Tuesday, July 15, 2003
The issue that the media is pussyfooting on is why the administration thought they would get away with an obvious fabrication. This is probably because the answer does the media no credit, the administration expected the media to roll over because they have always rolled over. Why didn't they roll over this time?
The administration is surely responsible for this. There are surely journalists who would like to sell the administration line, but which line? It is not merely a matter of different members of the administration making diverging claims, at this point Tenet is the only member of the administration to offer a self consistent story.
Even though the administration accepts that the '16 words' statement was known to be false at the time it was made, Rice is still claiming the litteral truth of the statement. Another bizare claim being made by Rice is that Wilson's trip to Niger was inconsequential and had not been considered important enough to circulate widely.
The difficulty the administration is now in is that their story must now justify both the original statement and the subsequent attempts to cover up.
