In my earlier post, where Jay Rockefeller admitted to coordinating with Syrian president Bashar Assad after 9/11 and before we entered Iraq, I completely missed another major point of fact that Wallace hammered Rockefeller on. And it’s a great point. (Via Flopping Aces)

WALLACE: Senator Rockefeller, the President says that Democratic critics, like you, looked at pre-war intelligence and came to the same conclusion that he did. In fact, looking back at the speech that you gave in October of 2002 in which you authorized the use of force, you went further than the President ever did. Let’s watch.

SEN. ROCKEFELLER (October 10, 2002): “I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11th, that question is increasingly outdated.”

WALLACE: Now, the President never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn’t it Jay Rockefeller?

And that is when he went on to say that he discussed our plans for war with Syria, which, as a CQ reader noted, “may have given Saddam Hussein 14 months to collude on the transfer of WMD to Syria, rather than the 6 we assumed he got when Bush wasted five months trying to get the UN to enforce its own resolutions.”

UPDATE: Wow, it gets even better. This transcript is incredible.

WALLACE: But you voted, sir, and aren’t you responsible for your vote?

ROCKEFELLER: No. I’m…

WALLACE: You’re not?

ROCKEFELLER: No. I’m responsible for my vote, but I’d appreciate it if you’d get serious about this subject, with all due respect. We authorized him to continue working with the United Nations, and then if that failed, authorized him to use force to enforce the sanctions.

We did not send 150,000 troops or 135,000 troops. It was his decision made probably two days after 9/11 that he was going to invade Iraq. That we did not have a part of. And yes, we had bad intelligence, and when we learned about it, I went down to the floor and I said I would have never voted for this thing.

WALLACE: But my only point, sir — and I am trying to be serious about it — is as I understand phase two, the question is based on the intelligence you had, what were the statements you made.

You had the National Intelligence Estimate which expressed doubts about Saddam’s nuclear program, yet you said he had a nuclear program. The president did the same thing.

More at Sophispundit, Mark Kilmer.

Ken Blanchard at South Dakota politics sums it up this way: “In short, Rockefeller is shamelessly lying about what actually happened. ”

Perish the Thought sees the need for more dress rehearsals: “The DNC needs to hold a few more rehearsals if they expect die-hards to follow the party line on I-voted-for-the-war-but-Bush-lied, etc.”

Bizblogger points out that Bush actually said “while the threat may not be imminent, we cannot wait for threats to materialize…”

Matthew Heidt, at Froggy Ruminations, says “Liberals Are Unpatriotic” and then backs it up with an extensive look at the facts.

UPDATE: If you haven’t seen Tiger Hawk’s detailed re-review of Steven Den Beste’s Strategic Overview of the war on Islamic fascism yet, check it out.