After trying to dismiss it as trivial, and then trying unsuccessfully to pin it on George Tenet, the new White House angle on trying to weasel out of the fact that George W. Bush knowingly presented false evidence to prosecute the Iraq war is quite interesting: Bush, they now claim, did not read “the most authoritative prewar assessment of U.S. intelligence on Iraq.” In other words, like his dad as vice president, he was somehow out of the loop.

In what appears to be the best attempt the Bush administration can make to clear themselves of an obvious lie to the people, it declassified excerpts from an intelligence report that presented the opinion that Iraq was rebuilding its nuclear weapons program. However, the 90-page report also expressed doubts about the veracity of that same information, calling the claims it made “dubious.” The White House spin? Neither Bush nor Condoleezza Rice read the whole report; “They did not read footnotes” of the document, an anonymous WH official said. They were, however, briefed on the document. Now, maybe I’m naive, but I would think that if the report contained serious doubts about its own truthfulness, that this would at least be involved in a brief.

What this appears to be: Bush and Co. knew that eventually this report would become public, so they are engaging in preventative damage control. Instead of waiting for the document to leak in a far more damaging way, they are releasing it on their own. Instead of allowing the impression to get out that Bush knew the evidence was questionable, and therefore lied to the American people, they can come out first with the story that some aide somewhere forgot to brief Bush and Rice.

This would be a very good move on their part–releasing damaging evidence in a controlled way–but nevertheless, it is still damaging. The president decides to go to war and is never told of serious objections in a report he had in his possession? Sorry, no aides can be blamed here. It was Bush’s and Rice’s job to know that information. And if they want to blame everyone else around them, let us then not forget Bush’s proclamation during the elections, when his intelligence and ability to do the job were being questioned: the president, he and his people said, does not have to be knowledgeable. All he has to do is surround himself with smart and knowledgeable people, and then make the important decisions based on what they give him.

He sold his presidency not just based on his own abilities, but also on the reliability of those around him. Therefore, the abilities of those around him are, essentially, an extension of his judgment and, therefore, his responsibility. Either way, Bush was responsible.

Not, of course, that I buy even for a second the idea that Bush really didn’t know he was selling a con job. I mean, please.