Keith will be in for a special Countdown tonight at 8p ET. We'll be all over the developements in Pakistan, Washington and beyond in the wake of the Benazir Bhutto assassination.  Please join us.

***Alison Stewart in for Keith tonight***

House of Scandal: Our fifth story on the Countdown: the search for "true facts" uncovers a doozy: The New York Times reporting that Harriet Miers wasn't the only White House lawyer who discussed the handling of those tapes before they were erased. There were at least three others, including Alberto Gonzales.

Polls, Polls and more Polls: In our fourth story tonight, a new poll leaves no doubt about who's leading the Democratic race in Iowa, site of the caucuses 15 days from now. In a significant surprise, the latest Insider Advantage poll puts John Edwards on top, with 30 percent of the vote.
ODDBALL: What a "Charmin" Bride, Dustin Hoffman strikes back

Papa Don't Preach:  In our third story on the Countdown: sixteen-year old Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. The younger sister of Britney, decided, along with their mother, Lynn, to announce that news in the pages of OK! magazine. A decision, which her father Jamie reportedly abhors.

The Perfect Gift?: So our number two story tonight: When cash seems too crass, little decorative three by two inches of plastic does the trick.  But with a little news you can use, our correspondent Kevin Tibbles found out a lot of you are throwing away money without knowing it.

Lost in the Supermarket: The good news for the fine citizens of the Hawkeye State tonight: Only Sixteen days to go until the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. The even better news for value shoppers in Des Moines: A three for one special at the Hivee supermarket this morning! A Clinton sandwich special...made with Magic! In our fifth story on the Countdown: Not even Magic Johnson was a big enough star to keep former President Clinton from stealing the spotlight from the lady running for his old job.

Rudy Goes South:  So here's a sign your campaign for president might be in trouble. The more voters hear you message, the more your poll numbers fall. This is apparently the reality for Rudy Giuliani in New Hampshire so he's working on a whole new election strategy.

***Alison Stewart in for Keith tonight***

Endorsement '08: In a fast food nation where burger eaters like to have it their way and caffeine addicts get to make about five different decisions every time they step up to the counter for a grande skim macciato (but make that a half caff... and hold the foam...), the ritual of settling on just one individual, the choice of a presidential candidate might seem to be a bit out of place. It's endorsement time in the race for president! Any American who likes to be told how to vote, now has a wealth of opinions from which to draw. Politicians, the wives of politicians, newspaper editorial boards, anybody who has decided on a candidate, is now sharing that choice with anyone who will listen.

Countdown to Iowa: President Bush, defended by a G-O-P candidate. While man's best friend is not getting any love from certain red staters running for President.

ODDBALL: Scuffles in the South Korean legislature and a loose bird near our own.

Eavesdroppings:  An historic fight began in the Senate today over whether you have the right to sue phone companies for eavesdropping on you. President Bush is pushing to give blanket immunity to any phone company that agreed to let the government listen in on phone and track email traffic passing through its lines without going through the special, top-secret courts known as FISA courts.  Tonight, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid unable to move a bill that gave telecom companies immunity forward, pulled it from consideration for now. The fight will start up again next month, just one month before the current FISA law expires.

Keeping Tabs:  Michael Jackson seems to have his holidays mixed up.  Halloween is in October silly!

Diva Drama: "Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the biggest diva trainwreck of them all?" It does seem that as the year ends, there's competition for the title, between Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. On this particular day, call it a toss-up. But since her disastrous performance and questionable costume choice at the Video Music Awards, Ms. Spears has found a way to look good on stage.The magic of video!

How Rudolph Saved...Rudolph?: With 20 days until the Iowa Caucuses, to pick up the fallen gauntlet from one of our strike-bound friends at Comedy Central, tonight's word is...tested. Not testy or testes, tested. And, in our fifth story on the Countdown, it is in use tonight by the Republican and the Democrat who a month ago seemed to be sailing towards their respective nominations on a shimmering, window-pane sea of inevitability. We begin tonight with Rudy Giuliani.

Failing on FISA: Why on earth would the Senate Majority Leader chose an amendment to the FISA bill that would immunize the telecom giants who helped the government spy on you, rather than the amendment that wouldn't immunize them? Markos Moulitsas joins us.

ODDBALL: South Korea brawl and Russian Polar Bears...not that kind HEHE!

Mission Accomplished:  Bill O'Reilly claims to be a crusader for Christmas. But the object of his true concern is not Jesus Christ... whose biblical revelations, he indicated on the air, were made, "what, five-thousand years ago" -- a neat trick even for him, considering he is said to have been alive, two thousand years ago. Nor is O'Reilly's focus Santa, really, nor even Frosty the Snow-man... More like a straw man of the "War on Christmas"... And now, in our third story on the Countdown, Billo declares victory! And racks up yet another win against the secular progressives. That... preceding, by 24 hours, O'Reilly giving a pass to Barnes and Noble, on the "Christmas" front... because that company sells his books.

Tabby Time; To our number two story on the Countdown, Keeping Tabs, wherein Britney Spears' trip to a gas station produces its succession of staggering consequences.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Billo makes another appearance, but is he no 1?

Time's Awkward Moments: Too Good to miss. 

Naming Names: Baseball. Tonight, a sport not of home runs and strikeouts... but rather of asterisks and question marks...Tonight, a sport not of elements called grace and power... but rather of drugs called "Winstrol" and "Human Growth Hormone." Our fifth story on the Countdown: former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell's 20-month long investigation into the use of illegal performance-enhancing substances is out, and it calls to mind the observation of 37 years ago by player-turned-author Jim Bouton. Namely that if there existed a pill that would guarantee a pitcher 20 victories in a season and he knew it would shorten his life by five years... he'd take it anyway. Senator Mitchell essentially accused Roger Clemens of doing just that.

You Say Dubai, I say Hello:  As the co-chair of Hillary Clinton's campaign in New Hampshire quits... They won't quit debating... The Democrats in their last brawl before the Iowa Caucuses.

ODDBALL: An eel lights up a christmas tree, and a guy stuck under a pint glass in London

Rudy's Problems Continue:  Just one day after declaring himself the most transparent public figure he knows... More murky details of his shady business deals come to light. Our third story on the Countdown, Rudy Giuliani profiting off invading your privacy... possibly illegally.

Down Goes Liza:  Our brief look at celebrity and entertainment news tonight begins with a falling star.  Literally.  And some alarming moments for Liza Minnelli and her audience at a concert in Goat-borg, Sweden

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Billo (this is a good one), Rush LImbaugh and Don Imus vie for tonight's top honors.

Fears for Spears:  Britney Spears, the Virgin Mary and Tom Cruise wouldn't seem to have that much in common. But they convergence in the lives of two of our favorite Hollywood Divas beginning with Britney Spears and her miraculous recovery and subsequent Midnight Gas Run. Our number one story on the Countdown: you might recall that she failed to show, yesterday, at a deposition in her child custody fight because her lawyers said she was too sick. Now...

More Spies Lies & Videotape: The essence of Obstruction of Justice...The definition of when destroying tapes showing the CIA torturing an Al-Qaeda minion on a water-board is a George Tenet-style slam-dunk crime...Is whether the materials destroyed, were relevant to an on-going legal case. Thus our fifth story on the Countdown is unusually clear for this nearly seven-year "Fog of Bush": the revelation that not one but two US District Judges issued orders in June and July of 2005 that the government had to not destroy any evidence relating to just the mistreatment of detainees at Gitmo...And the C-I-A destroyed some of that evidence in November of 2005. The inevitable loophole in this Presidency of Loopholes? The detainees were not yet at Gitmo when they were tortured, and videotaped.

The Truth on Torture:  A lot of people have said a lot of crazy things since 9/11... But could a United States Senator have really just compared water-boarding... to swimming the back-stroke? Why the desperation on the Right to convince everybody, right now, that water-boarding is the best?

ODDBALL: A mouse that aint afraid of a kitty cat...and the spider pig flies over London.

The Right Stuff: It was the final GOP debate before the Iowa Caucuses. The final chance for candidates to stand out from the pack. And instead, in our third story on the Countdown, substance gave way to showmanship as a man almost no-one knew was running for President joined the eight other candidates on stage. Former MSNBC host Alan Keyes. The guy who once did a show here in which he looked around the studio as he spoke instead of just at the camera, leading some viewers to say to themselves "I'm the one in the middle, Buddy."

Barney Cam:  Evidence tonight that the writers strike... now in its sixth week... is taking a toll, even in our nation's capitol. Our number two story tonight... Keeping tabs... Barney-Cam is back... and badder than ever.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Bill-O, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson vie for tonight's top honors.

Fears for Spears:  Britney Spears is a fugitive from justice. Ok, not exactly...but this morning she did stiff the lawyers for her ex-husband Kevin Federline...who were set to depose her in the couple's ongoing custody battle. Her excuse for skipping the deposition? High anxiety...and I don't mean the Mel Brooks movie.  Our number one story: the tense stand-off at the Britney Spears Mansion. And when I say "stand-off" I mean, she's not feeling at all well.

Overlooking Oversight: The same CIA officer who, last night, confirmed that under his team's interrogation, al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded... Who said he has no doubts that waterboarding is torture. Today -- in our fifth story on the Countdown -- completing the picture, saying that the decision to torture... was made by the White House.

You Say Dubai, I say Hello: It could just be coincidence, a fluke of timing. That four days after the CIA admits to having destroyed videotape evidence of Abu Zubaydah being waterboarded... An ex-CIA officer tells the press how well the water-boarding worked... Even though he wasn't present for the torture... Even though he wasn't present for the confessions.. And even though other CIA and FBI operatives have said that Zubaydah had little information and was mentally unbalanced. Our Fourth Story on the Countdown, looking for the truth behind the torture.

ODDBALL: The real reason the latest space shuttle flight was scrubbed, and the latest in coffee service...new robot baristas.

Contractor Gang Rape Cover Up?: Barbarian invaders are traditionally the ones associated with rape and pillage. After no-bid contracts leading to billions of dollars in alleged waste, Halliburton has already managed something that certainly can be compared to pillaging. And now, in our third story on the Countdown, its employees have been accused of gang rape. And because of a failure to prosecute, all of this comes with the imprimatur of the United States government.

Tabby Time:  911: What is your emergency? There's a downed oompa-loompa... wait... and it looks like Paris Hilton is trying to save it. That bizarre image leading off our number two story tonight... keeping tabs.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Sean Hannity and NY Knicks coach Isaih Thomas vie for tonight's top honors.

When Robots Attack an Ex-President:  Voters are sometime accused of seeming robotic...And there have been questions, from the start, about how Senator Hillary Clinton would deal with her larger-than-life, former-President, husband, Bill Clinton. But in our number one story on the Countdown, who could have imagined, that the two issues would ever have converged.

Spies Lies and Videotape:  The White House has had its Press Secretary symbolically button-up her lip again. It will say nothing about the CIA's destruction of its Torture tapes...Even though we are told to believe the President did not even know there had been until last Thursday morning. Our fifth story on the Countdown: breaking on top of that logical disconnect, a resounding refutation of CIA Director Hayden's stated rationale for erasing the tapes. The agent who ledd the team that interrogated Abu Zubaydah... going public tonight -- and calling that interrogation "torture" -- even though General Hayden had insisted the tapes were destroyed to prevent public identification of, and possible reprisals against... that agent, and his colleagues.

HIV & Huckabee:  Seven years after the Centers for Disease Control confirmed AIDS could not be transmitted casually, even the way tuberculosis was... Then-candidate-for-governor Mike Huckabee called for the "isolating" of AIDS victims because they were plague-carriers. Now he's trying to deny he meant quarantining them.

ODDBALL: A funky rat grows in the desert and some Indian stunt drivers in the "Well of Death".

The O Show:  It spawned the kind of crowds normally seen at rock shows. Nearly 70 thousand people, packing into arenas and stadiums across three states. Ostensibly to rally for Barack Obama. But in reality - to see his opening act, Oprah Winfrey...And in our third story on the Countdown: what if that ostensible billing...is wrong? What if he was her... Opening Act?

Tabby Time:  And our number two story, Keeping Tabs, begins with news from a Virginia court-room that means, even with an early-release, Michael Vick will not play again in the National Football League until the 2009 season -- if even then.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  David Ignatius, Mike Huckabee and Hugh Hewitt vie for tonight's top honors. 

The Littlest Idol:  Now that White House Press Secretary Dana Perino has been instructed not to speak about the CIA's destroyed interrogation videos... the powers that be might want to consider other banned subjects... Like anything involving a baseline knowledge of recent American history. Presidential history. History they've made two movies about. Plus it's in all the textbooks. Ms. Perino recently -- and giddily -- drawing attention to her ignorance regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis... on national radio. And in our number one story on the Countdown, if that easily qualifies as bad press for the press secretary... we've got another classic from a different quarter. Larry Birkhead -- of Anna Nicole Smith fame -- gathering friends to his home to watch t-v... Because he very mistakenly believed he had been chosen as Barbara Walters Most Fascinating Person of 2007. Not. Even. Close.

The one and only I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has dropped his appeal in the CIA leak case. Here's a blurb from the AP: 

"We remain firmly convinced of Mr. Libby's innocence," attorney Theodore Wells said. "However, the realities were, that after five years of government service by Mr. Libby and several years of defending against this case, the burden on Mr. Libby and his young family of continuing to pursue his complete vindication are too great to ask them to bear."

Surely with no further legal proceedings President Bush will be able to comment on the Plame leak case now...right?

Also, tonight we'll be all over the latest on the destruction of those CIA torture tapes, the latest on Rudy Giuliani's meat grinder interview with Tim Russert yesterday, and the latest on the Oprah/Obama tour that may be causing big waves on the campaign trail. 

Spies Lies & Videotape: It was Richard Nixon's profound -- and prophetic -- observation. It's not the crime that brings you down, it's the cover-up. He left out the corollary... or... maybe... both. Our fifth story on the Countdown: in a page out of Watergate... it now turns out not only were there tapes in "Water-Boarding-Gate"... but just like the 18-and-a-half minute gap from 1973... the tapes were erased. The CIA destroyed at least two video recordings... showing Al Qaeda suspects being subjected to waterboarding and other interrogation techniques... allegedly because of concerns the interrogators could be facing legal consequences for their actions. And the news breaking tonight on this: at least somebody in the White House reportedly knew about the destruction of evidence... in advance.

GOP vs. Intelligence: The President was wrong about Iran. The Vice President was wrong about Iran. John Bolton was wrong about Irahn. Norman Podhoretz was wrong about Iran. So -- naturally -- their supporters in the GOP are demanding Congressional Investigations of the Intel that proved they were wrong. Forgetting that by his actions, the President already admitted he was wrong about Irahn...And that if there are hearings -- the Democrats will also get to ask questions.

ODDBALL: Jesus in an X-ray and some nekkid shoppers caught on tape.

Sex on the City: Soon, Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani will be able to fill a bath-tub with the drip drip drip of damaging reports... including those centering on his past private use of public funds. The latest, in our third story on the Countdown: that his then-mistress, now-wife, Judith Nathan was getting police protection -- and the attendant chauffeur services from police personnel -- even before her affair with the then-Mayor had been made public. And earlier than previously disclosed by either the NYPD or Mr. Giuliani's presidential campaign.

Tabby Time: No surprise, and almost no comment, in our number two story. Barry Bonds pleading not guilty today to charges that he lied to a Federal Grand Jury investigating the use of steroids in sports.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  Mitch Mcconnell, Billo and Mike Huckabee vie for tonight's top honors.

The Plays of November:  Any of the various theatrical versions of "The Mutiny On The Bounty" give you a pretty good idea of what happened to Fletcher Christian and the others who took command of the ill-fated British Naval Vessel in April of 1789. But what happened to Anthony Hopkins -- or Charles Laughton -- or, really, Captain William Bligh? He not only sailed his way home in, essentially, a rowboat...But he lived on for another 28 years -- until this date -- December 7th -- 1817. And in those ensuing decades, he was the victim of... three more mutinies. On that optimistic note -- let's play Oddball's Plays Of The Month.

The Incredibles, Part 2:  Revelation of the Bush Administration's deceit about Iraq came too late. Too late to save a nation from the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Too late to save thousands of its sons and daughters, from death on a useless battlefield. But in our fifth story on the Countdown: revelation of the Bush Administration's deceit about Iran may have come just in time. And its loss of skill in wriggling out of perfidy never more evident than today... As a third attempt to explain the discrepancies about Irahn... managing only to entangle the president -- and top officials -- even further.

Lying to War: Even before the White House revealed that President Bush's honesty about the NIE... depends on what the meaning of "information" is... At least four CIA veterans knew he was full of it. And so did a former staffer on Mr. Bush's National Security Council. In our fourth story, we will speak with that man in just a minute. But first, the CIA veterans calling out Mr. Bush include Ray McGovern, who briefed Mr. Bush's father every day... and knows exactly what kind of information the president gets.

ODDBALL: A crazy wedding dance and robotic violins...genius!
 
Romney's Religion Spectacular:  In a seminal speech in 1960, the national candidate for the Democratic party, John F. Kennedy, told the nation why his Catholicism wouldn't interfere with his responsibility as President.. Explaining that he believed religion was a private matter...That separation of Church and State should be absolute... That his presidential decisions should be made without regard to any outside religious pressure.. Tonight, in our third story on the Countdown, a shameful self-comparison to the 35th President by a man who did not advocate that separation, nor say that privacy was sacrosanct in religion, nor insist that you have as much right not to believe, as he does to believe. Willard Mitt Romney.

Tabby Time: Briefly Keeping Tabs tonight... the possibility of Senator Larry Craig: The movie. It hasn't quite come to that yet... but it's getting close.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Joe Klein of Time, Glenn Beck and the large headed Fox Noise host vie for tonight's top honors.

Keith's Special Comment: See this Post...it's a good one. 

Full text of Keith's Special Comment after the jump.

Finally, as promised, a Special Comment about the President's cataclysmic deception about Iran.

---

There are few choices more terrifying than the one Mr.. Bush has left us with tonight.

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole -- or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked -- at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so -- whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

After Ms Perino's announcement from the White House late last night, the timeline is inescapable and clear.

In August the President was told by his hand-picked Major Domo of intelligence Mike McConnell, a flinty, high-strung-looking, worrying-warrior who will always see more clouds than silver linings, that what "everybody thought" about Iran might be, in essence, crap.

Yet on October 17th the President said of Iran and its president Ahmadinejad:

"I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War Three, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon."

And as he said that, Mr.. Bush knew that at bare minimum there was a strong chance that his rhetoric was nothing more than words with which to scare the Iranians.

Or was it, Sir, to scare the Americans?

Does Iran not really fit into the equation here? Have you just scribbled it into the fill-in-the-blank on the same template you used, to scare us about Iraq?

In August, any commander-in-chief still able-minded or uncorrupted or both, Sir, would have invoked the quality the job most requires: mental flexibility.

A bright man, or an honest man, would have realized no later than the McConnell briefing that the only true danger about Iran was the damage that could be done by an unhinged, irrational Chicken Little of a president, shooting his mouth off, backed up by only his own hysteria and his own delusions of omniscience.

Not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Bush.

The Chicken Little of presidents is the one, Sir, that you see in the mirror.

And the mind reels at the thought of a Vice President fully briefed on the revised Intel as long as two weeks ago -- briefed on the fact that Iran abandoned its pursuit of this imminent threat four years ago -- who never bothered to mention it to his boss.

It is nearly forgotten today, but throughout much of Ronald Reagan's presidency it was widely believed that he was little more than a front-man for some never-viewed, behind-the-scenes, string-puller.

Today, as evidenced by this latest remarkable, historic malfeasance, it is inescapable, that Dick Cheney is either this president's evil ventriloquist, or he thinks he is.

What servant of any of the 42 previous presidents could possibly withhold information of this urgency and gravity, and wind up back at his desk the next morning, instead of winding up before a Congressional investigation -- or a criminal one?

Mr. Bush -- if you can still hear us -- if you did not previously agree to this scenario in which Dick Cheney is the actual detective and you're Remington Steele -- you must disenthrall yourself: Mr. Cheney has usurped your constitutional powers, cut you out of the information loop, and led you down the path to an unprecedented presidency in which the facts are optional, the Intel is valued less than the hunch, and the assistant runs the store.

The problem is, Sir, your assistant is robbing you -- and your country -- blind.

Not merely in monetary terms, Mr.. Bush, but more importantly of the traditions and righteousness for which we have stood, at great risk, for centuries: Honesty, Law, Moral Force.

Mr.. Cheney has helped, Sir, to make your Administration into the kind our ancestors saw in the 1860's and 1870's and 1880's -- the ones that abandoned Reconstruction, and sent this country marching backwards into the pit of American Apartheid.

Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland...

Presidents who will be remembered only in a blur of failure, Mr.. Bush.

Presidents who will be remembered only as functions of those who opposed them -- the opponents whom history proved right.

Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland... Bush.

Would that we could let this President off the hook by seeing him only as marionette or moron.

But a study of the mutation of his language about Iran proves that though he may not be very good at it, he is, himself, still a manipulative, Machiavellian, snake-oil salesman.

The Bushian etymology was tracked by Dan Froomkin at the Washington Post's website.

It is staggering.

March 31st: "Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon..."

June 5th: Iran's "pursuit of nuclear weapons..."

June 19th: "consequences to the Iranian government if they continue to pursue a nuclear weapon..."

July 12th: "the same regime in Iran that is pursuing nuclear weapons..."

August 6th: "this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon..."

Notice a pattern?

Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.

Then, sometime between August 6th and August 9th, those terms are suddenly swapped out, so subtly that only in retrospect can we see that somebody has warned the President, not only that he has gone out too far on the limb of terror -- but there may not even be a tree there...

McConnell, or someone, must have briefed him then.

August 9th: "They have expressed their desire to be able to enrich uranium, which we believe is a step toward having a nuclear weapons program..."

August 28th: "Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons..."

October 4th: "you should not have the know-how on how to make a (nuclear) weapon..."

October 17th: "until they suspend and/or make it clear that they, that their statements aren't real, yeah, I believe they want to have the **capacity**, the **knowledge**, in order to make a nuclear weapon."

Before August 9th, it's: Trying to develop, build or pursue a nuclear weapon.

After August 9th, it's: Desire, pursuit, want...knowledge technology know-how to enrich uranium.

And we are to believe, Mr.. Bush, that the National Intelligence Estimate this week talks of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program in 2003...

And you talked of the Iranians suspending their nuclear weapons program on October 17th...

And that's just a coincidence?

---

And we are to believe, Mr.. Bush, that nobody told you any of this until last week?

Your insistence that you were not briefed on the NIE until last week might be legally true -- something like "what the definition of is is -- but with the subject matter being not interns but the threat of nuclear war.

Legally, it might save you from some war crimes trial... but ethically, it is a lie.

It is indefensible.

You have been yelling threats into a phone for nearly four months, after the guy on the other end had already hung up.

You, Mr.. Bush, are a bald-faced liar.

--

And more over, you have just revealed that John Bolton, and Norman Podhoretz, and the Wall Street Journal Editorial board, are also bald-faced liars.

We are to believe that the Intel Community, or maybe the State Department, cooked the raw intelligence about Iran, falsely diminished the Iranian nuclear threat, to make you look bad?

And you proceeded to let them make you look bad?

---

You not only knew all of this about Iran, in early August...

But you also knew... it was... accurate.

And instead of sharing this good news with the people you have obviously forgotten you represent...

You merely fine-tuned your terrorizing of those people, to legally cover your own backside...

While you filled the factual gap with sadistic visions of -- as you phrased it on August 28th: a quote "nuclear holocaust" -- and, as you phrased it on October 17th, quote: "World War Three."

---

My comments, Mr. Bush, are often dismissed as simple repetitions of the phrase "George Bush has no business being president."

Well, guess what?

Tonight: hanged by your own words... convicted by your own deliberate lies...

You, sir, have no business... being president.

---

Good night, and good luck.

Tonight at 8p ET tune in to Countdown for one of Keith's Special comments regarding the revelation that the President knew about the possible suspension of an Iranian nuclear program in August.

***********UPDATE*********

Excerpt after the jump.

Late last night came the revelation from WH press secretary Dana Perino that the President knew the Iranian Nuclear Program "May be suspended" in August. The statement released last night reads as follows, in part:

"Director McConnell said that the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program, but the intelligence community was not prepared to draw any conclusions at that point in time, and it wouldn't be right to speculate until they had time to examine and analyze the new data,"

That means the President knew two months before his "world war III" comments. You can imagine the fireworks this set off at the Perino briefing this morning...We'll have all of that, plus we'll be all over today's Romney big religion speech during which he said "Freedom requires religion". 

Faith Based Intelligence:  We will go to Omaha and the nightmare of at least nine dead, in a mall shooting rampage, in the middle of the holiday shopping season, presently. But in our fifth story on the Countdown: Having Yesterday rejected any "Psychology 101" mumbo jumbo at a news conference dominated by the National Intelligence Estimate on Irahn...  Today, when threatening Irahn directly, Mr. Bush became a case study for the basic principle taught in every introductory psychology course: projection. That is, attributing your worst faults onto others.

The Chertoff Our Backs: The Department of Homeland Security...Not only responsible for politicizing the one issue of our times that should have been the most politics-free... But now, according to an Ethics Investigation, responsible for wasting at least four billion dollars of taxpayer dollars... and funneling dozens of its former executives into the very firms to which they gave contracts.

ODDBALL: A pig suckles at the teet of a tiger and the cops in India dance...wee!

Nebraska Mall Shooting:  The note left behind by a 19-year-old man today said, "I'm going out in style." In our third story tonight, those words, according to police in Omaha... coming from the suicide note of a man who went on a shooting spree at an Omaha shopping mall... killing eight people, wounding five more-- all, apparently, at random... before turning his weapon on himself. "I'm going out... in style." The note reportedly found at his home... after it was all over. Police are only in the beginning stages at this hour of piecing together the story behind those sad, strange, horrific words... and we have yet to learn much about those whose lives he ended. Information tonight, still streaming out of local hospitals, law enforcement, and media reports... the Associated Press quoting an unnamed official identifying the shooter as Robert A. Hawkins.

Tabby Time:  Tonight we're Keeping Tabs, briefly, on celebrites suffering from teenage angst... Whether they're teenagers or not... Examples: the stars of Disney's "High School Musical."

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD:  Charles Krauthammer, Mitt ROmney and Bill-O vie for tonight's top honors.
 
JB Phone Home:  In our number one story on the Countdown... the intersection of the President who would prefer to minimize his exposure to the public, and the daughter who phones home in the presence of... the public. Jenna Bush calls her father -- because she was asked to... by Ellen DeGeneres. Proving that there is more than one way to get access to the President of the United States... And that parent-child relationships are universal, to the extent that they are fraught with fear.

Faith-Based Intelligence: If there were not already enough proof that facts and evidence are of no consequence to this White House, that the Bush administration appears determined for a military confrontation with Iran before it leaves office, and that President Bush seems to think himself a genius because he knows where Iran is: Today, came conclusive evidence of all three. Mr. Bush, at a morning news conference, argued that Iran is every bit the threat it once was, despite a damning new intelligence report which concludes the Iranian regime halted its nuclear weapons program more than four years ago.

Spintel:  If a distant bell goes off in the back of your mind when you hear the Bush Administration's insistence that its own intelligence suggesting Iran is no threat really means Iran is a real threat. Perhaps that's because you remember the run-up to Iraq.

ODDBALL: Cops chasing a doughnut truck. For real. Plus a roo on the run in Texas.

The Horserace: Here at Countdown, we always advise perpetual vigilance against the logical fallacy. That just because Event B follows Event A doesn't mean Event A caused Event B. But when a political candidate's popularity tumbles after yet another scandal, the link seems to be undeniable. Welcome to the Fall and Fall Of Rudy Giuliani.

Tabby Time:  She once explained she didn't know if the earth was flat or round. Then today one of the hosts of "The View" explains that historically, nothing happened on earth prior to Jesus showing up. 

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: E.D. Hill of Fox Noise, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Lou As-In-Losing It Dobbs duke it out for top honors..

Dumb & Dumber: It is the nightmare of every December. No, not your hometown filling up with tourists who like to come to a full halt, walking or driving on the street in front of you, to stare at something. Rather the deluge of year-end lists. And the lists they spawn. First "Entertainment Weekly" had "50 Smartest People in Hollywood"; thus was "The New York Daily News" inspired to produce the "Top 50 Dumbest People in Hollywood." The amazing upset? Neither Paris Hilton nor Britney Spears got the top spot.

Redo or Die: In our fifth story on the Countdown: Imagine if President Bush kept giving the same speech again and again. His regular attacks on Congress for failing to rubber-stamp his agenda, strangely similar.
Rovisionist History: Karl Rove won't give an inch despite facing a torrent of criticism from his own former colleagues in the White House that he got his comments about the build-up to the war wrong.

Sex on the City:  :  Our fifth story on the Countdown Sex On The City. The good news: a long-time friend, a man once seen as joined to Rudy Giuliani's hip, has rushed to Giuliani's aide. The bad news: the long-time friend is disgraced and 16-times-indighted ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Then again, if the subject is using public facilities to enable elicit liaisons with mistresses on the taxpayer's dime... Mr. Kerik knows his subject matter.

War Mangling:   Did Jack Murtha say "The Surge is working." Finis. End Communication? Or did he say "The surge is working militarily, but not politically, and the Iraqis have to do it for themselves"? The lunatic fringe gets into another lather, hearing only what it wants to hear.

ODDBALL: Some pimped out bikes, remember when people just used to put baseball cards in the spokes? A boy and his pet Alligator, and you thought the tree was nice you should see the holiday hairdos.

Truthless People: From the president who promised to restore honor and dignity to the White House today we get not one, not two, but three examples of current and former top officials trafficking in dishonesty in some cases, rewarding it, and treating it, literally, like a joke. In our third story tonight, lies and consequences.

Tabs: Julia Roberts goes after the paparazzi, and farewell to Robert "Evel" Knievel.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Billo, Fox Business anonymous spokesperson, Steven Galson and Santa all battle for Worst Person Honors.

Bill O'Reilly's very useful advice for young people:Our number one story on the Countdown: when the Village Voice printed two pages worth of "Bill O'Reilly's very useful advice for young people, as channeled by vile left-wing smear merchant Tom Tomorrow." We thought you kiddies at home might enjoy it if Billo himself read you about half of it.