When did he know?

Were you also wondering when he knew? It isn't the most important one-it actually probably isn't one of the most important questions that bubble up in the wake of the new intelligence report on Iran.

That was the one of the big questions of Watergate: what did he (President Nixon) know and when did he know it?

When did George Bush and Dick Cheney become aware that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program four, almost five years ago? Did he have that intelligence in hand earlier this autumn when he talked about a possible nuclear war, "World War III," with Iran?

It's hard to forget how morally outraged Republicans got over Bill Clinton's sins-which, admittedly, were unpalatable. Bill Clinton had an apparently infantile need for female approval and seduction, thus, Monica Lewinsky. George Bush has an apparently pathological need to invade other countries and topple their rulers-thus, Iraq.

I saw Pat Buchanan on CNN last night. It seems he's got a new book out, one in which he expresses the sense on the part of many conservatives that Bush has betrayed the values of a lot of the right-wing faithful.

Pat, I feel your pain. But not as much as I feel pained for those who face foreclosures, hunger, job loss and the loss of a child in a country ripped apart by war. In the years to come, historians and psychologists will examine the pathology of a President who could never admit he was wrong. Right now, we can just be prayerfully thankful that there are government officials who are courageous, and candid enough to break ranks and tell the truth.