Steve Malzberg
Monday, Jan. 24, 2005

She came equipped with charts and quotes and plenty of accusations that played right into the hands of a mainstream media, which have yet to meet a conservative, who happens to be a minority, that they don't despise.

And while she may have gotten away with it in some circles, including Sunday's edition of CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," California Senator Barbara Boxer has been exposed as the one who has trouble with the truth.

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  Boxer, who some speculate may one day face off against Rice in defense of her California Senate seat, repeatedly accused Rice and President Bush of changing their stories about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and the threat they posed to the United States prior to the war.

Boxer's line of questioning and her conclusions reinforced the notion put forth by leftist revisionists that the only reason we went into Iraq was because of WMDs. As James Taranto points out in his daily column, "Best of the Web" (OpinionJournal.com), this is far from the truth.

Rice told Boxer that it wasn't just the weapons issue. She pointed out that Saddam Hussein welcomed terrorists. She noted that he paid terrorists to bomb Israel, and that he had in the past attacked Israel and tried to annex Kuwait. She told Boxer that in a post-9/11 world, the time had come to act.

But Boxer stuck to her line. It was the line she came into the hearings with and she wasn't about to let it go just because a little thing like the truth was standing in the way.

She claimed that when the Congress voted to grant the president the power to use force against Iraq, the only issue raised was the issue of Saddam's weapons. Taranto quotes Boxer: "You should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war. ... It was WMD, period."

That's a lie.

Here's some of what the resolution said:

Whereas Iraq persists in violating resolution of the United Nations Security Council by continuing to engage in brutal repression of its civilian population thereby threatening international peace and security in the region, by refusing to release, repatriate, or account for non-Iraqi citizens wrongfully detained by Iraq, including an American serviceman, and by failing to return property wrongfully seized by Iraq from Kuwait; ...

The President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate to –

(1) Defend the national security of the U.S. against the continuing threat posed by Iraq; and

(2) enforce all relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq.

A far cry from Boxer's claim of "WMD, period." I guess Senator Boxer didn't read the resolution.

In fact, on the day that we launched our invasion of Iraq, President Bush took to the airwaves to reveal that military action was under way. Among his stated reasons for that action was our desire to free the oppressed people of Iraq. I guess Senator Boxer wasn't watching.

Last Sunday on "Late Edition," Boxer invoked Martin Luther King Jr. in attacking Rice. She quoted King as saying, "Our lives begin to end when we stop talking about things that matter." She then went on to claim that what matters to the people of California is the war, because her home state has lost 25 percent of those killed in Iraq.

Another lie. According to Casualties.org, the total is more like 11.5 percent. I guess the senator misread the numbers.

Yes, on that show Senator Boxer went on to accuse Dr. Rice of having a problem with the truth. She told host Wolf Blitzer that Rice is a nominee who "I do not believe has been candid with the American people ... She's made statements that I don't think are true or are half-truths ... She has said things that are flat-out not true," and "I worry about somebody who had a chance to correct the record that didn't do so."

So do I, Senator, so do I.

You can visit Steve Malzberg's Web site at www.malzbergtalk.com. You can listen to his New York radio show on 1600 WWRL radio or live on the Web at www.wwwrl1600.com Monday-Friday 6-10 a.m. Eastern time.

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