In addition to its own editorials, USA TODAY publishes a variety of opinions from outside writers. On political and policy matters, we publish opinions from across the political spectrum.  Roughly half of our columns come from our Board of Contributors, a group whose interests range from education to religion to sports to the economy. Their charge is to chronicle American culture by telling the stories, large and small, that collectively make us what we are.  We also publish weekly columns by Al Neuharth, USA TODAY's founder, and DeWayne Wickham, who writes primarily on matters of race but on other subjects as well. That leaves plenty of room for other views from across the nation by well-known and lesser-known names alike.  Cal Thomas is a conservative columnist. Bob Beckel is a liberal Democratic strategist. But as longtime friends, they can often find common ground on issues that lawmakers in Washington cannot. View the video version of this column at www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/default.htm or at USA TODAY's YouTube channel at youtube.com/usatoday.  Today: Lying and American politics.  Cal: How do you know a politician is lying?  Cal: His lips are moving. We've all heard some version of this joke, whether lawyers or politicians are the butt of it, but there's a reason the public holds our elected officials in such low esteem these days. And much of it has to do with the frustration of being lied to.  Bob: I don't know whether it's the 24/7 news cycle or what, but there seems to be a greater frequency of lying these days.  Cal: Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut attorney general and the Democratic Senate candidate, must have taken the American people for fools when he tried to backtrack on his many claims that he served in the Vietnam War. Once, when liars were found out, they would repent and be shamed. Today, they claim to have misspoken or been taken out of context. Please. A major reason why approval ratings for Congress are so low — no matter who is in the majority — is that voters don't believe they are being told the truth. This is dangerous for our country if those trusted with so much money and the ability to declare war can't be trusted to be straight with us.  Bob: So Blumenthal would fit right in in Washington, right?!  Cal: In today's Washington, perhaps. The truth is, people have lied since the beginning of time. Remember that incident with the "fruit" in the Garden of Eden? But what's going on with this deficit of truth-telling in American politics?  Bob: Certainly the Internet is a great new tool for catching politicians in lies, but that begs the question: What is a lie? I contend that politicians who lecture the public about moral issues while at the same time covering up their own immorality are perpetrating a form of lying. Case in point: now-disgraced congressman Mark Souder, a Republican in Indiana. He has been advocating sexual abstinence for young people. Come to find out that at the time he was promoting abstinence on his official website, he was having an affair with one of his female staffers! Saying one thing and doing another is lying by any other name.  Cal: Agreed. I think Geoffrey R. Stone got to the heart of modern lying. He's a distinguished professor of law at the University of Chicago. Writing for The Huffington Post, Stone said about lying politicians: "An essential element of this strategy is that the perpetrators of the lie will insist, no matter what, that the lie is true. Confronted with the facts, the perpetrators will reiterate the falsehood. The key to this strategy is the willingness to lie, and to lie repeatedly." This "strategy" corrodes truth and hardens a cynical public.  Bob: The late great senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York had the best retort to those who continue to use falsehoods to support a position: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts." The problem comes when politicians make up facts or bend them to support their positions. To this day, that's why there's still much anger over the Iraq war. It's the belief that President George W. Bush used his "facts" to start a war.  Cal: The dirty little secret is that serial lying is not just the fault of the politicians. Too many of us want to be lied to. We want to be told what we already believe, not the truth because, as Jack Nicholson's character in A Few Good Men said with a touch of cynicism, "You can't handle the truth!" We want to be told that we can have all the cake (spending) and ice cream (more spending) we want with no long-term ramifications. That's why politicians do so much polling. Instead of leading us where we need to go, they are echo chambers for beliefs we already hold.  Bob: I have analyzed thousands of polls over the years and have rigged the results (on rare occasions of course!) to support my candidate's opinion, or overstate his popularity. The key is to ask questions that are likely to support your conclusions. Depending on how the question is asked, the results can vary 180 degrees. Is this a form of lying? I think it is.  Cal: The more lies we tolerate, the more we're going to get and the more politicians who get away — or think they can get away — with lying, the more of them will do it. Two of our more notorious contemporary political liars are Richard Nixon ("I am not a crook," and, "When the president does it, it means that it is not illegal.") and Bill Clinton ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman"). Lies are also told during a campaign when a candidate promises he (or she) will do one thing if elected and then does something else.  Bob: People can criticize the media all they want, but there's no better backstop to a lying politician than a curious press.  Cal: I suppose the National Enquirer counts, too, as once-vice-presidential nominee John Edwards surely knows!  Bob: Talk about a guy who didn't know when the jig was up.  Cal: Two of my favorite quotes about lying come from philosopher George Santayana and the great Winston Churchill. Santayana said: "History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren't there." And Churchill observed: "There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true."  Bob: I know it's futile to try to shame politicians into governing and living by principle, but it's worth a try. After all, every lie an elected official tells — whether about a personal failure or a public issue — undermines the very government they're sworn to serve. It erodes the connection between citizen and servant.  Cal: And I think we both agree that though partisans love gotcha moments, a Democratic lie is no worse than a Republican lie.  Bob: There are degrees, though. It took years for America to recover from the treachery of the Nixon years. And though Clinton's lies were initially personal failings, they became public abominations once he wagged that finger at the American public.  Cal: I won't try to end this column with a cure-all for the human condition that makes man lie, but because we are in the age of reality TV, let's employ this medium to vet candidates. Campaigns have employed new technology for fundraising and for getting out their messages in impressive ways. Why not use technology to inform the public while "testing" wannabe lawmakers?  Bob: What are you suggesting?  Cal: Before an election, have candidates take a lie detector test. Put it on TV and/or the Internet. A panel of reporters or other experts could ask the questions, just like they do in presidential debates. In fact, this could be a five-minute segment at the end of the debates. "And now, to the lie detectors ..." Oh, the fun we could have.  Bob: If people thought Nixon was sweating in the first televised debate with Kennedy in 1960, they ain't seen nothin' yet.  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
Politicians wonder why Americans are cynical and don't trust their government. Because too many have a remarkable inability to tell it straight.