I think the whole meme that "we got bad intelligence" rings hollow when you have a White House that is uninterested in ACTUAL reality, and more interested in ITS version of reality.

Check out this article (not online, but reprinted in part here from The American Conservative Magazine):

On Sept. 28, at the Vice President’s request, the Agency provided a special briefing on the subject of Jordanian terrorist Mu’sab al-Zarqawi. The CIA’s Counter Terrorism Center (CTC) reviewed all of the available intelligence on the subject and based its briefing on a just completed comprehensive intelligence analysis. The CTC concluded that Saddam Hussein had not materially supported Zarqawi before the U.S.-led invasion and that Zarqawi’s infrastructure in Iraw before the war was confined to the northern no-fly zones of Kurdistan, beyond Baghdad’s reach. Cheney reacted with fury, screaming at the briefer that CIA was trying to get John Kerry elected by contradicting the president’s stance that Saddam had supported terrorism and therefore needed to be overthrown. The hapless briefer was shaken by the vice president’s outburst, and the incident was reported back to Goss, who indicated that he was reluctant to confront the vice president’s staff regarding it.

Why do the facts hate America??

UPDATE: Speaking of "facts", Bush has pulled out his Obsidian Great Sword of Irony (-3 Intelligence) and whacked himself over the head with it today, by saying (in response to the Iraqi "missing explosives" story): "For a political candidate to jump to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief". Funny, that’s what we’ve been saying for months, too.