Condi Rice doesn't "recall" terror warning, but sure recalls lots of details.

The beauty of the Reaganesque "I don't recall defense" (he really did change the Republican party,) is now apparent. Yesterday, Condi Rice issued a very carefully worded denial that sounded forceful and made a good headline, but wasn't true.

Today, we get the truth,

A review of White House records has determined that George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, did brief Condoleezza Rice and other top officials on July 10, 2001, about the looming threat from Al Qaeda, a State Department spokesman said Monday.

Also: McClatchy reports that Don Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft received the same briefing on July 17!!!! Check out the game her spokesman is playing.

"The information presented in this meeting was not new, rather it was a good summary from the threat reporting from the previous several weeks," McCormack said. "After this meeting, Dr. Rice asked that this same information be briefed to Secretary Rumsfeld and Attorney General Ashcroft. That briefing took place by July 17."

Again, the repetition that she didn't ignore specific threat information. (Just weeks of threat information -mike.)

Condi and her team sure have alot of detail considering that she didn't "recall" the meeting.

And is she dragging Rummy under the bus with her? Is the fact that he and Ashcroft ignored it too, supposed to vindicate her somehow?

Maybe Bush should've accepted their resignations when they were offered,

"I did tell the president at one point that I thought maybe all of us should go, because we had fought two wars and we ... had the largest terrorist attack in American history," Rice disclosed Sunday night while en route to the Mideast.

At least in this statement yesterday, she sounds like she recognizes their failures.

(Then there's this,

(Richard) Clarke told McClatchy Newspapers that Rice focused in particular on the possible threat to President Bush at an upcoming summit meeting in Genoa, Italy, and promised to quickly schedule a high-level White House meeting on al-Qaida.

Not really surprising if you were watching their relationship at the time.)