The Skilling-Bush Comparison

By Lee Russ

Saturday, April 22, 2006 at 05:19 PM

In Friday's NY Times, the article Which Picture of Skilling Will the Enron Jurors Be Most Likely to Believe includes the following passage:

Mr. Skilling's testimony revealed that he increasingly sought validation for what he believed, rather than listening carefully when he was told about problems at the company.

Until I read that, I hadn't quite grasped the incredible similarity between Jeff Skilling and some other prominent public figures that paragraph fits to a tee when you just change "Mr. Skilling's testimony" and the phrase "at the company."  For example:

Mr. Bush's statements revealed that he increasingly sought validation for what he believed, rather than listening carefully when he was told about problems with the country.

Or maybe this:

Mr. Rumsfeld's actions revealed that he increasingly sought validation for what he believed, rather than listening carefully when he was told about problems with the war in Iraq.

Bush, Rumsfeld, Skilling.  They are all deciders who decided what was real.  We are all decidees who will rue this fact for the rest of our shortened, miserable lives.