Republican talking point: "If Bush lied, the Democrats did too" - PROVEN BOGUS

Republican LIE #1: White House and Congressional Democrats saw the same intelligence

Congress members were not privy to the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) and many other intelligence sources. The Bush administration's public pronouncements concerning Iraq began long before any substantial intelligence analysis arrived on Capitol Hill.

For example, the White House's involvement in development of the aluminum tubes allegation shows how the administration's access to intelligence on Iraq differed from that of Congress.

This LIE is fully documented here.

Republican LIE #2: Quotes lifted from Democrats show a justification or willingness to go to war.

WRONG - they were quoted out of context and in the same speeches they warn of dire consequences of launching a unilateral invasion of Iraq
For example: Hillary's 10/10/02 speech that Republicans often quote about her acknowledgement of the danger of Saddam. What else did she say in that speech? This is what she said, do we hear wingnuts quote this part?

"If we were to attack Iraq now, alone or with few allies, it would set a precedent that could come back to haunt us.... a unilateral attack, while it cannot be ruled out, on the present facts is not a good option.... My vote is not, however, a vote for any new doctrine of pre-emption, or for uni-lateralism, or for the arrogance of American power or purpose -- all of which carry grave dangers for our nation, for the rule of international law and for the peace and security of people throughout the world."

In the often quoted John Kerry speech on 1/23/03 on the need to disarm Saddam, he also said:

"The Bush Administration has a plan for waging war but no plan for winning the peace. It has invested mightily in the tools of destruction but meagerly in the tools of peaceful construction. ...We need to make certain that we have not unnecessarily twisted so many arms, created so many reluctant partners, abused the trust of Congress, or strained so many relations, that the longer term and more immediate vital war on terror is made more difficult. And we should be particularly concerned that we do not go alone or essentially alone if we can avoid it, because the complications and costs of post-war Iraq would be far better managed and shared with United Nation's participation."

I could go on and on - but you get the picture.

The bottom line is - as I said in my previous post, there was credible intelligence that indicated Saddam had WMD, but it was overstated, cherry picked, manipulated and used deceptively to build a case for war. I can't wait to get the transcript of Richard Clarke's interview tonight on MSNBC. He verifies what McClellan said and what this new report said: conclusions which the Bush Administration delivered in public statements were NOT supported by the intelligence

The Democrats were lied to. The American people were lied to. There is no debate. The game is over. The Republican MO:

Admit nothing

Deny everything

Say "they did it too"