A bad grift gone even badder…

Meet the Press With Tim Russert (NBC)

The grift is not working. And here is how we can tell.

TIM RUSSERT: Would the president ever take private personal accounts off the table in order to negotiate with Democrats.

MIKE ALLEN, WASHINGTON POST: Well, the president on Friday described private and personal accounts as an add-on to Social Security, something extra. And that set off a lot of bells because Democrats said either he's being deceptive or he's completely changed his negotiating position. I checked on this. The White House says he has not changed anything. They said it's just how it came out and you won't hear that again.

A grifter can't afford a slip up like that. That may just have ruined the entire con. Now CNN is running fact-checks of the statements Bush is making during his "60 cities in 60 days" tours. No grifter could survive that. And Bush is starting to look like -- what was that term Saffire used to use -- that's right, a congenital liar.

SUPPLEMENT OR REPLACEMENT?
Bush Claim: "It's your money, and the interest off that money goes to supplement the Social Security check that you're going to get from the federal government. Personal accounts is an add-on to that which the government is going to pay you. It doesn't replace the Social Security system. It is a part of getting a better rate of return to come closer to the promises made."

CNN Fact Check: The statement is misleading. The president says the money from the private account is an "add-on" to the traditional plan, which implies that a retiree under this plan would receive the same check he or she would normally get under the current system, and additional money from a private account. That is incorrect.

See, now I would have just called that a lie.

INHERITING FUNDS
Bush Claim: "You can pass that money [from a private account] to whomever you want."

CNN Fact Check: That is only partially true. The president does not mention that only part of the money in a private retirement account can be passed on to others as an inheritance.
Under Bush's proposal, a portion of the funds in a private account may be set aside by the government and paid back to the retiree in the form of an annuity.

See, now I would have just called that pretty much a lie.