It would be nice if Michael Kinsley had devoted the same critical language to Bush’s claims over the past five years that he’s devoted to those on the left who are somewhat exercised by the press’s disintrest in the Downing Street Memo. Here’s Kinsley on what can only be characterized as a dangerous fringe group–lefties:

Developing a paranoid theory and promoting it to the very edge of national respectability takes a certain amount of ideological self-confidence. It takes a critical mass of citizens with extreme views and the time and energy to obsess about them.

After five years of Karl Rove, Kinsey identifies a group “developing a paranoid theory and promoting it to the very edge of national respectability” and it’s … liberals. Hey, let’s compare paranoid theories:

“Tax relief is central to my plan to encourage economic growth, and we can proceed with tax relief without fear of budget deficits, even if the economy softens.”
George W. Bush, March 2001

“The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
Condoleezza Rice, on Saddam’s nukes, Jan 2003

“Our intelligence sources tell us that he [Saddam] has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.”
Bush, State of the Union 2003

“Our budget will run a deficit that will be small and short-term.”
Bush, State of the Union 2003

“There is no question but that they would be welcomed. Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and the al-Qaeda would not let them do.”
Donald Rumsfeld, NewsHour, February 2003

“My jobs and growth plan would reduce tax rates for everyone who pays income tax.”
Bush, April 26, 2003

“[M]y fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”
Bush, May 1, 2003

“I can’t conceive of anyone looking at the pictures and suggesting that anyone could have recommended, condoned, permitted, encouraged, subtly, directly, in any way, that those things take place.”
Rumsfeld on Abu Ghraib, May 2004

“I have not suggested there�€™s a connection between Iraq and 9/11.”
Dick Cheney, Veep debate 2004

“By the year 2042, the entire [social security] system would be exhausted and bankrupt.”
Bush, February 2005

“Social Security is on the road to bankruptcy. And if we do not fix it now, the system will not be able to pay the benefits promised to our children and grandchildren.”
Bush, on Social Security

And the liberals, those wacky, gullible liberals–those poor saps are now trying to promote the dubious claim that Bush had plans to invade Iraq months before he actually did. What will they think of next!