The Hallmark of the Bush Administration is Public Distrust

Hey, the Bushies accomplished something anyway: a few Americans are a little less complacent, a bit more questioning. From the Contra Costa Times:

THE NATION'S foremost 9/11 conspiracy theorist was on "Meet the Press" last week. And we all thought conspiracy theorists got no face time in mainstream media.
Well, it helps when you are vice president of the United States.

That would be Dick Cheney. Next possibly to Fox News, he's the chief agent behind the belief held by so many, including many in our fighting forces, that we attacked Iraq because it had something to do with 9/11.

Months after President Bush said that it wasn't so, a Senate Intelligence Committee report said it again this month. Saddam Hussein not only detested al-Qaida but apparently tried to capture Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Pressed about this by NBC's Tim Russert, Cheney said he hadn't read the report. That's amazing. Then again, it's not.

When I mentioned 9/11 conspiracy theorists, you thought first about people who believe that the U.S. government was behind 9/11 or did nothing to prevent it.

These individuals are dismissed as kooks and crazies. But those who send young men and women off to war based on politically calculated leaps of reasoning get treated with deference and motorcades.

Read the rest here.