MSM Growing Suspicious of Spin

An article in Wednesday's WaPo reports on Sen. Hagel's criticism of the president's shabby rhetoric of late. The sharpness of his comments is stunning - all the more so because he's articulate and in complete control of his faculties. The un-Zell Miller if you will. It's so remarkable, in fact, it's easy to miss something else in the piece. Later on, after being told Rumsfeld read quotes from Clinton, Gore, Albright, etc... on WMD we get this: However, many of the comments cited by Rumsfeld were used to justify continued sanctions on Iraq, not to invade it. Moreover, the Clinton administration officials did not cite the problematic intelligence that formed the core of the Bush administration's case for an invasion, such as allegations that Iraq sought uranium in Africa and tried to obtain aluminum tubes as part of a resurgent nuclear program. Then it's reported Rumsfeld pointed to congressional actions calling for Saddam's ouster. In the same paragraph: But the 1998 law, signed by Clinton, said, "nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to use of United States Armed Forces" to implement it. It seems the papers are no longer willing to take the administration line at face value (there's a reason this president's speeches are reserved for vetted audiences - an unarmored Humvee could drive through the gaping holes in the script). It's been building for some time now. The MSM ain't buying it anymore.