From Holden:

Condoleeeeeeeza Rice was in broken record mode Sunday morning, and even Little Russ was not buying it. A few excerpts, with a little editing as Condi does tend to go on:

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the war in Iraq. These are the latest casualty numbers, U.S. troops: killed, 924; wounded-injured, 6,087. The primary rationale given for the war was to dismantle and disarm Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. In light that we have not found those weapons of mass destruction, can you justify the cost of human life that we have suffered in Iraq?

DR. RICE: The primary reason for going to war against Iraq was that Saddam Hussein was a threat. [Threat, threat, threat, threat THREAT!]

MR. RUSSERT: But having not found the kind of stockpiles of chemical and biological and potential nuclear that we thought he had, you have no second thoughts that the war was not necessary?

DR. RICE: Absolutely not. Because Saddam Hussein had been a threat. [Threat, threat-threat, threat-threat, th-threat-threat!]

[snip]

On September the 11th, we were brutally attacked by people who had an ideology of hatred so great that they, with a few people, threatened to try and bring down our way of life.

MR. RUSSERT: But there’s no linkage between September 11 and Iraq?

DR. RICE: There is no linkage between the plot of September 11 and Saddam Hussein’s regime that we see. [But I mention it because I want your lower-IQ viewers to believe there was one.]

MR. RUSSERT: You talked about September 11. On Thursday, John Kerry was asked what he would have done differently on September 11, and this is what Senator Kerry had to say:

(Videotape, Thursday):

SEN. JOHN KERRY, (D-MA): First of all, had I been reading to children and had my top aide whispered in my ear, “America is under attack,” I would have told those kids very politely and nicely that the president of the United States had something that he needed to attend to. And I would have attended to it.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT: Your reaction?

DR. RICE: My reaction is that anyone who thinks they would have known exactly what they would have done under those circumstances–I just can’t imagine that you would say something like that. The president of the United States was confronted with one of the greatest tragedies that had befallen the United States in our 200-plus years of history. He decided on the spot that he was not going to alarm the third-graders. He was not going to alarm the American people. He was going to proceed in a calm way. That was the right thing to do. And anyone who has any doubt about that just needs to look at what he did in the hours subsequent to that.

MR. RUSSERT: [Spit-take.]

MR. RUSSERT [using his famous Scooby-do voice]: But Democrats point out that Rom Ridge said he would divorce himself from politics, but in his presentation he lavished praise on President Bush and the war on terror.

DR. RICE: Well, he works for the president of the United States, and the president of the United States deserves credit for having us in a position where we now actually are getting–because we’re on the offense in our war on terrorism–where we’re actually getting information that can help us on the defense.

MR. RUSSERT: But wouldn’t it be better if he refrained from campaign pitches?

DR. RICE: I don’t think this was a campaign pitch. Tom Ridge is out there to tell the American people that there is a vulnerability, that there is a threat, and that they need to be vigilant and to give to local and state officials the way to be quite specific in their responses. [They need to trust in Dear Leader and everything he does.]