Today at the Press Conference, Scott McClellan tried to deflect any questions about the White House’s use of pre-war intelligence in making its case for war. Sadly for the Republicans the new party line isn’t new at all; it’s the same one they’ve been trying to pawn off since dissent began. Democrats also voted for the war, so we couldn’t have misused intelligence. The point is McClellan that they voted for the war based on the intelligence given to them by the White House.

He said the Clinton administration and fellow Democrats “used the intelligence to come to the same conclusion that Saddam Hussein and his regime were a threat.”

Yes, Clinton did recognize Saddam Hussein as a threat, but he didn’t make the decision to take the nation to war while we were already engaged in Afghanistan. The faults in McClellan’s arguments are clear as day, and if this White House is going to get around them they need a better line than Democrats voted for the war. That’s what deception is guys, you take the intelligence re-frame it to make a compelling case for war that Congress approves, and then all the reasons you gave Congress turn out to be false.

This White House strategy gets employed by young children every day, it’s saying that if I lie to you to get you to loan me your lunch money then I pull out five dollars of my own, and my response to you is “well you gave it to me, so obviously you were ok with it”. Maybe someone needs to clue this White House in on what the definition of deception is, or they can ask Scooter, I imagine he’s getting quite the lesson on it.