Via “Matthew Yglesias”:http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/ via “Kos”:http://www.dailykos.com/, we have a “video”:http://www.dailykos.com/images/admin/President_Bush_Thanks_ISG.mpg of President Bush privately addressing the Iraq Survey Group (presumably some time in 2002-3). Kos hightlights Bush’s faltering delivery, but that’s not what concerns me. What concerns me (but does not surprise me) is the attitude exemplified in this statement:

. . . You’re truth-finders — you’re the folks we’re countin’ on to explain to not only our fellow citizens but to the entire world the true nature of evil . . .

It’s not “You’re truth-finders — you’re the folks we’re countin’ on to discover the truth about Saddam’s weapons programs.” For Bush, it’s “the true nature of evil.” Like I said, this isn’t _surprising_, but it does reinforce the sense that Bush pre-judged the situation in stark black-and-white terms that left no room for, as it turned out, the truth. And besides, how does someone concerned about ultimate evil pick Saddam over Osama bin Laden? Or Zarqawi, for that matter, whose assets were frozen — guess when? — “just yesterday”:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20041015/ts_nm/security_treasury_zarqawi_dc (hat tip to “TPM”:http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_10.php#003691).