Ex-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill is in the news for writing a book in which he says a bunch of bad things about the President. Besides the fact he kind of calls him an idiot, the biggest, juiciest, revelation is that Smirkboy and the Smirkettes were planning to go after Saddam from the get-go. He's even got memos to prove it. The gist, of course, being that that the Bushies were planning on going after Saddam anyways and used 9/11 and a heavily over-stated intelligence report to sell it. In other words, he lied.

So today, just for the hell of it, I watched the news. Okay, so it was more because I was bored and there was nothing else on, but I still watched it. Naturally, the big issue being debated about the book was not what he said but on just how much of a disgruntled employee he is and whether or not having those memos and showing them to a reporter is illegal (betcha the investigation looking into that will go much quicker than, say, the investigation into the Plame affair, 9/11, and Iraqi intelligence). MSNBC brought in the always sane and moderate Patrick Buchanon to discuss it. Buchanon, shockingly, thought O'Neill was extremely disgruntled, a lousy Cabinet Member, and completely classless (this coming from a man who once wrote a sympathetic column about ex-Klansman David Duke and doesn't think the Holocaust was as awful as it was). Somehow, the discussion centered more around what awful things Clinton did than anything Bush might have done. Fox News actually had a debate between ex-Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich and ex-RNC Chairman Somebodyorother which was more of a circle jerk between Hannity and the ex-RNC guy as they both sat there and emphatically shook their head at the thought- the mere thought- that O'Neill could be speaking the truth. Colmes tried to speak up and defend Reich, but upon the first welting by Hannity, whimpered back into the corner.

On the other hand, Brian Williams on CNBC actually had a full report on O'Neill and to punctuate just how incompetent he was, mentioned that while something was going on that was bad, the ex-Treasurer went to Africa with Bono. They talked about all the angles to the story, but when both he and the reporter covering the story mentioned that there were reports that "preparations for the war" were done much earlier than everyone thought, they quickly said that it's only mere speculation and can't be proven because that would involve icky things like reporting and investigating and possibly incurring nasty looks at Washington cocktail parties.

As for CNN Headline News? They spent more time debating the great "Lord of the Rings/Big Fish" box-office brouhaha. Sure glad the issue of what movie was actually the biggest box-office draw last week was resolved.

Is it any wonder more and more people are now getting their news from "the Daily Show?"