The Chris Moeller Archives

Now he tells us

What a shameful fall from grace for Colin Powell. In the late 1990s, the military commander and media darling could write his own ticket in Washington. He'd have destroyed Al Gore in the 2000 presidential race if he'd chosen to pursue the Republican nomination. But then, as Secretary of State, he made that infamous presentation to Congress in 2002, delivering a trumped-up case for war against Saddam Hussein complete with false claims that the Iraqi dictator had pursued ingredients for manufacturing nuclear weapons. Powell left the cabinet in deafening silence as Bush began his second term, but thanks to the whistleblower, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whom the president then set out to destroy, the public found out what a miniscule threat Hussein actually posed.

Today, the Washington Post reveals that Bush continued lying about the presence of WMDs even 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, claiming that "biological laboratories" had been seized when, in fact, they hadn't and he knew they hadn't. And now Powell claims that he and the experts from the state department never believed that Iraq was an imminent nuclear threat. "That was all Cheney," is his direct quote, and at that, one that still covers for the president. And you thought the Democrats lacked for courage.

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Baseball's hit king, Pete Rose, told a Las Vegas radio audience last week that amphetamines, recently banned from the game after decades of widespread use, pose less of a threat than steroids to the integrity of baseball. "I can't tell you who took them or who didn't (during the '60s, '70s, and '80s,) and I really don't care."

He told FHM magazine in its April issue that he used amphetamines, or speed, as a player. "If you did an analysis and compare them to steroids, one thing amphetamines aren't going to do is make you stronger." "Amphetamines aren't going to get you over an injury faster," he told KBAD radio.

To FHM, "Some people call them amphetamines, but they were diet pills. If steroids don't help you, why the hell do they take them?" An interesting thought and an admirable admission, but couldn't the last question also be asked of amphetamines?

posted by CM @ 2:49 PM