Blair is Full of Crap (Just Like his Yankee Masters)

So Blair claims that the Downing Street Memos distort the facts. Bullshit they do. This is, for my money, the best quote from the AP wire story (which is being picked up by seemingly every newspaper from here to Hiroshima, including papers who haven't even reported on the DSMs until now):

"I am a bit astonished at how this has received such coverage in the U.S. because the fact is, after the memo was done, we went to the United Nations," Blair said.

Ah, the Cheney defense. Well, here's the problem with that: executing the scheme outlined in the Memos is technically proof of the scheme, not a means of discrediting documentation of the scheming. The originally leaked memo states:

The NSC had no patience with the UN route…

The Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors…

The Foreign Secretary would send the Prime Minister the background on the UN inspectors, and discreetly work up the ultimatum to Saddam.

So Blair's big attempt at discrediting the Memos is to say that because they did exactly what the Memos suggest they considered doing in order to make the war more politically palatable, somehow the Memos distort the facts. I guess trying to give people whiplash is their best option at this point.

What a bunch of pricks.

Oh, and by the way, all the wingnuts who have been yowling about how the Memos are probably fake? They're not. Once and for all, they're not. If nothing else, Blair's dissembling has proved that much.