It's the Cover-Up

As we've observed before, it's the cover-up that will get you. (Richard Nixon, who knew about these things, appears to have originated that idea.) And as we noted earlier in the week, the administration is feeling the heat over political skullduggery in 2002. Now, new attention is being paid to the biggest cover-up of all, one that makes Iran-Contra and even Watergate pale by comparison: the fraudulent campaign to justify war in Iraq. ]

You may recall that the administration claimed that a couple of trailers found after the invasion were mobile bioweapons labs. The discovery prompted Mr. Bush to proclaim, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction." Well, no. As The Washington Post reports, a secret fact-finding mission had already declared that the trailers were nothing of the kind--they were used to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. Never ones to let the facts get in the way of the story, however, administration officials and flacks continued to spread the lie for months--Deadeye Dick Cheney was flogging it in January 2004. The truth has never been officially admitted; the story was just allowed to die a quiet death. Except that it's not quite dead, as the Post's story shows.

So far we don't have a smoking gun like the 18-minute gap that did in Tricky Dick, but the erosive effect of repeated disclosures can be seen in W's cellar-dweller poll numbers.

More to come? I wouldn't bet against it.


(Editor's note: Regular readers may note that there's been a hiatus of several days since the last post. Unfortunately, the demands of another life have taken up all of the editor's time, and things may continue to be ragged over the next couple of weeks. Nonetheless, we'll attempt to post as often as time permits. Thanks for your patience.)