It’s time for another exciting episode of “Idiot or Asshole”. For the ground rules, let’s turn to ReddHedd at Firedoglake :

Here’s my conclusion after reading Murray Waas’ exceptional new piece in the National Journal today: (1) the President either knew that Saddam posed no immediate threat to the United States and repeatedly lied to the American public and leaders around the world (and allowed multiple members of his Administration to lie about it as well) or (2) he doesn’t bother doing his job, and had no idea what information was contained in multiple sensitive national security briefs that he was given over a long period of time, and no one in the Administration bothered to clue him in on this.

You choose.

For a little background, let’s take a look at Waas’ article :

Two highly classified intelligence reports delivered directly to President Bush before the Iraq war cast doubt on key public assertions made by the president, Vice President Cheney, and other administration officials as justifications for invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according to records and knowledgeable sources.
. . .
On at least four earlier occasions, beginning in the spring of 2002, according to the same records and sources, the president was informed during his morning intelligence briefing that U.S. intelligence agencies believed it was unlikely that Saddam was an imminent threat to the United States.
. . .
The one-page documents prepared for Bush are known as the “President’s Summary” of the much longer and more detailed National Intelligence Estimates that combine the analysis and judgments of agencies throughout the intelligence community.
. . .
As many as six to eight agencies, foremost among them the CIA, the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the INR, contribute to the drafting of an NIE. If any one of those intelligence agencies disagrees with the majority view on major conclusions, the NIE includes the dissenting view.
. . .
References to the summaries are contained in footnotes in the so-called Robb-Silberman report — officially, the report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction — that was issued in March 2005 on the use of intelligence leading up to the war in Iraq. The White House has refused to declassify the summaries or to give them to congressional committees.

The summaries stated that both the Energy and State departments dissented on the aluminum tubes question. This is the first evidence that Bush was aware of the intense debate within the government during the time that he, Cheney, and members of the Cabinet were citing the procurement of the tubes as evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program.

He couldn’t pick out the dissenting views in a one-page summary? Well, I’m gonna have to go with…

Let’s not forget that this is the same guy who didn’t know the difference between a Sunni and a Shiite after he’d made up his mind to go to war. He’s not trying to be a jerk (or trying to do anything for that matter), it’s just that he hates having to do his homework. After all, it’s hard to pay attention in class and color inside the lines at the same time.