Five Years Later...

Wow. They finally admitted it.

THE PRESIDENT:      You know, I've heard this theory about everything was just fine until we arrived, and kind of "we're going to stir up the hornet's nest" theory. It just doesn't hold water, as far as I'm concerned. The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East.

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing,

Isn't that remarkable? The little things that just slip out, inexplicably?

THE PRESIDENT:      except for it's part of --

Here it comes.

THE PRESIDENT:      -- and nobody has ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a --

Excuse me? (Note. A Philadelphia lawyer has just informed me that the word "ordered" is operative here. That way Bush can deny earlier attempts to link bin Laden with Hussein, and then point to a technicality if he's called on it).

THE PRESIDENT:      the lesson of September the 11th is, take threats before they fully materialize

To paraphrase Eminem:

THE PRESIDENT:      Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Rana Terrorism

And so we're back to more of the same old same old. As a well-known Wall Street Journal editorialist recently opined, with some people "progress is always just beyond the horizon."

And yet, for one tiny moment, didn't that just feel great? That

Q What did Iraq have to do with that?

THE PRESIDENT: What did Iraq have to do with what?

Q The attack on the World Trade Center?

THE PRESIDENT: Nothing,

It kind of opens the chest up so you can fill your lungs with air!