DID JAY ROCKEFELLER HAND THE RETHUGS A WEAPON OF MASS DISTRACTION?

This morning on his radio show Bill Bennett was hot on Jay Rockefeller's tail. He says that yesterday on Faux News, in response to a question about his statement pre-war that Iraq posed an "imminent threat" to the U.S., Rockefeller said he had made a personal visit to Syria and Saudi Arabia in the fall of 2002 and told the leadership of those countries that in his opinion, George Bush was ready to go to war with Iraq and that that decision had been made shortly after 9/11. Bennett and his cohort Seth began to discuss just how treasonous such an action might have been -- e.g., how might that information have been used contrary to U.S. interests (the WMD could have been moved -- aha! this helps prove they're in Syria!).

If Rockefeller made such a statement (and I haven't been able to find corroboration yet), it could hand the Republicans a gambit for distraction from their current woes. It would certainly sound irresponsible to many Americans, though I doubt he was telling them anything they didn't know since Bush was beating the war drums pretty loudly by then.

I'll be watching for the transcript to see just what JR really said. Knowing Bill Bennett, it could be a complete distortion.

Tags: Rockefeller

UPDATE: Bennett has written about the putative Rockefeller "confession" at NRO. Matt Yglesias weighs in. Matt echoes my sentiments, that it was hardly news to the world that Bush was dead-set on invading Iraq. It's still to be seen what the Rethugs, and the media, will make of this.