One of the little scandals that took place recently in blogistan concerned a prominent writer who falsely accused a former Clinton Cabinet member of having been involved in some questionable dealings with Enron while he was the president of Citicorp. When it turned out that the official hadn't joined Citicorp until months after its rather complicated business arrangement with Enron went into effect, the blogger retroactively altered his posting, without comment. That is considered to be a tad unethical, since the visitors who read the original piece might not pick up on the later change unless a retraction had been posted. Still, not a huge deal in the long run, since the truth eventually does get out, and the site in question is only going to be read by a few thousand people a day. However, when the government does the same thing, it is a big deal, as the latest column by Paul Krugman makes clear. Propelled by approval numbers in the stratosphere, the Bush Administration seems to believe it has been liberated from the modest obligations that the rest of us have to at least be consistent with the lies we tell each other. At least Clinton didn't try to claim that he never denied having sexual relations with that woman.