Always on Message

Has anyone so calmly and authoritatively spouted as much mendacious crap as our Vice President? Probably not:

• March 2003: "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."
• March 2003: "We know he's reconstituted these programs since the Gulf War. We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization."
• May 2005: "The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
• March 2006: "No, I think [public skepticism about Iraq] has less to do with the statements we've made, which I think were basically accurate and reflect reality, than it does the fact that there is a constant sort of perception if you will that's created because what is newsworthy is the carbomb in Baghdad, it's not all the work that went on that day in 15 other provinces in terms of making progress in rebuilding Iraq."

He's been especially busy this week:

• Tuesday: "If you look at the general overall situation, [the Iraqi government is] doing remarkably well."
• Thursday: "Well, the fact of the matter is there are connections. Mr. Zarqawi, who was the lead terrorist in Iraq for three years, fled there after we went into Afghanistan. He was there before we ever went into Iraq."

Give Cheney some points, I guess, by being so relentlessly on message. But since the message is always a lie, you have to wonder why anyone bothers to ask him questions anymore.