The President vs Congress

President Bush has recently shown great contrition in accepting blame for sending people to war with faulty intelligence information. Lost in the media gushing over the fine demonstration of character are the facts. Only one news source, Knight-Ridder, points out what was missing from the admission:

"It's true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush admitted - omitting that he and top aides had ignored warnings from midlevel intelligence agents that some of the evidence was suspect - then quickly added that he has no regrets about his decision to oust Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. (emphasis mine)

So while this much of an admission is commendable, it only goes part way. While we're at it, let's just take a closer look at that faulty intelligence and whether or not Congress had access to the same intelligence, a claim the President and his ever-shrinking group of defenders have been making relentlessly the past two weeks. In a publishe report put out by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), it turns out that...well, no that's not quite true. The President gets his own intelligence and some of it is shared with Congress. Question of trust apparently. You never know who's going to leak on you. (yes, pun intended). So while the President is running around trying to defend himself, perhaps he ought to just stick with the truth. Tony Blair has looked rather heroic getting pummeled by the media all the while telling the truth. At least he's not afraid (or incapable?) of telling the truth.