The push back begins

Bush is speaking at a Veterans Day event today, and according to Drudge will hit back at democrats for their growing accusations about pre-war intelligence. Stephen Hadley fired a few warning shots yesterday:

"I point out that some of the critics today believed, themselves, in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They stated that belief, and they voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq," said Stephen Hadley, the president's national security adviser, on Thursday.

"For those critics to ignore their own past statements, exposes the hollowness of their current attacks," he said.

So, expect Bush to travel the same territory in his speech. He has no choice--he's getting pressure from republicans up for reelection next year. Losing majorities would be a death-blow to the Bush doctrine, and maybe his presidency as well. He might not govern by polls, but he certainly sees them.



Meanwhile, former New York Times reporter Judy Miller met with Larry King last night did some pushing back herself. Newsmax has a partial transcript. But, from what's available it appears that she continues to defend her sources and feels she wasn't misled by anyone. She also let's us know that not ALL her sources are evil neocons:

Miller said both Republicans and Democrats had been sources for her stories before the war about weapons of mass destruction, which were widely criticized, and she did not believe she had been deliberately misled.

She went on to elaborate about her role in the USA going to war. A rational person would consider her comments below as self-evident, unless they'd only been paying attention to the left/Times version of this story, which is pure spin. Miller explains:

Asked whether she thought her writing contributed to the United States' going to war, Miller said she believed the president would have gone to war regardless of her reporting.

Bush "would have gone to war without Judy Miller or The New York Times or all the other papers that endorsed the Senate vote" that provided the authority to go to war, she said.

Remember, Ms Miller was privy to some of the darkest intelligence secrets regards Saddam and the WoT. Does she still believe some of them?