WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Kay, the chief U.S. weapons hunter in Iraq, has told the CIA he will not return to his post, a U.S. government source has said, a move that critics could seize upon as a sign that he has given up hope of finding banned arms.

"He has told the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet) that he doesn't want to go back, they have been trying to get him to stay," the source told Reuters on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

Well, he was set up to fail, wasn't he? Given an impossible mission, I can't say I blame him for wanting to quit.

A shocking combination of words were found this afternoon on Matt Drudge's web site, www.drudgereport.com, this space can reveal!

DEVELOPING HARD!!!

Dennis Miller's HBO show was canceled when it became clear that he was reading his rants for the first time live on the air, as appeared to be the case for at least the last two seasons.

I've never heard anybody talk about the moon's "abundant resources."

To ensure the mission's success the president has ordered the landing to take place on a full moon.

In other news, more and more troops are killing themselves while serving in Iraq according to the Pentagon.

I'm all for space travel, but billions of dollars on programs other than fixing the horrendous mistake in Iraq is just a waste at the moment.

We're twice removed from a WMD here...

Asked Monday about former Treasury secretary Paul H. O'Neill's allegation that the administration was preparing to attack Iraq from its first days in office, President Bush told reporters that "we were dealing with Desert Badger or flyovers and fly-betweens and looks, and we were fashioning policy along those lines."

Huh?

Desert Badger? This led to some head scratching around town. A Nexis search reveals no public mention of a recent operation called Desert Badger, although there are references to the University of Wisconsin Badgers.

Could this have been a code name for badgering Saddam to surrender? Not that we gave him the opportunity...

Imagine that President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell had made a case for the invasion of Iraq along the following lines: "Saddam Hussein is an evil dictator who has long oppressed the Iraqi people and threatened Iraq's neighbors. It is U.S. policy to seek regime change in Iraq, and we propose to do that now, by military force. Saddam does not pose a risk to the United States now, and any threat he eventually may pose is years or decades away. His programs for developing weapons of mass destruction have been dormant since the end of the Gulf War. We have no evidence of links between Saddam and the terrorists of Al-Qaida or other groups capable of attacking the United States. Any invasion of Iraq is not related to the war on terrorism.

"Nevertheless, removing Saddam and creating a free, democratic Iraq is a worthy goal, though it will not come cheap. It will cost tens upon tens of billions of dollars raised from American taxpayers. International assistance will be minimal. Hundreds of fine young Americans will be killed in the process, and thousands will suffer debilitating wounds that will alter their lives forever. We call upon the American people to willingly shoulder those costs in the name of a free Iraq."

That, of course, isn't the case Bush and Powell made. The American people would have rejected it, and properly so.

I'm glad the "who's wearing sweaters" story hasn't overwhelmed the "who's eating junk food" story.

The thing that struck me about O'Neill in his interview was how seemingly unaware he was that he was saying things that could be considered critical of the president. He's telling the truth and can't imagine that he would be punished for that. He obviously doesn't know the Bush administration as well as the rest of us do.

While in the book O'Neill comes off as constantly appalled at Mr. Bush, he was surprised when Stahl told him she found his portrait of the president unflattering.

“Hmmm, you really think so,” asks O’Neill, who says he isn’t joking. “Well, I’ll be darned.”

“You're giving me the impression that you're just going to be stunned if they attack you for this book,” says Stahl to O’Neill. “And they're going to say, I predict, you know, it's sour grapes. He's getting back because he was fired.”
“I will be really disappointed if they react that way because I think they'll be hard put to,” says O’Neill.

Is he prepared for it?

“Well, I don't think I need to be because I can't imagine that I'm going to be attacked for telling the truth,” says O’Neill. “Why would I be attacked for telling the truth?”

Now the treasury department is investigating and the White House Spokesman is accusing O'Neill of breaking federal law.

Let the smearing begin.

Oh, and buy the book O'Neill didn't get a dime for.

"It may seem odd that the ACLU has come to the defense of Rush Limbaugh," the state chapter's executive director, Howard Simon, said in a statement. "But we have always said that the ACLU's real client is the Bill of Rights and we will continue to safeguard the values of equality, fairness and privacy for everyone, regardless of race, economic status or political point of view."

Limbaugh's had no comment on the ACLU's involvement so far.

This is great- of paramount concern is the defense of the bill of rights. Until recently, Limbaugh has denied the existance of a right to privacy. All it takes is the threat of federal "pound me in the ass" prison to turn a guy's political views 180 degrees. It's clear how much of what Limbaugh says is an act and nothing more.

"No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."
-George W. Bush

Later:

Political guru Karl Rove claims that the job of journalists is "not necessarily to report the news. It's to get a headline or get a story that will make people pay attention to their magazine, newspaper or television more."

And Chief of Staff Andy Card scoffs: "[The media] don't represent the public any more than other people do. In our democracy, the people who represent the public stood for election."

Card argues that it's not the responsibility of top White House policymakers to provide reporters with facts.

"It's not our job to be sources. The taxpayers don't pay us to leak!" Card tells Auletta. "Our job is not to make your job easy."

The president's advisors apparently missed that day in Junior High Civics class. Our loss...