A recent poll shows that 66% of Americans can’t name one of the nine Democratic Presidential candidates. Or maybe it’s the other way around. No matter, the Bush reelection juggernaut looks invincible. Why then W’s Nixonian drive to alter the truth? Not that anyone’s listening, but the handful of Democrats not trained on the White House are crying foul. Senators Biden and Rockefeller have called the administration’s assessment of Iraq’s weapons program and the links between Saddam and Al-Qaeda “hyped-up”, or at the least founded on flimsy intel. Robert Byrd, who is older and therefore less constrained by decorum, called Bush’s case for bombing Iraq a “house of cards built on deceit.”

Robert Scheer discloses in the LA Times the BBC’s assertion that the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch was totally fabricated; Lynch was neither stabbed nor shot but injured when her vehicle rolled over. For two days, Iraqi doctors were negotiating her release. Then, US Special Forces stormed a hospital which had been long vacated by the Iraqi military. Special Ops commandoes videoed themselves with night vision cameras while firing blanks, sending the live feed of smoke and explosive sound effects to CenCom where the images were forwarded to the Pentagon for post production work. There was, in fact, no daring helicopter lift – Private Lynch was calmly driven away by ambulance only to be shot at by American troops at a U.S. checkpoint. NBC, unimpeded by the facts, will air a television movie based on the mythical version of events.

Perhaps repulsed by the administration’s blatant and egregious distain for reality, Ari Fleischer has announced his departure as the White House Press Secretary. Maybe he could no longer keep a straight face or maybe he has come to the point in his tenure where any statement now would contradict something he has already said. Or, more crudely, he’s got nowhere to step except in his own shit. The good news is that Jayson Blair, according to his agent, has suddenly and inexplicably become available.

Recent suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco is evidence that Al -Qaeda is still functioning at a high level. What is less clear is whether these attacks were intended to scare Americans or to prod the Saudis to keep writing checks. Like all charitable organizations in a declining world economy, Al Qaeda is engaged in fierce competition for dollars that could instead flow to Hammas, the National Rifle Association or the 700 Club.

Credibility mounts daily that Saddam has escaped from a Baghdad suburb and is hiding in exile. Bin Laden, we know, slipped out of Afghanistan under the watchful eye of the (thankfully) now-retired Tommy Franks. The scorecard reads: two countries overthrown and two tyrants unaccounted for. For all our military prowess, we couldn’t manage to kill two guys you could spot in a Mardi Gras crowd after a downing a bottle of gin and losing your glasses. Meanwhile, the administration is hatching a plan to “destabilize” the Iranian government while it stamps a roadmap for peace on Ariel Sharon’s forehead.

The forces at work in the Middle East are indeed chaotic and frightening. Images of suicidal zealots toting chemical warheads or nuclear bombs will no doubt keep you up at night, but who imagined such death and destruction could be caused by a rigged voting booth in Palm Beach?