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It is high time someone open a thread to document the lies of G. W. Bush.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg on Wednesday called Vice President Dick Cheney "the lead chickenhawk" against Sen. John Kerry and criticized other Republicans for questioning the Democratic presidential contender's military credentials.

But Sen. John McCain, a decorated war hero and former prisoner of war, scolded Lautenberg for attacking the Bush administration during the Iraq conflict and said it was time to "declare that the Vietnam War is over."

In a scathing speech on the Senate floor, Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, said that he did not think politicians should be judged by whether they had military service but added that "when those who didn't serve attack the heroism of those who did, I find it particularly offensive."

"We know who the chicken hawks are. They talk tough on national defense and military issues and cast aspersions on others," he said. "When it was their turn to serve where were they? AWOL, that's where they were."

Lautenberg pointed to a poster with a drawing of a chicken in a military uniform defining a chickenhawk as "a person enthusiastic about war, provided someone else fights it."

"They shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of the chicken," he said.

"The lead chickenhawk against Sen. Kerry [is] the vice president of the United States, Vice President Cheney," Lautenberg said. "He was in Missouri this week claiming that Sen. Kerry was not up to the job of protecting this nation. What nerve. Where was Dick Cheney when that war was going on?"

Lautenberg chastised members of the Bush administration for being overly eager to go to war when they had not been willing to fight themselves. He quoted a Cheney interview from the 1980s that he had "other priorities" in the '60s than military service.

In a speech Monday at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, Cheney attacked Kerry's votes in the Senate to cut weapons programs, his opposition to the 1991 Persian Gulf War and recent comments that the war on terror should not be thought of primarily as a military operation.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday that Cheney criticized Kerry on policy issues and said that "no one is questioning his military service."

But Lautenberg compared Cheney's remarks with the GOP campaign against former Sen. Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat whose defeat in 2002 has been a sore spot to many in his party.

"Max Cleland lost three limbs in Vietnam and they shamed him so, that he was pushed out of office because he was portrayed as weak on defense. Where do they come off with that kind of stuff?" he said.

He also criticized President Bush for declaring an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003.

He showed a picture of Bush giving a speech on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln with the banner "Mission Accomplished" in the background.

"The mission accomplished was to get a picture that could be used in an election campaign," Lautenberg said.

Since that speech, 587 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, including 415 from hostile fire.

Lautenberg also criticized the president for saying "bring 'em on" to Iraqi insurgents.

"I served in Europe in World War II," he said. "The last thing I wanted to hear from my commander in chief, or my local commander, is dare the enemy to launch attacks against us."

McCain, the next senator to speak, said he had planned to discuss an Internet tax moratorium bill but that he felt he needed to address Lautenberg's remarks.

He said reasonable differences of opinion existed about the handling of the Iraq war but that the Senate should focus on making the operation successful.

"What are we doing on the floor of the Senate? We're attacking the president's credentials because of his service that ended ... more than 30 years ago," McCain said. "I think that's wrong. I wish we'd stop it. I wish we'd just stop, at least until the fighting in Iraq is over with."

He called for a bipartisan approach to "seeing this thing through because we cannot afford to fail."

"At least could we declare that the Vietnam War is over and have a cease-fire and agree that both candidates -- the president of the United States and Sen. Kerry served honorably -- end of story? Now let's focus our attention on the conflict that's taking place in Iraq, that is taking American lives as I speak on this floor," he said.

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PLAN OF ATTACK
A quick look at what's said about key administration figures in Bob Woodward's book:

President Bush: He was "prepared to risk my presidency to do what I think is right," Bush said, and by January 2003 didn't need to ask his top aides their opinions on whether to go to war. "I could tell what they thought," Bush said.

Vice President Cheney: Even before the Sept. 11 attacks, he was focused on Iraq. During the transition between administrations, he asked outgoing Defense Secretary William Cohen to arrange a briefing with Bush that would be a serious "discussion about Iraq."

Secretary of State Colin Powell: The former Army general warned Bush that if he went to war with Iraq, "you're going to be owning this place." He believed in the "Pottery Barn" rule: "You break it, you own it." Bush did not consult with him before deciding to go to war.

CIA Director George Tenet: "It's a slam-dunk case," he told Bush before the war about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Later, Tenet told associates he should not have been so emphatic.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice: "You have to follow through on your threat," she told Bush in January 2003 about his warnings to Iraq to give up weapons of mass destruction. She was the first person Bush told of his decision to go to war.

WASHINGTON ? Bush administration officials are challenging some assertions in a new book that details the "secret history" of preparations for the war with Iraq, especially the idea that Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell barely speak to each other.

But overall, White House communications director Dan Bartlett said Sunday, "This is a pretty detailed look at the complex process that was underway to bring the issue of Saddam Hussein before the world community and ultimately remove him from power." President Bush has not read the book, aides said. (Related story: Leak drives up sales)

In Plan of Attack, author Bob Woodward says Bush began preparing for war with Iraq within weeks of the Sept. 11 attacks, was assured by CIA Director George Tenet that there was a "slam-dunk case" that Saddam possessed banned weapons, and spent $700 million on war preparations without Congress' knowledge.

Woodward, a Washington Post editor who uncovered the Watergate scandal in the Nixon administration, interviewed Bush for nearly four hours and spoke with 75 other officials.

On Nov. 21, 2001, 10 weeks after 9/11, Woodward said Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes, Bush asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "What have you got in terms of plans for Iraq? What is the status of the war plan? I want you to get on it. I want you to keep it secret."

A high-ranking Bush adviser who spoke only if not identified said he thinks the book debunks the idea that Cheney and Pentagon officials concocted and exaggerated intelligence to conclude that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons. Instead, the official said, Woodward makes it clear those conclusions came from the CIA. The official also said the book dispels suggestions that Rumsfeld forced his generals to start the war with fewer troops than military officials said they needed.

But administration officials disputed some parts of the book:


• Cheney and Powell are "more than on speaking terms," national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said on Fox News Sunday. Woodward writes that the two have a distant relationship.

Cheney, Woodward writes, was obsessed with ousting Saddam and proving that he had links to al-Qaeda. Powell, Woodward said on CBS, "told colleagues that 'Cheney has a fever. It is an absolute fever.' "

• Military funding approved by Congress after 9/11 put no restrictions on how it could be spent, and Congress was aware of changes, one of the administration officials said. Woodward says that in July 2002, Bush allowed Army Gen. Tommy Franks to use $700 million that had been authorized for military use in Afghanistan for Iraq-related expenses instead. "Congress was totally in the dark on this," Woodward told CBS.

• Rice denied that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, was told about the decision to go to war before Powell was. Woodward said on 60 Minutes that Rice and Rumsfeld were told in January 2003, and then they "realized they haven't told Colin Powell."

In the book, out today, Woodward describes Bush praying after giving the order to begin the war. Bush told Woodward he prayed that he would be "as good a messenger of (God's) will as possible."

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Just another Iraq Gulf War 2 Vet, surfing the web with my brand new prosthetics from the Walter Reed hospital & home for disabled Vets, while President George W. Bush is home and safe telling missing WOMD jokes at the annual television and radio correspondents dinner.

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President Bush has not read the book, aides said.

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By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: April 25, 2004


WASHINGTON
It's their reality. We just live and die in it.
In Bushworld, our troops go to war and get killed, but you never see the bodies coming home.
In Bushworld, flag-draped remains of the fallen are important to revere and show the nation, but only in political ads hawking the president's leadership against terror.
In Bushworld, we can create an exciting Iraqi democracy as long as it doesn't control its own military, pass any laws or have any power.
In Bushworld, we can win over Falluja by bulldozing it.
In Bushworld, it was worth going to war so Iraqis can express their feelings ("Down With America!") without having their tongues cut out, although we cannot yet allow them to express intemperate feelings in newspapers ("Down With America!") without shutting them down.
In Bushworld, it's fine to take $700 million that Congress provided for the war in Afghanistan and 9/11 recovery and divert it to the war in Iraq that you're insisting you're not planning.
In Bushworld, you don't consult your father, the expert in being president during a war with Iraq, but you do talk to your Higher Father, who can't talk back to warn you to get an exit strategy or chide you for using Him for political purposes.
In Bushworld, it's O.K. to run for re-election as the avenger of 9/11, even as you make secret deals with the Arab kingdom where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from.
In Bushworld, you get to strut around like a tough military guy and paint your rival as a chicken hawk, even though he's the one who won medals in combat and was praised by his superior officers for fulfilling all his obligations.
In Bushworld, it makes sense to press for transparency in Mr. and Mrs. Rival while cultivating your own opacity.
In Bushworld, you can reign as the antiterror president even after hearing an intelligence report about Al Qaeda's plans to attack America and then stepping outside to clear brush.
In Bushworld, those who dissemble about the troops and money it will take to get Iraq on its feet are patriots, while those who are honest are patronizingly marginalized.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq, even as they increasingly merge the two in America.
In Bushworld, you can claim to be the environmental president on Earth Day while being the industry president every other day.
In Bushworld, you brag about how well Afghanistan is going, even though soldiers like Pat Tillman are still dying and the Taliban are running freely around the border areas, hiding Osama and delaying elections.
In Bushworld, imperfect intelligence is good enough to knock over Iraq. But even better evidence that North Korea is building the weapons that Saddam could only dream about is hidden away.
In Bushworld, the C.I.A. says it can't find out whether there are W.M.D. in Iraq unless we invade on the grounds that there are W.M.D.
In Bushworld, there's no irony that so many who did so much to avoid the Vietnam draft have now strained the military so much that lawmakers are talking about bringing back the draft.
In Bushworld, we're making progress in the war on terror by fighting a war that creates terrorists.
In Bushworld, you don't need to bother asking your vice president and top Defense Department officials whether you should go to war in Iraq, because they've already maneuvered you into going to war.
In Bushworld, it's perfectly natural for the president and vice president to appear before the 9/11 commission like the Olsen twins.
In Bushworld, you expound on remaking the Middle East and spreading pro-American sentiments even as you expand anti-American sentiments by ineptly occupying Iraq and unstintingly backing Ariel Sharon on West Bank settlements.
In Bushworld, we went to war to give Iraq a democratic process, yet we disdain the democratic process that causes allies to pull out troops.
In Bushworld, you pride yourself on the fact that your administration does not leak to the press, while you flood the best-known journalist in Washington with inside information.
In Bushworld, you list Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack" as recommended reading on your campaign Web site, even though it makes you seem divorced from reality. That is, unless you live in Bushworld.
E-mail: liberties@nytimes.com

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