Boy, now this really has gotten to be a firestorm. The Niger Uranium scandal is the lead story on every news network website. Josh Marshall, as usual, has a great update.

It is truly astonishing that Condi and the other truly responsible parties are trying to pass the buck to George Tenet. They're still trying to stick to the story that the CIA" cleared" the speech so it's the CIA's fault. It's becoming readily apparent that the CIA only approved the speech after incredible pressure from the White House and after the White House agreed to hang the bogus allegation on the British.

Honestly, then, do you really think it would've mattered if Tenet had told them directly that the Niger claim was bogus? They used such flimsy reasoning to justify putting the claim in the speech in the first place, I can't really see how Tenet's explicit word would have stopped them from putting it in the speech.

Josh is right that Condi is daring Tenet to contradict her. At this point the administration is playing a very dangerous game. If Tenet really did tell them and they really were informed of significant objections, they've lied numerous times over the last few days trying to cover themselves. It looks incredibly bad and heads very well may roll. I think Condi's would be first to roll probably.

However, as I'm reading through all of this I can't help but think:"Are the folks in the administration honestly trying to convince us that they're NOT responsible for the veracity of what's included in a presidential address?"

Have we honestly reached the point where we have such an ethically-slippery administration that they're going to try to make the argument that the president isn't responsible for HIS OWN WORDS?

It appears so. If Republicans are going to try to make this pig fly, they really should shut the hell up about Clinton for the rest of eternity.

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