From the LA Times:

WASHINGTON — President Bush said today that despite a new intelligence report asserting that Iran stopped its development of nuclear weapons in 2003, “nothing has changed” in U.S. policy.

“Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous if they have the know-how necessary to make a nuclear weapon,” Bush said at a news conference Tuesday. Noting that Iran had yet to acknowledge its nuclear past, Bush said the National Intelligence Estimate released Monday only underscores the need for international diplomacy to pressure Iran to “change their ways.”

The report “makes it clear that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat,” said Bush. “Somebody hid their program once, they could hide it again.”

Matt and I have had an ongoing conversation over the past 7 years in which we repeatedly declare a particular statement or action to be the straw that will finally break the camel’s back — the camel being the American public, the media, and the Bush administration. I recognize that I should no longer look with shock at anything the administration says and does. Still and all, when I heard George Bush declaring on the radio that Iran needs to be taken seriously as a threat because they have been proven to no longer be a threat, I did a triple-take. There are two things that I want before I die:

#1 - to find out once and for all just what in the Hell is going on with Michael Jackson, and
#2 - to see an interview with George Bush in which he is actually forced to defend himself against someone who is not afraid to be disrespectful.

oh, and:

#3 - a tiny robot pocket monkey.

Update:

From The Hill:

Congressional Democrats are capitalizing on the latest intelligence estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons development to question President Bush’s credibility amid an angry stalemate with the White House over funding government operations and the war in Iraq.

Man, political reporters are really insufferable, aren’t they? I don’t know how many Congressional Democrats really give a shit about honesty and integrity, but how cynical do you have to be to see everything in terms of who does the best job of “capitalizing” on a sad and depressing situation? I can’t even say for sure that George Bush lied about anything … I think in order to lie about something you have to understand that there is such a thing as “truth.” I just don’t see why this has anything to do with Congress or Democrats or anything besides “reality” vs. “not reality”.