This must be the new Republican meme

I wonder how long it's going to take the Bush Administration and their toadies in the House to realize that people just don't believe them anymore.

Last night Bush once again invoked the ghosts of September 11 to justify his botched and completely unnecessary war, still playing on the residual fears of Americans to give him the freedom to plunder the world and the U.S. treasury at will to dispense largesse to his cronies and friends. Today, it's a Congressman from North Carolina:

A Republican congressman from North Carolina told CNN on Wednesday that the "evidence is clear" that Iraq was involved in the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001.

"Saddam Hussein and people like him were very much involved in 9/11," Rep. Robin Hayes said.

Told no investigation had ever found evidence to link Saddam and 9/11, Hayes responded, "I'm sorry, but you must have looked in the wrong places."

Hayes, the vice chairman of the House subcommittee on terrorism, said legislators have access to evidence others do not.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, said that Saddam was a dangerous man, but when asked about Hayes' statement, would not link the deposed Iraqi ruler to the terrorist attacks on New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania.

"I haven't seen compelling evidence of that," McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told CNN.

On Tuesday night, President Bush mentioned the September 11 attacks five times during his address on the war in Iraq, prompting criticism from congressional Democrats. (Full story)

The 9/11 commission, appointed by Bush, presented its final report a year ago, saying that Osama bin Laden had been "willing to explore possibilities for cooperation with Iraq" at one time in the 1990s but that the al Qaeda leader "had in fact been sponsoring anti-Saddam Islamists in Iraqi Kurdistan, and sought to attract them into his Islamic army."

Americans are slowly but surely dipping their big toes back into the waters of reality, and I'm not convinced this kind of horseshit is still going to fly. If enough of it comes out of enough quarters, it's possible that the half an ear that most Americans still tune into the evening news will absorb it, and the mythical Saddam/9-11 connection will be made once again. But as more and more American kids from the very states where people believe this nonsense find themselves in Iraq, and more and more families are affected, there's only so long that this gambit is going to work at all.

Between WaPo this morning, and now this from MSNBC.com, they're losing the mainstream media too...and that spells Big Trouble in Little Penisland:

Now raise your hand if you still think Karl Rove’s 9/11 remarks last week were unintentional.

Facing mounting U.S. casualties, an increasingly skeptical public, and a growing chorus of criticism (even within his own party), a confident and resolute President Bush last night directly tied the situation in Iraq to 9/11 and the war on terrorism. To illustrate this renewed focus, he made five direct references to 9/11 and two references to Osama bin Laden. But in both his inaugural and State of the Union addresses this year, he never mentioned Bin Laden. And although he did mention 9/11 in that State of the Union, he didn’t do so until more than half way through the speech.

Some quick questions: Will this new focus reverse poll findings like the one from USA Today/CNN/Gallup, which shows that 50% of Americans now see Iraq being completely separate from the war on terror? Can the Democrats reverse the political setbacks they’ve encountered when Bush wields his 9/11 credentials? And for how much longer will 9/11 continue to be the dominant political story in America?

What's disappointing is the tepid response from John McCain. The Arizona Senator's willingness to carry water for this Administration, particularly over the last few weeks, is seriously damaging his reputation as a "straight shooter."



(hat tip: Americablog, where there's more on this idiocy.)