[PornoDoggy]

Just to prove that I do know a little about how the government works, the data provided to all members of Congress in closed session(s), and provided in more detail to the Select Committee, came from the CIA. The CIA has sat on the Executive Branch side of the little organizational chart used to teach Middle School students about government since 1948-ish.

My point is simple, JR.

Part of the reason that some people - and some members of Congress - supported the war is that the President of the United States told them it was necessary for X, Y, and Z reasons. Maybe he claimed X because of an intelligence "failure". Y and Z were still lies.

Not George W. Bush, mind you - the President of the United States.

Now, maybe a political sophisticate such as you isn't vulnerable to that.

It got me, and I'm a pretty cynical son-of-a-bitch.

There are morons who believe that the Islamic fundamentalists can be dealt with by some method other than rendering them dead - the Michael Moore types, if you will.

Trying to paint Rep. John Murtha as Michael Moore is the height of ignorance.

I don't find the waning support for the war on the part of liberals and Democrats any more "ironic" than I do the sudden concern with human rights and nation-building on the part of conservatives and Republicans that developed as soon as the WMD pretense became untenable.

I have no doubt that some members of both parties are changing sides for political expediency. That is obviously easier for Democrats.

I don't think that's the only reason they are doing so. Again, maybe that's because I'm not the political sophisticate that you are, but I think some people are changing sides because the facts and the situation on the ground in Iraq warrants it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - the fact that he lied is of far less importance to me than the fact that he put American military personnel in harm's way without using enough of them in a way designed to secure victory.

I think that Bush wants to keep the discussion on who supported what when, because if and when the nation has a serious dialog about how he conducted the war itself, he and the Republican Party will suffer a setback that will make the post-Watergate period seem like a victory.