Bush Busted

I listened to Bush's press conference on Tuesday -- which was full of implausible statements -- and now wants to know what bush has been smoking.

Uhmmm, I don't think that substance is typically smoked so much as snorted.

The Los Angeles Times notes a controversy over what the president knew and when he knew it:

' Seven weeks ago, Bush said that in the interest of "avoiding World War III" Iran should be prevented from gaining the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon. That was roughly two months after J. Michael McConnell, the director of national intelligence, reported to Bush that he had "some new information" about Iran.

"He didn't tell me what the information was; he did tell me it was going to take awhile to analyze," the president said. He said he was not briefed on the report until last week, and that in the interim no one had suggested that he tone down his language.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, expressed incredulity that Bush, "who gets briefed every morning, who is fixated on Iran," had not sought details of the new assessment after learning of it in August.

"I can't believe that," he said in a phone call with reporters. '

Washington insiders say that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell would certainly have been kept in the loop by the analysts producing this NIE. McConnell briefs Bush and said this summer he had new evidence coming in.

At his press conference Bush reverted to his old ploy of declaring people and things dangerous even when there is no objective measure of such things. He used to say that Saddam Hussein had been "dangerous" even when it was discovered that Saddam had no chemical, biological or nuclear research facilities. Now Iran is intrinsically dangerous, regardless of whether it has a weapons program or not. Does anyone still believe this sort of essentializing and fear-mongering?

Bush's circle is like a medieval court with scheming courtiers. His subordinates apparently routinely do things that he doesn't (and the other courtiers don't) know about until later. Take for instance when then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered the Iraqi army dissolved, with Bush only discovering it afterwards.