EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES!

So the current tactic, in addition to trotting out every Repub in Congress to bash the left for playing "politics", is to say that the story was "mishandled" and that the White House ""stumbled" in their explanations regarding the notorious 16 words. They blame the fact that Bush was in Africa, several aides were on vacation, etc., etc... My, the convoluted rhetoric they'll go through to avoid the obvious reality that they lied and have been lying with every new explantion.

Mary Matalin said yesterday that "we forsook consistency for honesty, in an effort to be as forthcoming as possible in putting out new facts as they became available." (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A37481-2003Jul23)

But the problem here is, if you're really being honest, consistency will take care of itself. They didn't put out "new facts as soon as they became available". They have been forced into a series of ongoing confessions as the press has reported the facts which reveal their previous stories to be untrue. The story also did not start when Bush left for Africa (July 7th, the day that Ari Fleischer first said the statement should not have been in the speech), but at the latest in early June, when Ambassador Joseph Wilson came forward with his story.

The latest in the series of ongoing confessionals will occur when Condi Rice is forced (by well-known facts, and not by new information becoming "available") to admit that she was wrong (read "lied") when she said:

"We did not know at the time -- no one knew at the time, in our circles -- maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery." (Meet the Press, June 8, 2003)

"...somebody down may have known. But I will tell you that when this issue was raised with the intelligence community... the intelligence community did not know at that time, or at levels that got to us, that this, that there were serious questions about this report." (This Week with george Stephanoupolous, June 8, 2003)

...and a host of other statements that are now known to be untrue. She will be the next to take "responsibility", and it is not because of politics or "mishandling the story" or other nonsense. It is simply because it is becoming clear that she, and many others in the White House, have lied to us in an effort to build public support for a war that the public would not otherwise have supported.

The press, and the people, cannot fall for this. They can call it politics all they want, but how obvious does a lie have to be. How obvious does an entire policy, and a war, built on a series of lies have to be? It is NOT just the "16 words", but nearly every word the administration has ever uttered regarding the alleged threat Iraq posed to the United States and the world!

I hope the press, the people, and Congress are not this gullible. So far, it seems like they're not.

Call Guinness! We may have a new world record for bullshit shoveling.

they forsook consistency AND honesty.