BROKEN RECORD

DICK CHENEY &
CONDI RICE


I've got to lump these two asshats into the same post because they're both guilty of the exact same offense. Knowing that shoring up some amount of support for the Iraq war is crucial to the GOP holding onto Congress this November, the Bush administration has been shouting out to anyone who will listen that there was obviously a connection between Iraq and the "war on terror". Except that there wasn't.
See, the thing that burns me is I thought we had cleared this up years ago. Back in June of 2004, the Washington Post and many other outlets reported on this "revelation:"

There is "no credible evidence" that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States, according to a new staff report released this morning by the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Although Osama bin Laden briefly explored the idea of forging ties with Iraq in the mid-1990s, the terrorist leader was hostile to Hussein's secular government, and Iraq never responded to requests for help in providing training camps or weapons, the panel found in the first of two reports issued today.
The findings come in the wake of statements Monday by Vice President Cheney that Iraq had "long-established ties" with al Qaeda, and comments by President Bush yesterday backing up that assertion.

But here we are, over two years later, and Bush surrogates, Dick and Condi, are out trying to sell this exact same bullshit. It's infuriating! And to make it worse, more and more information is coming to light that continues to confirm a lack of connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. A Senate Intelligence Committee report report is only the most recent.
Yet, there was the hunched over Evil One on Meet the Press this past Sunday trying to sell the connection once again. When Russert mentioned the latest report, Cheney claims not to have seen it yet. Gee, DICK, do you think it might be a good idea to read a report about the subject if you're going to be on TV talking about the subject. Oh, that's right, it directly contradicts the horse manure that you're shovelling so if you ignore it, then it doesn't count.
Condi was over on the somewhat friendler confines of Fox News Sunday trying to shine up that turd of a Saddam/al Qaeda connection. She tried dancing around all the evidence that there was no connection saying that

[t]here are conflicting intelligence reports all the time. That’s why we have an intelligence system that brings those together into a unified assessment by the intelligence committee of what — community of what we’re looking at. That particular report I don’t remember seeing.

(Via Think Progress.)
What she should have said was, "There are conflicting intelligence reports all the time. We just choose to ignore the ones that don't say what we want them to."
This administration, and the GOP in general, know that if they cannot convince the American public (or at least more than the kool-aid drinking 30%) that the war in Iraq is an extension of the "war on terror", then they will lose the House and possibly the Senate come November. They're becoming increasing desperate because that fate would effectively end the Bush presidency. Can you say, "Lame Duck?"