THE MCCLELLAN/PLAME-WILSON/ARMITAGE CHALLENGE!

In his SOTU message in 2003 - given months after the Congress authorized the POTUS to attack Iraq, the president said these 18 words:

“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

Subsequently, Joe Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the NYTIMES in which he argued that his CIA sponsored research in Niger proved that Bush deliberately misled the USA into war.

There are a few TEENSY-WEENSY problems with this argument:

1. The president based his 16 words on BRITISH intelligence, NOT CIA/Joe Wilson "intelligence".
2. The Brits did an investigation after the first phase of the Iraq War and found the British intel' which Bush used was still valid.
3. FACT CHECK CONCURRED.
   
4. Joe Wilson's ACTUAL report on his trip did NOT disprove the 16 words. Joe Wilson LIED about his report.
   

Nothing in that op-ed - and nothing since - has changed the TRUTH of those 16 words. Or when they were uttered.

AND DESPITE THIS, THE LEFT MAINTAINS THAT "BUSH LIED AND PEOPLE DIED."

Despite the FACT that those 16 words are true, and the FACT that they were uttered AFTER Congress had already authorized Bush to use force; in other words: BUSH DID NOT LIE, and even if he did, that lie could NOT have possibly misled the Congress into voting for authorization since it was uttered AFTER they had already voted.

What makes this whole thing WEIRDER is that Joe Wilson and Valerie Plane STILL maintain that she was outed by the White House in retribution for Joe's NYTIMES op-ed, despite the FACT that it was anti-Bush Powell aide Richard Armitage who outed her, and he outed her to BUILD UP Joe's credentials, not to expose her as an act of retribution:

[Novak:] “He [Armitage] made clear that he considered it especially suited for my column,” the writer said. Novak added, “He told me unequivocally that Ms. Wilson had worked in the C.I.A.'s Counterproliferation Division and that she had suggested her husband's mission.”

(Plame subsequently lied under oath about the FACT that she had recommended her husband.)

• THE ABSOLUTE WEIRDEST THING YET IS THAT MCCLELLAN SEEMS TO BELIEVE JOE AND VALERIE, AND NOT THE FITZGERALD REPORT OR BRITISH INTELLIGENCE.

• MCCLELLAN SEEMS TO BELIEVE THAT THE BUSH WHITE HOUSE - AND NOT ARMITAGE - WAS BEHIND THE LEAK.

Bizarre. McClellan sounds more like a member of Code Pink than the GOP.

WHY!? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?

I think he did it for two reasons: to scapegoat his own failure and ineptness, and for the MONEY!

OK, HERE'S MY CHALLENGE:

I challenge anyone to prove those 16 words were lies, or that the White House was the source or the Novak leak, or that these 16 words misled any member in Congress to authorize the war.

If you can do that, then I will kiss your ass in Macy's window.

Since you cannot, why don't you please STFU.

And that means you too McClellan!
And all you lefties getting your panties in a knot...

ASIDE: McClellan always seemed like an understudy not ready for prime-time. The WH improved when he exited. His book offers more proof he is scum.