Press the Meet

I'm in a very good mood due to transcripts of Bush's appearance on Meet the Press yesterday. It's good to know that Junior's command of the English language is as scandalously weak as ever. This exchange (cut and pasted from The Washington Post) is my favorite:

Russert: "You said ‘the Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency, Saddam Hussein is a threat that we must deal with as quickly as possible.' You gave the clear sense that this was an immediate threat that must be dealt with."

Bush: "I think […] I called it a grave and gathering threat. I don't want to get into a word contest, but what I do want to share with you is my sentiment at the time. There was no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein was a danger to America."

Russert: "In what way?"

Bush: "Well, because he had the capacity to have a weapon, make a weapon. We thought he had weapons. The international community thought he had weapons, that he had the capacity to make a weapon, and then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network."

What is he SAYING? I need a English translation, please. As far as I can tell, he seems to be recalling that he THOUGHT Saddam had weapons, therefore his sentiment at that time was that Iraq was an immediate threat to the United States. Well, he was wrong. And not only is he unrepentant about that misconception that's led to over 500 American deaths, thousands of casualties, a $500-billion-plus U.S.D. deficit, and for the first time, a palpable Al Qaeda presence in Iraq, but he's STILL trying to make it appear that he was right. And is he actually calling Tim Russert a liar? Just because the administration's new favorite phrase is "gathering threat" doesn't make it retroactive. Obviously he doesn't want to get into a word contest because he would lose. His spin doctors are in the O.R. and are working overtime, but according to polls, the public has been waking up in the past week. Dick Cheney and my mother appear to be the only two Americans left who believe Saddam played a part in the 9/11 attacks, since Bush and Rumsfeld have both been forced to retract statements promoting this mad hypothesis. The fact is quickly becoming apparent, however, that Al Qaeda was never in Iraq...until the U.S. recently allowed them in.

I can't WAIT for Kerry (or ANYBODY!) to debate this illiterate fool. I might actually re-subscribe to cable for a chance to be ringside at that event: the war hero vs. the only president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.