Oh, come on, Kevin

I didn't know you could get a contact high from Kool-Aid. The generally level-headed Kevin Drum writes:

MARKETING THE WAR....Did the Bush administration lie about WMD before the war? Did they misuse intelligence? This is a subject well worth investigating, but both sides ought to take a deep breath and try to bring a little honesty to the table before we all get buried in our own bloviating.

Liberals, for their part, need to accept the obvious: in 2002, virtually everybody believed Iraq had an active WMD program.

"Everybody," forsooth? Count me out!

I remember very well, back in the day when we were all filling in for Atrios, playing whack-a-mole with WMD story after WMD story, and being amazed, utterly amazed, at how every story fell apart at the slightest touch. The aluminum tubes, the UAVs, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I, and the readers who made up 40,000 daily hits--a large number back then--were definitely not part of the "everybody [who is anybody because they are inside the Beltway or want to be and have drunk the KoolAid]."

Of course, we know now that the stories were the result of a concerted domestic information campaign run by WHIG.

NOTE It's interesting that Kevin notes that a TNR article, of all things, "sent Scooter Libby into hysterics." I haven't noticed the Bush operatives get hysterical about a lot of things. And Kevin, oddly, doens't ask why Scooter would get hysterical. But a domestic intel operation involving more than 50 planted stories? Yeah, having that revealed might make even the most hardened Republican a little antsy. Let alone a Yale man like Scooter.

NOTE Keven would also be well advised not to use that "take a deep breath" cliche. The last person I remember using that phrase was Kay Bailey Hutchinson when Scooter got indicted. Besides, if I take a deep breath I might choke on my popcorn.