The Litany of 'Lies'

By temporarily shutting down the Senate, the mediacrats have embarked upon a "pre-war intelligence" strategy. Their hope is to expose some sort of diabolical plot within the administration that transformed a blissfully innocent Saddam Hussein into, for lack of a better character, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Obviously, such a strategy is stillborn. A better question, as posed by John at Powerline, is 'why?'.

Unless President Bush orders a carrier battle group up the Potomac and fiendishly overthrows the Constitutional form of government, he won't be running for office again. So why continue to demonize the administration?

None of the Republicans running in 2006 can be tied back to the rationale for war. And if the Democrats believe that running on a "Surrender from Iraq" platform is a winning approach, I have some New Orleans real-estate I'd like to sell them.

Here, for your reading pleasure, a 'Hall of Fame' of Hussein quotes courtesy of MSNBC's Glenn Reynolds:

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." - President Bill Clinton, February 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." - President Bill Clinton, February 17, 1998

"We must stop Saddam from ever again jeopardizing the stability and security of his neighbors with weapons of mass destruction." - Madeline Albright, February 1, 1998

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." - Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, February 18, 1998

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton. - (D) Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, others, October 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." - Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), December 16, 1998

"Hussein has ... chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." - Madeline Albright, Clinton's Secretary of State, November 10, 1999