The (Joey) Bishop Gambit (not a chess move)

A 1967 movie, "Guide for the Married Man", consisted of a series of more or less tongue-in-cheek 'blackouts', or vignettes, showing how men could spice up their lives a bit by engaging in extra-marital 'activities'. One might say that it rode the crest of the wave of The Sexual Revolution.

In one of the more surreal segments (which could be subtitled "Deny-Deny-Deny") stand-up comedian and Sinatra Rat Pack member Joey Bishop is an apparently hapless hubby. His wife returns home unexpectedly to discover him in the marital bed with a scantily clad, well endowed young woman. She launches a venomous harangue.

As his outraged spouse is bombarding him with "How COULD you? You RAT, you WORM", etc., Bishop calmly goes about the business of helping the young woman dress and making the bed. All the while, he keeps up a running dialogue (monologue?) with his wife.

"I don't understand? What are you talking about? What do you mean? You saw WHAT? That's impossible!" And on and on. As the young woman slips quietly out the door, he says "What girl? Where? Are you CRAZY? Have you taken leave of your senses? What's come over you?"

By the time he has finished fluffing up the pillows and smoothing the spread his wife is convinced that nothing at all happened and whatever she thought she had witnessed with her own eyes was somehow a figment of her overactive imagination.

With the War on Terror, the WMDs, the invasion of Iraq, the torture of prisoners, the tax cuts and the economy, the environment, Kerry's voting record, Kerry's military service, etc., I would posit that Bush*, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, et al are using a variant of the Joey Bishop Gambit.
And many of us are falling for it.

While I agree that The "Joey Joey Joey" Bishop Gambit explains a lot, I am reminded daily of the scene in Dr. Zhivago between Yuri and Lara's daughter.

The little girl says that the Csar was a bad man (intimating that it was good to execute the csar and his family).

Yuri says: But the Csar didn't know he was a bad man.

The little girl says: Well, he should have known, shouldn't he?

***
If you claim no malice aforethought, you can skate until a child exposes you for what you are.

we all grew up learning about this great country, our values, our freedoms - how we were an example for every other country, etc.

Now we've "caught our government in the act" so to speak and people would rather keep believing the lie than admit the truth - that our country has been stolen from us.

That is why the "joey bishop gambit" works - as long as you tell people what they want to believe they want to believe it.

Hopefully our country will collectively move from DENIAL to ANGER quickly - it's the next logical step.

We invaded Iraq because Saddam attacked our nation is similar thinking of many Americans....

Glad you were able to find the Bishop reference. How'd you track it down? (It *was* you thinking it might have been from "Love American Style", right?)

A couple of helpful DUers pointed me in the right direction.
As I said in that thread, there ain't a hell of a lot that somebody around here doesn't know.

When Google don't do it, DU IT!

I have to describe the scene to people cuz most haven't seen the movie. But even then, they get it. I wish I had a clip to send people. It actually does make you realize how the Bushistas are playing the game.