Lying liars

With Bush's approval rating down to 34% and 2,080 American soldiers dead in Iraq, the White House's campaign against its critics continues. That irascible curmudgeon Dick Cheney—so disliked by Americans, I can't believe Bush would turn to him in an attempt to buoy his ratings—is now on the job. He calls the accusation that the administration fixed prewar intelligence "one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city." But his credibility, along with all of Bush's chief staffers, is called into question by Rep. Henry Waxman, who has released the findings of his Iraq on the Record report [pdf]. It found that the top five Bush officials made 237 specific misleading statements about Iraq intelligence, including 51 by Cheney.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had a good response: “If he has time to talk to DC insiders… oil executives… and a discredited felon – Ahmad Chalabi - who is under investigation for giving this nation’s most sensitive secrets to Iran, he has time to answer the questions of the American people... I would urge the members of the Bush administration to stop trying to resurrect their political standing by lashing out at their critics. Instead, they need to focus on the job at hand – giving our troops a strategy for success in Iraq."