Still Lying

On Friday, President Bush said that:

…more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate — who had access to the same intelligence — voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power.

Set aside for the moment that the vote in question didn't address the issue of Iraqi regime change. For me, the claim that Congress had the "same intelligence" always sounded like a bit of bullshit. So how nice of the Washington Post to confirm this for me:

But Bush does not share his most sensitive intelligence, such as the President's Daily Brief, with lawmakers. Also, the National Intelligence Estimate summarizing the intelligence community's views about the threat from Iraq was given to Congress just days before the vote to authorize the use of force in that country.

In addition, there were doubts within the intelligence community not included in the NIE. And even the doubts expressed in the NIE could not be used publicly by members of Congress because the classified information had not been cleared for release. For example, the NIE view that Hussein would not use weapons of mass destruction against the United States or turn them over to terrorists unless backed into a corner was cleared for public use only a day before the Senate vote.

Pretty clear, isn't it? Bush lied then, and he's still lying now. And so are the rest of the Republican shills who keep repeating this bogus talking point.