Oh, the chutzpah of these people. Rice takes the message to the people, avoiding the Washington press corps. Why? Because the press corps has read, or at least, looked at the Kay report. And it's pretty clear from the analysis I've read regarding the Kay report that, indeed, inspections had been working. It is laughable when Rice says the Kay report would have turned the tide at the UN last winter. Fred Kaplan dissects the report, for instance, finding this nugget:

"'Multiple sources with varied access and reliability have told ISG [the Iraq Survey Group] that Iraq did not have a large, ongoing centrally controlled CW [chemical weapons] program after 1991. … Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced—if not entirely destroyed—during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox [Clinton's 1998 airstrikes], 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections.'"

Or there's this:

"The section of the report on Saddam's nuclear aspirations is still more revealing—and disingenuous. The section begins with the Pentagon teams learning from several sources that Saddam 'remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.' But read the next two sentences: 'These officials assert that Saddam would have resumed nuclear weapons at some future point. Some indicated a resumption after Iraq was free of sanctions.'

"In other words, Saddam might have restarted his nuclear-weapons program—except for the U.N. sanctions."

Now, let's be clear. The sanctions could not contindefinitelyately. They were too broad and were punishing the Iraqi people (though probably not nearly so harrowingly as Saddam's PR machine made it appear). But for Rice, in the face of the Kay report's pretty mundane finding (basically, that Saddam really wanted WMD, but was being restrained by sanctions), to continue to make these claims, continues the irresponsible and ultimately self-defeating process of misleading the public on the who, what, and why we went to war with Iraq.

Meanwhile, the "Free Don Rumsfeld" clock ticks inexorably on.

Meanwhile, things continue to get ugly for the White House. But Bush blames the press for "the leakers (man, he sounds more and more each day like the slacker frat boy he truly is)."

A role Michael Kinsley writes about in Time as he explains why right-minded people hate Bush.

*****

Yes, the Boss is insane. The Yankees should win anyway because Derek Jeter truly believes that "'Why would you want to face an easier team?' Then Jeter uttered the defining sentence, the one that ultimately separates the men in pinstripes from the man in the turtleneck. 'I'm not afraid to fail,' he said." Well, actually, the Yanks ability to win relies on Mussina, Pettitte, Clemens, and Wells.

But this is the serious that was meant to be, going all the way back to April. It's US Steel versus a bunch of guys who look like they work on the loading dock in the off season. Millar has the first crew cut mullett I've ever seen.

I will say this about the Sox remarkable left side of the infield. The play they made on Monday night was about as heads up (no pun intended) as anything I've seen since "The Play." As King Kaufman notes:

"You had to figure this was Boston's series after that collision play in center field in the seventh inning Monday night. With the Sox leading 4-2 and two outs, Jermaine Dye of the A's lifted a fly to shallow center. Red Sox second baseman Damian Jackson went out and center fielder Johnny Damon came in. The ball hit the pocket of Jackson's glove just as the two collided at full speed, Jackson's head slamming into the side of Damon's face. The two men and the ball fell to the ground. Jackson lay dazed while Damon appeared to be unconscious. Dye rounded first and headed for second.

Shortstop Nomar Garciaparra found the ball on the ground between his mates, picked it up and threw to second, where third baseman Bill Mueller, having raced over, applied the tag to a sliding Dye. Three outs.

What an incredible heads-up play by both Garciaparra and Mueller. Attention quickly turned to Damon, who was on the ground for nine minutes before being strapped to a stretcher and taken away in an ambulance, but that play, which kept the tying run from coming to the plate against a tiring Pedro Martinez, might have saved the series for the Sox."

The only prediction I'll make on this serious is that the Yankees will win it. It will be gruelling, tense and backbreaking (and I'm just talking about those of us watching at home). And it will be wild in the Fens and the Bronx.