Hadley Continues Cheney's "Last Throes" Lie

Every time I see a Bush administration official on television cornered about the mammoth degree of lies and incompetence associated with the Iraq war, I feel like I did when my son was three or four and would deny eating candy, despite having chocolate smeared all over his hands and face. The truth is so onerous to these people that even when pressed on Fox News – of all places – they can't admit what is so obvious to the entire remainder of the human race.

Here's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley being interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday and showing the metaphorical chocolate all over his lying little face.

Wallace: Last May, Vice President Cheney said the following, and let’s put it up on the screen if we can, I think the level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think will clearly decline. I think they’re in their last throes, if you will, of the insurgency. Since then, 462 American troops have died. The insurgency back in May was not in its last throes, was it?

Hadley: One of the things the president did in his speech on Wednesday was to try and be clear about who is the enemy, who we’re up against, and he categorized it really in three ways…

He then gives a rambling non-answer describing who the insurgents are... Wallace tries again:

Wallace: But, Mr. Hadley, with respect, I don’t think you answered my question. Was the vice president mistaken last May when he talked about an insurgency in its last throes, given the fact that almost 500 American troops have been killed since then?

Hadley: The violence is continuing, as I said in my answer to the prior question. We have made clear we thought the violence was probably going to go up in this period.

Wallace: But doesn’t that undercut the credibility of the administration, first of all, when the vice president talks about last throes, last May, and clearly it turns out it was wrong? And, with respect, there’s an unwillingness for you to admit it was a mistake then. A lot of people say that this administration, even when it’s clearly mistaken, is never willing to say it was wrong…Was he wrong when he said that?

Hadley: Well, look. What I think we can say is that there were indications that we are making progress against the insurgency.

Blah, blah, blah... making progress... blah, blah, blah... central front in the war on terror... blah, blah, blah.

And on and on it went. You can get the full video here at Crooks and Liars.

None of Hadley's actions surprised me, though. Birds gotta bird, bees gotta bee and Republicans gotta lie. But I'm guessing after Chris Wallace's disgraceful performance last week – in which he said President Bush never tried to link Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda – his Daddy (Mike Wallace) took him out back and slapped him around or something.

He was acting like a real reporter this time! Watch for him to resign in shame from Fox News any day now.