Did Cheney Tell Libby to Do It?

McClellan: "They both would be criminal, for instance."

Stewart: "That's what I'm saying! That's my point! But in the book, you make it very clear -- you go out of your way -- to say that you don't think it's intentional."

McClellan: "I don't."

Stewart: "But I haven't seen any evidence that it's not intentional. Because everything was done with aforethought. It may not have been done with malice, so it's not first-degree murder. But it was done with aforethought."

McClellan: "I think these are good people. They just got caught up in this whole --"

Stewart: "It was done with aforethought. . . . They sat in a room with each other and said: 'Don't tell them any of the bad consequences that could come of this war, because we really want to do this.'"

Afterwards, Steven Colbert opened his show this way: "Scott McClellan says the press didn't do its job in the run-up to the war. Why is he complaining? They did his job."

And in his " word of the day" segment, Colbert added: "So, media, if you want to sell the American people a story that you did your job well in the lead-up to the war just use the same techniques that McClellan and the administration used to sell the war to you in the first place."

Cheney's Incest Joke

William Branigin writes in The Washington Post: "Vice President Cheney apologized for saying yesterday that he has 'Cheneys on both sides' of his family tree dating back to the 1600s, 'And we don't even live in West Virginia.'

"The quip drew groans from the audience at the National Press Club, prompting the vice president to add, 'You can say those things when you're not running for reelection.' (The White House transcript of Cheney's comments, released last night, described laughter instead of groans.)

"The remark drew swift denunciations from West Virginians of both parties, with Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R) calling it 'disrespectful' and 'certainly not funny,' and Gov. Joe Manchin (D) saying, 'I truly cannot believe that any vice president of the United States . . . would make such a derogatory statement about my state, or any state for that matter.'

"Cheney quickly moved to defuse the matter, with spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride telling the Associated Press: 'On reflection, he concluded that it was an inappropriate attempt at humor that he should not have made. The vice president apologizes to the people of West Virginia for the inappropriate remark.'

"The comment came during a question-and-answer session after the annual Gerald R. Ford Journalism Awards, and was prompted by a question about his distant kinship with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.)."

Here's a video clip.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Time was taken with Cheney's "lighter side."

"He took a swipe at the former White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, who in a new book accuses President Bush of using propaganda to mislead the nation into the Iraq war.

"'I thought Bob Dole got it about right,' Mr. Cheney said, a reference to the former Senate Republican leader who sent a scathing e-mail message to Mr. McClellan calling him 'a miserable creature.' Mr. Cheney said he had not read the McClellan book, and did not plan to 'any time soon.' . . .

"Historians view Mr. Cheney as perhaps the most consequential vice president in American history. He has greatly expanded the powers of the office, wielding influence over policy matters as varied as terrorism and the economy through his confidential advice to the president. (One 12-year-old questioner Monday asked about the most difficult obstacle in Mr. Cheney's 'reign as vice president,' to which he replied, 'Well, I didn't exactly think of it as a reign.')"

Veto Watch

Deborah Zabarenko writes for Reuters: "Even before debate began on Monday on the first comprehensive climate change bill to reach the Senate floor, the White House said President George W. Bush would veto it in its current form.

"Bush himself slammed the bill, saying it would cost the U.S. economy $6 trillion. His estimate drew quick denials from those who support the legislation, including Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and longtime environmentalist. . . .

"'I urge the Congress to be very careful about running up enormous costs for future generations of Americans,' Bush said at a White House meeting on the economy and taxes. 'We'll work with the Congress, but the idea of a huge spending bill fueled by tax increases isn't the right way to proceed.'"

Jon Ward writes in the Washington Times: "The White House's top environmental adviser said Monday that under President Bush, the U.S. has already taken most major steps needed to combat global warming in the near term and said that's just part of a positive environmental record that is profoundly misconstrued by environmentalists.

"On the day the Senate voted 74-14 to start a new debate on global warming, James L. Connaughton, chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, told editors and reporters at The Washington Times that Mr. Bush's tenure has seen decreases in some types of air pollution, historic action on rehabilitating brownfields sites and a decrease in overall greenhouse-gas emissions, compared with an increase of 18 percent from 1990 to 2000. . . .

"Environmental groups challenged his claims, pointing to government statistics that suggest the Bush administration deserves little credit for recent drops in both conventional air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions."

Poll Watch

Susan Page, writing for USA Today, notes Bush's 28 percent job-approval rating in the latest Gallup Poll, matching the low point of his tenure.

Live Online

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Cartoon Watch

Rob Rogers on Bush and McCain; Lee Judge on weapons of mass seduction; and Justin DeFreitas on What Happened.