Is our president a liar? Well, even if you're a Bush backer, you have to admit he's never going to win the Little George Washington "I-cannot-tell-a-fib" award.

George W would never admit to being an out and out liar, but he has certainly spent a lifetime as a deflector, deflecting inconvenient truth as routinely as a teflon pan rejects sticky food.

For example, here's a sticky question: Even though he was a hawkish supporter of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, did he dodge service in that war by using his famous family's political connections to cut in line ahead of thousands of other young men who were seeking slots in the Air National Guard -- thus allowing young George to spend his war years defending Houston against the Vietcong? Bush deflects the truth by impatiently declaring that no member of his family intervened with officials to give him a special break.

Come on, George -- you know that families of privilege don't leave fingerprints by seeking such favors directly. Instead, the dirty work in this case was handled by Sid Adger, an oilman neighbor of the Bushes who called the speaker of the Texas house of representatives at the time, getting him to call the head of the Texas Guard, and -- Shazam! -- George zipped to the front of the line.

Well, says a defiant Bush, the Guard is a legitimate branch of the military, and I'm proud of my service there. More deflection. No one is challenging the legitimacy of the Guard, George -- the challenge is how you pulled political rank to get into it. And, by the way, if you were so proud of being there, why and how were you able to go AWOL for a year of your National Guard duty, simply disappearing and not reporting for your assignments?

This is Jim Hightower saying... Those who now wonder whether Bush is blatantly lying to us about everything from Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq to the true impact of his tax giveaways to the rich -- you need only to look to his past record. George never lies -- but he's an inveterate deflector of the truth.