Max Boot has an excellent column in today's Los Angeles Times pointing out that the "infamous 16" is all about politics. It has nothing to do with concerns about the quality of our intelligence, the president's honesty or...Watergate.

The decision to go to war was not based on 16 words in the State of the Union. In fact, that address was delivered more than three months after both houses of Congress had already authorized Bush to take military action against Iraq. Lest we forget, that resolution was endorsed by Democratic Sens. John Kerry, Joe Lieberman and John Edwards and Rep. Dick Gephardt, all of whom are now carping that they were deceived by the president. They must have been pretty clairvoyant to have been deceived by a claim that Bush had not yet made.

It's the silly season in Washington. There's nothing to see here -- except politics as usual.