Pot, meet kettle

Today's WaPo is reporting that Debate Over Newsweek Retraction of Report Widens (emphasis mine):

Lawmakers of both parties entered the fray on Capitol Hill. Rep. Fortney 'Pete' Stark (D-Calif.) charged the White House with hypocrisy, saying: 'The administration is chastising Newsweek for a story that contained a fact that turned out to be false. This is the same administration that lied to the Congress, the United Nations and the American people by fabricating reasons to send us to war.'

Stark added in an interview: 'For the administration to be holier-than-thou about this is somewhere between obscene and funny. There are publications that often expose weaknesses in administration positions and they don't like that. They play tough.'

Well, exactly. The fascist war criminals are using this as a means of bullying the press.

McClellan rejected such criticism in an interview, saying: 'We've taken steps to make sure we improve our intelligence gathering. This should not be used as a distraction from what occurred here. It gave an impression of our military that is wrong.'

Give me a friggin' break. This is all a ruse to distract attention away from the "Downing Street Memo" which Scott McClellan claims not to have seen. More bullshit. More lies.

Rep. Deborah Pryce (Ohio), chairman of the House Republican Conference, urged every congressional office to cancel its Newsweek subscription. 'Retraction and regrets will not atone for the reckless behavior of an irresponsible reporter and an overzealous publication,' she said in a statement.

Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) used even stronger language, saying that Isikoff had 'fabricated' the Koran incident and branding Newsweek's behavior 'criminal.'

More lies from the rethuglicans. This story has been in the news since 2002, and similar stories were published by a bunch of other news organizations. Isikoff didn't lie, his reliable source changed his mind about seeing a memo. The shredders in the Pentagon and Whitehouse got to him, or even more likely, it was a setup.

Regardless, this administration is in no position to call the kettle black.