When conservatives take to the House floor to criticize the news media’s liberal distortions, that’s not newsworthy to NBC, but Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News made time to showcase an unhinged liberal Democrat, Representative Patrick Kennedy, screaming against the media during House floor remarks in favor of a Dennis Kucinich-backed resolution to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year, a fringe proposition which was soundly defeated 356 to 65.

Left wing blogs, such as Huffington Post, also jumped to publicize Kennedy’s rant, with Talking Points Memo calling it “a must-see moment.”

Anchor Brian Williams characterized Kennedy’s yelling tirade as “a gripping moment,” describing how Kennedy railed against “U.S. strategy in the war, then he turned on the news media and how few have bothered to show up to cover the debate.” Williams’ embracing set up, with “Speaking Out” as the on-screen heading:

There was a gripping moment this afternoon here in Washington. It happened on the floor of the House of Representatives as the House was debating withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, a Democrat who represents Rhode Island, the son of the late Ted Kennedy, got up and gave a loud, emotional and angry speech about U.S. losses in the war, U.S. strategy in the war, then he turned on the news media and how few have bothered to show up to cover the debate.

Viewers were then treated to a screaming Kennedy:

If anybody wants to know where cynicism is, cynicism is that there’s one, two press people in this gallery! We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace, $3 billion, 1,000 lives and no press? No press?! You want to know why the American public is fit? They’re fit because they’re not seeing their Congress do the work they are sent to do. It’s because the press, the press of the United States is not covering the most significant issue of national importance, and that’s the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country! It’s despicable the national press corps right now.

Audio: MP3 clip, with Kennedy’s screaming.

Williams finished up without mentioning the overwhelming defeat for the measure: “Congressman Patrick Kennedy, who recently announced in the wake of his father’s death, he will not run for re-election to Congress. He’s coming to the end of his eighth term in office.”

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ABC and CBS on Tuesday night picked up on the cause of a small anti-health insurance industry protest in DC organized by left-wing labor groups, but instead of denigrating them as the networks with did with much larger Tea Party and anti-ObamaCare rallies, the two newscasts empathized with their cause, each relaying an anecdote about a victim of the current system. Both ABC’s Jonathan Karl and CBS’s Nancy Cordes did, however, proceed to point out the small profit margin for health insurance companies.

“Taking their cue from President Obama, protesters took their complaints about insurance company premiums and excess profits to the insurance industry and the streets,” ABC anchor Diane Sawyer announced. Karl noted the ideology of the “coalition of liberal groups” and recognized “the attacks are pretty harsh. They’re accusing the insurance company CEOs of bribery, money laundering and manslaughter.” But he then showcased “Leslie Boyd, whose son Michael died of colon cancer after he couldn’t get insurance or afford a colonoscopy.”

On CBS, Katie Couric set up the story on how “angry protesters targeted the insurance industry.” Cordes found “eleven-year-old Marcelas Owens” who “flew here from Seattle” because “his mother Tiffany lost her job and the health insurance that went with it after a prolonged illness caused her to miss work. She stopped going to the doctor and died at 27 of pulmonary hypertension.” The kid [in the screen capture] delivered a perfect soundbite: “She ended up passing away because she didn’t have the equal rights to health care as some people with more money.”

As for Sawyer’s “taking their cue from President Obama, protesters took their complaints about insurance company premiums and excess profits to the insurance industry and the streets” formulation, they were also taking their cue from her. In late February she took to World News to demand to know who will “keep insurance companies from jacking up premiums while making huge profits?” and touted “the growing outrage at insurance companies, the ones that raise premiums on ordinary Americans while racking up big profits.”

Monday night: “NBC Applauds Obama’s ‘Fighting’ Mode as He Catches Up with Sawyer’s Insurance Demonization”

The networks weren’t so friendly last year to anti-Obama protesters:

“ABC: Obama Critics ‘Driven By Refusal to Accept Black President’; NBC Trumpets Carter’s Racism Charges”

“CNN’s Situation Room Charges: ‘Racial Tinge to Tea Movement‘”

“Nets Disparage Protests: Getting ‘Ugly’ and ‘Unruly,’ Scold Limbaugh But Skip Pelosi”

A wrap-up of the coverage from April 15, 2009: “Tea Parties Hit with Hostile & Crude Media Response”

The stories on the Tuesday night, March 9 newscasts, transcripts provided by the MRC’s Brad Wilmouth who corrected the closed-captioning against the video:

ABC’s World News:

DIANE SAWYER: And now we go to Washington, the battle over health care reform reaching a heated fever pitch today. Taking their cue from President Obama, protesters took their complaints about insurance company premiums and excess profits to the insurance industry and the streets. And the industry fought right back. Jon Karl watched the confrontation unfold.

JONATHAN KARL: It’s now an all out assault on the insurance companies. The first salvo was fired by the President.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher and higher.

KARL: And today, a coalition of liberal groups took to the streets in Washington, marching outside an insurance industry conference at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

HOWARD DEAN, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: This is a vote about one thing: Are you for the insurance companies or are you for the American people?

KARL: The attacks are pretty harsh. They’re accusing the insurance company CEOs of bribery, money laundering and manslaughter. Among the marchers, Leslie Boyd, whose son Michael died of colon cancer after he couldn’t get insurance or afford a colonoscopy.

LESLIE BOYD, PROTESTER: I sat with him as he died, and I really thought my heart would stop when his did, and it didn’t. And so I do this now.

KARL: But while the protesters and the White House were blaming the insurers, the insurance companies launched an ad campaign blaming others in the health care sector for skyrocketing costs.

CLIP OF TV AD: Health insurance companies’ costs are only four percent of all health care spending. Doctors, hospitals, medicines and tests are the biggest slices.

ROBERT ZIRKELBACH, AMERICA’S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: There’s been almost no focus on the skyrocketing increases in the cost of medical care. You know, our members are seeing increases in hospital costs in some parts of the country by as much as 40 percent. Where’s the focus there?

KARL: For all the White House focus on insurance profits, the top insurance companies actually have a relatively low profit margin – about four percent last year – compared to 20 percent for drug companies and 29 percent for biotech firms. And consider this: While the top five insurance companies raked in $14.7 billion in profit last year, that represents just about one half of one percent of total health care costs. But there’s one number you can expect the White House to hit over and over again in the coming days – 128 percent. That’s the amount that the average American has seen their insurance premiums go up over the last 10 years, Diane, and it’s a number that far surpasses inflation.

DIANE: That’s a question of the premiums there. Thank you, Jon.       

CBS Evening News:

KATIE COURIC: Now to the battle over health care reform and the push for a House vote by the end of next week. Emotions are running high on both sides of the debate, and, in Washington today, angry protesters targeted the insurance industry. Here’s Nancy Cordes.

CLIP OF PROTESTERS: Health care now!

NANCY CORDES: Supporters of health care reform descended not on the Capitol or the White House today-

CLIP OF PROTESTERS: What do we want? Health care!            

CORDES: -but Washington’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel where executives from the nation’s largest insurance companies were holding an annual conference. Eleven-year-old Marcelas Owens flew here from Seattle.        

MARCELAS OWENS, PROTESTER: No other kid should go through the pain that our family’s gone through.

CORDES: His mother Tiffany lost her job and the health insurance that went with it after a prolonged illness caused her to miss work. She stopped going to the doctor and died at 27 of pulmonary hypertension.

OWENS: She ended up passing away because she didn’t have the equal rights to health care as some people with more money.

CORDES: Inside the Ritz, attendees were well aware of the anger directed their way.

KAREN DAVIS, THE COMMONWEALTH FUND: We’re never going to have a rational system in this country if we continue the way we are now.

CORDES: The protesters were taking a page from the President who has made insurers public enemy number one.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people.

CORDES: Now insurers are pushing back.

CLIP OF TV AD: Health insurance companies’ costs are only four percent of all health care spending.

CORDES: They point out that the average profit margin for health plans is just over three percent compared to nearly 19 percent for drug companies. They argue it’s not their greed that’s driving premiums up but sharp increases in the cost of hospital stays, outpatient surgery, emergency room visits and specialty drugs.

KAREN IGNAGNI, AMERICA’S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS: You know, just this whole notion of "find a villain, aim the rhetoric and go after them," but that doesn’t get anybody covered.

CORDES: But for anxious Democrats, health insurers make for an easy target, especially when they jack up rates by 20 or even 40 percent, Katie.

COURIC: Nancy Cordes reporting from Capitol Hill. Nancy, thank you.

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“During the presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama often used the phrase ‘fired up’ to do just that to the crowd. Democrats have been openly wondering when he was going to bring that campaign energy and fire to an issue like health care reform,” Brian Williams announced at the top of Monday’s NBC Nightly News,” and “today the President chose an event at a quiet Philadelphia suburb to get loud. He made his case and he rallied the troops and now readies to head into battle yet again on this topic.”

ABC’s Diane Sawyer noted “the President made a direct attack on the health insurance industry, accusing companies of putting profits before patient care” — which means he was just catching up with Sawyer’s agenda. A couple of weeks ago, Sawyer demanded to know who will “keep insurance companies from jacking up premiums while making huge profits?” and touted “the growing outrage at insurance companies, the ones that raise premiums on ordinary Americans while racking up big profits.”

Jon Karl asserted Obama “hopes to tie into some of that Tea Party anger by focusing on a group that the White House believes is even more unpopular than Congress” as Karl championed a far-left group’s upcoming protest with “wanted” posters “that will highlight the CEOs of the health care companies making the argument that they are the ones to blame.”

NBC reporter Savannah Guthrie began: “Looking to stiffen the spines of wavering Democrats, the President sharpened his attack, lashing out against insurance companies…against Republicans…and Washington itself,” all “music to the ears of the weary Democratic faithful.”

Williams teased his top story: “On our broadcast tonight, fighting words. President Obama comes out swinging on health care. But is it enough to save his plan?”

The lead story on the Monday, March 8 NBC Nightly News:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Good evening. During the presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama often used the phrase “fired up” to do just that to the crowd. Democrats have been openly wondering when he was going to bring that campaign energy and fire to an issue like health care reform. Today the President chose an event at a quiet Philadelphia suburb to get loud. He made his case and he rallied the troops and now readies to head into battle yet again on this topic. We begin tonight with White House correspondent Savannah Guthrie. Savannah, good evening.

SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Good evening, Brian. As you mentioned, the President has been criticized for not taking enough ownership of this issue, for not finding a sales pitch that really resonates. Well today he made an impassioned plea for health care reform. The question is, is it too late to make a difference.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I do know that it’s the right thing to do.

GUTHRIE: His most fiery health care appearance yet in Pennsylvania today. The President ratcheted up the rhetoric.

OBAMA: The need is great, the opportunity’s here, let’s seize reform. It’s within our grasp.

GUTHRIE: Looking to stiffen the spines of wavering Democrats, the President sharpened his attack, lashing out against insurance companies.

OBAMA: It’s no secret they’re telling their investors this, we are in the money.

GUTHRIE: Against Republicans.

OBAMA: You had ten years. What happened?

GUTHRIE: And Washington itself.

OBAMA: Every debate, no matter how important it is, with the same question, what does this mean for the next election? What does it mean for your poll numbers? They’re obsessed with the sport of politics.

GUTHRIE: The change in tone was unmistakable.

OBAMA: I need you to knock on doors, talk to your neighbors, pick up the phone.

GUTHRIE: As were the old campaign lines.

OBAMA IN ARCHIVE VIDEO: Knock on some doors for me, and make some calls for me.

GUTHRIE: Music to the ears of the weary Democratic faithful.

GOVERNOR ED RENDELL, D-PA: It was a dramatic presentation, the President did terrific. The crowd — it was like campaign days, it was unbelievable.

GUTHRIE: But Republicans said the President’s push was “heavy on snake oil, light on reality.” And once again vowed to make health care the issue Democrats have to run from next fall.

SENATOR JOHN CORNYN, R-TX: Many endangered Democrats who won their races in 2008 or 2006 I think are going to be in a lot of jeopardy.

GUTHRIE: The President’s powers of persuasion are about to be tested as never before, as he struggles to convince fence-sitting Democrats to go out on a limb one last time.

DEE DEE MYERS, CLINTON PRESS SECRETARY: He’s going to have to personally make the appeal, and he’s going to have to make them do it. He’s going to say, you have to do this for me, for the good of the party, and for the good of the country. They’re not going to want to do it and there are going to be members who lose their seats over this.

GUTHRIE: For the Democrats all the real suspense is in the House of Representatives, whether Democrats have enough votes there is very much an open question tonight, Brian, and of course the President will do all of this again on Wednesday when he goes to St. Louis to try to rally the troops.

From ABC’s World News:

DIANE SAWYER: President Obama launched his final push for health care reform ahead of critical votes in Congress later this month. The President made a direct attack on the health insurance industry, accusing companies of putting profits before patient care.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Every year they drop more people’s coverage when they get sick, right when they need it most. Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher.

SAWYER: Our congressional correspondent Jon Karl joins us from Washington. Jon, is this going to be it the next few days, the President versus the health insurance companies?

JON KARL: Absolutely, Diane. This is going to be the central focus of the President’s closing arguments on health care. He hopes to tie into some of that Tea Party anger by focusing on a group that the White House believes is even more unpopular than Congress. And you’re going to see a grassroots version of this as well. Look for posters tomorrow at a protest in Washington that will highlight the CEOs of the health care companies making the argument that they are the ones to blame. This will be a coalition of liberal interest groups…

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Not the biggest deal, but emblematic of how the Washington press corps consider anyone to the right of center, no matter if barely so, to be a “conservative,” while anyone who strays at all from a perfect liberal line is not worthy of an ideological label.

Setting up Sunday’s Face the Nation, CBS’s Bob Schieffer described guest Evan Bayh simply as “the Indiana Democrat” while tagging Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is every bit, if not more, off the conservative reservation as Bayh is off the liberal one, as a “conservative Republican.” Schieffer:

Today on Face the Nation: Is Washington broken? We’ll talk to Evan Bayh, the Indiana Democrat. He’s become so disillusioned with the Senate he’s leaving, but he’s still trying to find a way to ease the partisan rancor by teaming with conservative Republican Lindsey Graham who’s also here to talk about that…

At no time during the March 7 show did Schieffer ever label Bayh as a liberal.

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It wasn’t on the Fox News Channel (FNC) nor a Fox News production carried on Fox (such as Fox News Sunday), but President Barack Obama received a warm and appreciative session with John Walsh, marking the 1,000 edition of America’s Most Wanted, an entertainment program carried by the network which has failed to air the Obama press conferences shown by ABC, CBS and NBC.

Walsh began by offering Obama “congratulations on all the work you’ve been doing since you were President” and proceeded to praise “the work you’ve done with the Recovery Act,” aka the stimulus monstrosity, “but I know first-hand from the rank-and-file cops on the street what you’ve done for law enforcement on the local and state level.” After Obama recounted how the funding prevented layoffs amongst local police departments, Walsh reaffirmed: “I know first-hand the law enforcement community respects you and is appreciative of you getting that bill through in these tough economic times.”

The host of America’s Most Wanted on Fox also hailed Obama as “a very loud voice for victims, which is much appreciated from the victim community,” and admired him: “I know your daughters are proud of you, but you send a loud message and I feel the same way.”

Several of Walsh’s prompts to Obama in the interview conducted Wednesday at the White House and aired Saturday night:

> Mr. President, thank you for taking the time today, and congratulations on all the work you’ve been doing since you were President. It’s nice to see it again.

> Thank you so much for the kind words and I don’t know if people are very familiar with the work you’ve done with the Recovery Act, but I know first-hand from the rank-and-file cops on the street what you’ve done for law enforcement on the local and state level.

> I know first-hand the law enforcement community respects you and is appreciative of you getting that bill through in these tough economic times. I wanted to talk to you about the Adam Walsh Act. I had the great honor on the 25th anniversary of our 6-year-old son Adam’s abduction, turning a horrible day into a positive day. My family was in the Rose Garden. Elizabeth Smart was there. Many parents of murdered children when President Bush signed the bill. But the problem, of course – I know you’re so well aware and the problem that Vice President Biden and I face – is focusing this Congress in on funding this act. The problem is that states are not becoming compliant because they’re afraid that the federal money will come down. I know you want to try to help get that money.

> I know you’re a very loud voice for victims, which is much appreciated from the victim community.   

> I thank you for your time. I thank you for helping to focus this Congress on the Adam Walsh Act. I know your daughters are proud of you, but you send a loud message and I feel the same way. America’s Most Wanted is the court of last resort. It’s not about Americans being vigilantes or any of that, it’s about saying we need justice, we need these people caught, we need them off the streets, and we need the highest level of politicians to focus in on our needs.

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On this past Tuesday’s episode of The Good Wife on CBS, viewers were treated to a scene in which a ballistics expert opens a gift, from a partner of a law firm, to find a book about Sarah Palin made up of, he discovers by thumbing through it, blank pages “satirically representing,” Amazon.com explains, “the mind and thinking of Sarah Palin.” The book, ‘Going Rouge: A Candid Look Inside the Mind of Political Conservative Sarah Palin.’

In the March 2 episode, Chicago law firm partner “Diane Lockhart,” played by Christine Baranski, engages the ballistics expert to help her with a murder trial. In her office, he notices a picture, on her credenza, of her with Hillary Clinton. Visiting him at his home office on a farm, she notices on his credenza a photo of him next to Palin: “Is that photo-shopped? You and the Barracuda?” He doesn’t deny he “photo-shopped” it: “No, she’s at a pro-life rally.”  
 
After his testimony exonerates her client, he sends her a gift in a box: Sarah Palin’s biography: Going Rogue, promptly her to chuckle. In return – the scene in the accompanying video clip – he sends her the book ridiculing Palin. He opens the box, picks up the book and discovers all its pages are blank.

Amazon’s description of the book:

This is a novelty book. The reader opens the book to find no text, just blank pages. The book contains no text. The book contains only blank pages. A parody of one of America’s best known political figures, demonstrated by symbolic blank sheets, satirically representing the mind and thinking of Sarah Palin. Give this book as a useful gift while making a clever and amusing political statement.

CBS’s synopsis of the program which airs Tuesday nights at 10 PM EST/PST, 9 PM CST:

THE GOOD WIFE is a drama starring Emmy Award winner Julianna Margulies as a wife and mother who boldly assumes full responsibility for her family and re-enters the workforce after her husband’s very public sex and political corruption scandal lands him in jail. Pushing aside the betrayal and public humiliation caused by her husband, Peter, Alicia Florrick starts over by pursuing her original career as a defense attorney.

As a junior associate at a prestigious Chicago law firm, she joins her longtime friend, former law school classmate and firm partner Will Gardner, who is interested to see how Alicia will perform after 13 years out of the courtroom. Alicia is grateful the firm’s top litigator, Diane Lockhart, offers to mentor her but discovers the offer has conditions and realizes she’s going to need to succeed on her own merit….

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Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore, appearing on Friday night’s Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO to plug the DVD release of his Capitalism: A Love Story screed, cited the 250,000 killed in Haiti, which he snidely described as an unregulated “Republican’s paradise,” as an apt analogy to justify further regulation of U.S. banks.

Live via satellite from Manhattan, Moore spouted:

Chile had an earthquake this past week that was 500 times greater than the earthquake in Haiti. But here’s the big difference. In Chile, they have various — very serious regulations when it comes to building codes. So a thousand people died, sadly, but a thousand people died with a 500 times greater earthquake. And in Haiti, where there are no building codes, no regulations — a Republican’s paradise — a quarter of a million people died.

Audio: MP3 clip

Haiti could better be characterized as an impoverished nation beset for decades by a corrupt socialist government.

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ABC’s World News on Friday night finally caught up with burgeoning Democratic scandals, though hardly showing the same zeal as when the networks incessantly focused on Republican Congressman Mark Foley back in 2006. On Thursday, the MRC’s Scott Whitlock documented how this week the ABC evening newscast had “devoted almost six times as much coverage to Senator Jim Bunning and his temporary hold-up of an unemployment bill as the program did for the ongoing revelations that Democratic Charlie Rangel violated House ethics with his trips to the Caribbean [38 seconds].” Anchor Diane Sawyer set up the Friday night story:

And in political Washington tonight, Democrats on Capitol Hill capping a bad week have to be saying thank heaven this is Friday. The latest: Democratic Congressman Eric Massa, from upstate New York, announced he’s quitting his seat under a cloud of harassment allegations. What does this mean for the Democratic Party and the future? Here’s Jon Karl.

Karl showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s promise of the “most ethical Congress in history” and that she would “drain the swamp” as he highlighted Rangel and the announcement Massa, accused of “sexually harassing two male aides,” will resign. Karl recalled:

Democrats rode into power by targeting Republican corruption, and there was lots of it: The Mark Foley sex scandal involving under-age pages and lobbying scandals that landed two Republican Congressmen in jail.

Yet while the allegations against Massa of inappropriate same-sex harassment parallel those against Foley toward subordinates, Massa has barely made a blip on TV: A short item read by NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams on Friday night (and a passing reference on Today) while ABC and CBS included him in larger Friday night stories.

Back in 2006, however, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening and morning shows dedicated 152 stories to Foley over two weeks, as documented in the MRC’s October 11, 2006 Media Reality Check by Tim Graham: “Foley Feeding Frenzy; Nets Air 150+ Stories: ABC, CBS, NBC Sound Like Perpetual Motion Machine Manufacturing ‘Foley Fallout’ Against GOP.”

On Friday night, the CBS Evening News also ran a full story on ethics issues with Democrats, as Katie Couric introduced the piece:

To politics now and a Congressman who’s giving up his job. Eric Massa from western New York state acknowledged today he acted inappropriately with a male staffer and said he’s leaving with quote, ‘a profound sense of failure.’ Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes tells us this caps what’s been a very bad week for Democrats.

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The night before NBC’s Today show on Friday had an “exclusive” with Karl Rove to plug his new book, ‘Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight’ in which he assured readers President George W. Bush did not “lie us into war,” the NBC Nightly News led by giving him a brush back, regurgitating the arguments the Bush administration went to war in Iraq for illegitimate reasons. Anchor Brian Williams framed his top story:

It will go down in history among the events that shaped our times, the decision by President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq after the United States had been attacked on 9/11 with no direct connection between the two. The United States has paid a heavy price for the war, which will be seven years old later this month. That’s a year longer than all of World War II….The Iraq war is back in the news tonight because of new violence there, just like the old days, and because of a new take on the war from an old hand in the Bush operation, Karl Rove.”

Andrea Mitchell recounted how Rove “says if not for the threat of weapons of mass destruction, there probably would have been no Iraq war,” but “since no such weapons existed, Rove asks, ‘So, then, did Bush lie us into war?’ His answer: ‘Absolutely not..”

But, she countered, “others say President Bush had decided to go to war long before the U.N. could evaluate the evidence. As early as July 2002, former State Department official Richard Haass writes, Condoleezza Rice ‘brushed away’ his ‘concerns’ about Iraq, ‘saying the President had made up his mind,’” and then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair was told in a memo: “It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin.”

Then, for an expert assessment, Mitchell went to….David Gergen.

The lead story on the Thursday, March 4 NBC Nightly News, transcript provided by the MRC’s Brad Wilmouth:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Good evening. It will go down in history among the events that shaped our times, the decision by President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq after the United States had been attacked on 9/11 with no direct connection between the two. The United States has paid a heavy price for the war, which will be seven years old later this month. That’s a year longer than all of World War II. 96,000 American service men and women are still stationed in Iraq. More than 4,300 Americans have died there. More than 31,000 have been wounded. The war’s financial cost is estimated to be north of $700 billion and growing. The Iraq war is back in the news tonight because of new violence there, just like the old days, and because of a new take on the war from an old hand in the Bush operation, Karl Rove. We begin tonight with our chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

FORMER PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: The architect, Karl Rove.

ANDREA MITCHELL: Now, Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s elections, says if not for the threat of weapons of mass destruction, there probably would have been no Iraq war. In Courage and Consequence, which we bought at a Washington book store before its official release, Rove writes, quote, "Congress was very unlikely to have supported the use of force resolution without the threat of WMD." But since no such weapons existed, Rove asks, "So, then, did Bush lie us into war?" His answer, "Absolutely not." Some other Bush insiders back him up.

STEPHEN HADLEY, FORMER BUSH NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: I think it’s not that we did it on a false pretense. We did it on the basis of intelligence that turned out not to be true.

MITCHELL: But others say President Bush had decided to go to war long before the U.N. could evaluate the evidence. As early as July 2002, former State Department official Richard Haass writes, Condoleezza Rice "brushed away" his "concerns" about Iraq, "saying the President had made up his mind." That same month, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair was told in this memo from his advisors, "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin."

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR: They wanted to take out the Saddam Hussein regime. The weapons of mass destruction only fueled that drive. I think what really changed things was 9/11, and it made them feel that they could not take the kind of risks after 9/11 that they might have been willing to live with before 9/11.

MITCHELL: Rove also answers critics of the President’s infamous flyover of New Orleans on Air Force One after Hurricane Katrina, writing, "Our decision was right for the relief effort, but wrong for President Bush’s public standing."

GERGEN: It was clear to, I think, everybody other than people who lived in the cocoon, that he still had to go, to bear witness, to understand the suffering that was going on there.

MITCHELL: In his book, Rove blames local and state officials for the disastrous response to Katrina, which most outside observers say as much as Iraq marked a turning point in the fortunes of the Bush presidency. Brian?

WILLIAMS: Replaying a little history here.

MITCHELL: Indeed.

WILLIAMS: Andrea Mitchell starting us off here in Washington. Andrea, thanks.

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ABC squeezed in a short item Wednesday night on a House resolution to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill, a report most notable for the enticing mock-up ABC’s graphics artists created. Anchor Diane Sawyer announced on the March 3 World News:

All right, quick, who is on the $50 bill? If you said Ulysses S. Grant, you’re right. But if some people have their way, that’s going to change soon. There’s a move afoot to put Ronald Reagan on the $50, led by 14 Republican Members of Congress who are sponsoring a new bill calling for the change in honor of the 100th anniversary of Reagan’s birth next year.

Republican Patrick McHenry of North Carolina (10th Congressional District, west of Charlotte) submitted: “H. R. 4705. To require the Secretary of the Treasury to redesign the face of $50 Federal reserve notes so as to include a likeness of President Ronald Wilson Reagan.”

AP dispatch. PDF image of the bill which lists the 13 co-sponsors.

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