The closer November 7th gets, the more acutely I am aware of the institutionalized lying that the Republicans have elevated to an art.  I think it goes without saying, that Bush has the number one spot wrapped up. (I am a uniter, not a divider, I will have a transparent administration, blah, blah, blah...) But I think the battle for the number two spot is just too close to call.  Condi with her litany of lies, most recently about the 9/11 warnings issued to her, Rummy's stacking them up as fast as Baghdad Bob, "I never painted a rosy picture", etc..., and of course Cheney in hot pursuit with his declarations of the certainty of the connections between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, WMD's, "I never said we would be greeted as liberators".  The fascinating thing about all of this to me is that they have all uttered these, and many more lies on tape.  So why is it that no one in the msm will cue up those bits and then ask for the pointed denials they love to utter so righteously? One theory I have is that they have figured out that it just simply doesn't matter.  The have been very successful at lying repeatedly because they have figured out that the Average American just believes whay they hear.  Even when the Downing Street Memo was revealed, eh, what's the big deal?  For all their evangelical, conservative, traditional family values talk, they sure do an awful lot of prevaricating.