On “Nightline” tonight, Condoleeza Rice said the Bush administration had never blamed Saddam Hussein for the September 11 attacks. “We have never claimed that Saddam Hussein … had either direction or control of 9/11,” she said.

Insofar as that statement is concerned, it is true, but it is a half-truth. Yes, the administration never actually said the words, “Hussein did 9/11.”

But the administration did say that Saddam Hussein gave his weapons and support to terrorists, that he supported al Qaeda terrorist camps in regions of Iraq that he controlled, and that Iraqi agents met with one of the hijackers–all of which were false, by the way. In addition, Bush has until this day pressed the idea that Iraq is the nexus of terrorism.

Today, 69% of the American people think Hussein was behind 9/11. Where do you suppose they got that idea? From Howard Dean?

So to try to claim that you never mislead the people because you only implied a lie by using smaller lies instead of actually stating the big lie outright is nothing less than a mealymouthed attempt to weasel yourself out of trouble.

The half-truth is a favorite pastime of conservatives. Remember Rush Limbaugh’s defense of trickle-down Reaganomics, where he told us “in the 1980’s, we cut taxes and revenue doubled”? Well, yes, we cut taxes, but we raised them a bit more. And yes, revenues double (almost), but when you factor inflation in (as any honest person would do), then revenue did not even come close to doubling. Two half-truths which amounted to a Big Lie.