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My 8:30am appointment with a student, plus the 75+ pages of papers that are due within the next month, kept me from watching the Sunday morning news shows today. But according to Armando over at DailyKos, Sen. Rockefeller had a great moment today on Blitzer's show.

On Wolf Blitzer's show, Wolf showed Senator Jay Rockefeller's (D-WV) floor speech explaining his Aye vote for authorizing force against Saddam Hussein and Iraq. Rockefeller did the right thing and the smart thing - He admitted he was completely wrong in voting for the Iraq War. He said that if he knew then what he knows now, he would never ever would have voted for war in Iraq. He insisted that the reason he did not know then what he knows now was because the Bush Administration stovepiped the intelligence. In effect, he called them liars. Senator George Allen (R-VA) said "mistakes were made" but now we have to win in Iraq. He didn't explain how we were going to do that. And that begs the question, how can we believe the Bush Administration is telling the truth on "how we can win in Iraq" when they can not be trusted, either because of lack of competence, if you want to be charitable, or because they are liars, part of the truth of the matter, or both, the whole truth of the matter. You can't trust the Bush Administration to tell the truth or to do the job. It is time that all Dems understand these central facts and take their positions based on these facts. Do what Sen. Rockefeller has done, admit your mistakes, and now act accordingly.

This seems to me to be precisely the way to move forward on this. We're all human, and we all make mistakes. Admit that your vote was a mistake. Do it loud, proud, and publicly. And then move straight into WHY it was a mistake, and on what basis your mistake was made. Accept your share of the responsibility, but emphasize the reasons your mistake was made.

The Bush administration and its defenders seem to think that the "they had the same intelligence we had" line is going to hold for them. It won't. The evidence is building rapidly that Cheney and his staff worked to cherrypick intelligence. This past week, we even saw allegations from the former Chief of Staff for Sec. of State Colin Powell that Cheney actively worked to withhold information from the president to ensure he got the war he wanted.

On a broader institutional level, the claim is equally absurd. The president is the Chief Executive. All of the intelligence and national security agencies report to him. Yes, Congress has oversight, and often requests/demands briefings and documentation from them, but... should the executive choose to withhold documents or evidence that the Congress knows nothing about, there simply isn't any way for them to know anything about it, let alone act to prevent it.

So no. They most certainly did NOT have access to the same intelligence. The claim is both factually and theoretically false. And more to the point, absurd.

This story isn't going away. There are too many interconnected threads, too many avenues of potential inquiry. We've known for years now that this administration wanted a war with Iraq, wanted it from day one. Anyone remember Paul O'Neill or Richard Clarke's accusations? They were considered controversial at the time, but as the evidence builds...

Patrick Fitzgerald may say his investigation isn't about the war, but as Lawrence's Wilkerson's charges this week show, Libby's motives for attack on Plame and subsequent coverup were about the war and nothing but. They got personal with Wilson and his wife for political reasons. And the politics were the politics of war.

This story isn't going away. The nation needs to realize this. The Congress needs to realize this. Individual members of Congress need to realize this. If, as a member of Congress, based on what you know now you would not have voted to authorize this war, now is the time to say so, no matter your party affiliation. Get out in front of this issue and get out in front now. There is no longer any reason to wait. Eventually there will be a political day of reckoning on this, and when they day comes, mea culpas will be too little and too late.

As a nation we were taken to war under false pretenses. Because the administration knew their case was built on lies, they rushed us into battle, afraid that the truth might be discovered before the war had begun. As they rushed, they diverted resources from the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, allowing Osama bin Laden, the man responsible for 9/11, to slip away. We went without planning for either the short or long term consequences of occupation - a fact that has resulted in needless American and Iraqi casualties. We went without building a true coalition, and worse, went in a way that actually isolated us from our potential allies.

This is the truth. These are the facts. And day by day the evidence demonstrating them grows stronger. Day by day, the facts build into a devastating case against this administration.

It is time for a leader to step up. Step up and make this the issue. Do what is right. Polls show that the American people are truly beginning to understand what has happened, but without forceful leadership, the full extent of this may never be truly understood. Who among you will choose to lead? Who?

UPDATE: For the record, even if I had time to watch this AM, I would never have watched Wolf. I'd say Wolf's a hack, but given that he is equally incompetent at covering either party, that wouldn't quite do him justice. Just wanted to clear that up.

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