Here’s the new fallback position. OK, they’ll admit when called on it, Bush didn’t say that Saddam was an imminent threat, but, well, he implied it. Yes, somehow, he managed to imply something that he explicitly denied, in fact using the denial as part of his argument for removing Saddam.

Of course, he implied nothing of the kind, it’s just that these morons are, in retrospect, inferring it, because it allows them to pretend that this pretext for war (which never existed) has been invalidated by the failure (to date, it should be noted) to come up with ready-to-use WMD.

And of course, even in the midst of admitting that he was mistaken about this, this columnist continues another canard.

Seventy percent of the American people are under the impression that Saddam Hussein played a principal role in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, although there is no credible evidence to support that. Bush has admitted that Hussein was not directly involved in the attacks.

This is an interesting statement. If that many people are under that impression, whose fault is that? A search for any administration claims that Saddam played any role, let alone a principal one, will be as fruitless as the search for administration claims that the threat was imminent. The deployment of the word “admitted” implies that Bush or administration officials had previously made such a claim, which is, of course, not true.

My use of the word “admitted” a couple paragraphs up is valid–the columnist has been forced to admit that his previous claim was wrong.

But his use of it is mendacious. The appropriate word here would be “claimed,” or “stated,” or “asserted.” If the people have been misled about Saddam’s involvement about September 11, Mr. Brazaitis should be taking his colleagues in the press to task–they’re the ones who are supposed to be informing the public–rather than trying to pin it on the Evil Bush administration.

But then, apparently, based on this and multiple other episodes, having an informed public is the furthest thing from their minds.