Levin made an interesting claim on Fox News Sunday -- he told Brit Hume that then head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell had privately urged Levin and other senators to oppose the Gulf War resolution and give inspections more time to work. (I had an earlier post on Levin's performance here.)

Well, Powell claims that Levin is "mistaken."

But Powell said though a spokesman today that he only urged that sanctions be allowed to work while that was administration policy and that from December 1990 on he was preparing for war and that he never gave any advice to the contrary to Carl Levin or anyone else. The vote on the Gulf War resolution came in January 1991.

Not included in the Web site version of the item is a comment that Brit Hume made on the broadcast show -- something to the effect that Sen. Levin's office had failed to return two calls to comment.