skeletons in their closets than he did.

History is a bitch when you’re on the wrong side.

“Co-President Cheney, why did you let your man Scooter Libby take the blame for disclosing the identification of a covert CIA agent?”

Asking Cheney why he did what he did gets an answer tough to stomach, like “Why did you dodge the draft during Vietnam, given your hyper-military fervor.”

Cheney’s answer, “I had more important things to do.”

He undoubtedly had more important things to do than take the blame for Valerie Plame, especially when he had Libby and Richard Armitage on hand.

Recall the last day of the Bush Presidency when Co-President Cheney, a well known heart patient with multiple heart attacks to his credit, hurt his back moving furniture? He left office in a wheel chair? President Bush didn’t white wash Libby as planned and it got him right in the back.

Why is a question you don’t want to ask unless you’ve done all the background work and know the answer before you ask.

Then the fun starts.