Giving AO a story like CBS News airing a negative report about President Bush without being able to authenticate the documents it relied upon and then arrogantly defending its report without a leg to stand on is like throwing an underhand pitch to Barry Bonds with the fence 100 feet away. She had fun with it, including, of course, taking a poke at President Clinton for being a rapist. That’s AO’s job.

Of course, AO ignored the other story about lies that was wound up this week, that being the official report that the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has turned up empty. But, that story was sort of unimportant. OK, so far 1,339 US soldiers have been killed in the Iraq war, thousands more have been seriously wounded, and tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or wounded, all based upon the US claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction poised to be unleashed against America. The story, of course, pales in comparison to the CBS story when you are a pundit like AO.

Like CBS, the government still defends the Iraq war for a variety of reasons, none of which it proposed for going to war in the first place. Unfortunately, we will not get a final report damning the Bush Administration, as we got for CBS. Instead, the President handed out freedom medals to some of the culprits. Others, like Colin Powell, continue to defend the President’s action, and others still, like Donald Rumsfeld, get annoyed when soldiers with their lives on the line ask for better equipment. Powell has been a particular disappointment; since he told lies about the weapons of mass destruction at the United Nations in the name of the United States.
If AO really wanted to put her intelligence, education and talents to work, she might start by asking why the government lies so often and so profoundly to the American people. Vietnam, Iran-Contra and now Iraq would be pretty good places to get started. However, it’s easier to write about CBS News and calling President Clinton a rapist.