Check to have links open new windows.

Tossing Cheney under the bus?

A senior administration official confirmed for the first time on Sunday that President Bush had ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq in an effort to rebut critics who said the administration had exaggerated the nuclear threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

But the official said that Mr. Bush did not designate Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., or anyone else, to release the information to reporters.

But this really raises as many questions as it answers. How was this "effort to rebut critics" to be carried out, if not by giving information to reporters? Is "rebutting critics" really a reason we ought to be declassifying documents? Isn't Bush calling either Cheney or Libby a liar?

Inquiring minds want to know.