I admit my attention has flagged; I’ve been stuck at a rather reductionist level: “Bush lied, of course, who’s surprised? That’s that”. I have certainly been interested in the public complacency about BushCo’s shameless manipulation and, as my blink to the Timothy Noah meditation below indicates, on the press’ diffidence since Bush took the White House about calling a lie a lie, until this significant departure. Noah is onto something; there was a degree of incompetency in this lie that is atypical of this dysadministration. I have been edified by the bulldogging the President’s new press secretary is getting on this issue, just because it places in high relief the audacity of the usual stonewalling defense; is it too much to hope that the public might begin to notice? This Modern World has just the transcript you need if you are curious about this.

Joshua Micah Marshall is doing a great job keeping up with what turn out to be intricacies of the radioactive lie, the identification of the NSC staffer who seems to have been the one who recommended that the infamous 16 words remain in the SotU, the administration’s apparent preparations to invoke executive privilege to make sure that that staffer never testifies to his role, the vengeful ‘outing’ of a Bush administration critic and, related, the tragic apparent suicide of the British government functionary who was apparently the source of reports on British distortions of the case for war. Seeing this balloon onward and upward, I find myself exhilarated at the possibility that it might mark a real turning point in the credibility of the administration and the credulity of the public. As the Daily Kos points out, the President’s approval rating has dropped a full nine points in the last month. One can only hope that the mounting disapproval has ‘legs’ and the voters whose sentiments the polls reflect have a good memory. We are getting to the point, especially if those in the Democratic primary race are not timid about keeping the issue in front of the voters (in an insistent way that does not backfire by coming off as merely exploitive and opportunistic), when it might persist as a live issue until November 2004.

Or could this erupt before the Presidential campaign, if the opposition were really courageous? If there are enough people interested in untangling the twisted skein of lies that seems to have been elaborated to cover up the original gaffe, could this blossom into a fullblown crisis worthy of the “-gate” designations we are beginning to see bandied about? Could it be worthy of articles of impeachment? “Clinton lied, Hilary cried; Bush lied; people died.” Ah, be still, my beating heart; almost too much to hope for…