What Is Worse Than a Lie? The Expectation That It Be Swallowed

I fully admit to and make no apology for my frequent and often severe criticism of Obama.  However I understand that most of my criticisms and positions in that vein are open to honest debate by people of good will.  Except every now and then an issue or an action by this White House will come along that so infuriates me because of its rank dishonesty that I feel is beyond dispute and the expectation that the citizenry is simply supposed to swallow it.  Furthermore, the MSM's outrageous complicity in protecting the administration in these episodes compounds the rage.  So, when Krugman says that a 90% tax rate on the rich is economically hunky-dorey, I disagree but the blood does not boil.  But when the Obama administration says that no one at the White House edited out the CIA talking points about the terror-links to the Benghazi consulate attack, the lie is so outrageous, it simply can't be swept into the fuzzy area of 'things open to legitimate debate'.  David Petraeus has testified under oath to the United States' Senate that the CIA linked terrorists to the Benghazi attack immediately. Does the White House really expect us to believe that there are alternate routes of information flow or intermediate steps in the chain of command between the top leadership of the CIA and the White House?  Of course there aren't.  So there are only two possibilities.  Petraeus lied to Congress or the White House is lying.  If they think Petraeus lied, the WH needs to say so.  But this playing dumb, dog-ate-my-homework, beats me bullshit is highly dishonest and destructive.  And the fact that they expect us to swallow it and the media to soft-pedal it, is even worse.