CREEPING DOWDIFICATION? The Democrats have a commercial — ironically named “truth” — that features a clip of President Bush saying:

Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

Of course, what Bush actually said was:

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

(Emphasis added.) In Dowdian fashion, the commercial omits that crucial phrase. It also fails to note that the British stand by this statement, and pooh-pooh the U.S. investigator who, without access to their information, said it wasn’t true:

They dismissed a report from a former US diplomat who was sent to Niger to investigate the claims and rejected them. “He seems to have asked a few people if it was true and when they said ‘no’ he accepted it all,” one official said. “We see no reason at all to change our assessment.”

This commercial proves that someone is shading the truth, all right. It also proves that the Democrats are idiots. There are lots of real issues (hey, I’m giving ’em away for free here, every day) that they could use, but they’re running with this one because they hate Bush more than they care about the truth. Or, seemingly, about winning. Apparently, they haven’t read the memo.

Bryan Preston, meanwhile, thinks that Slate has gone off the rails on this issue, too.

UPDATE: Read this dissection of the many “lie” claims.