It is astounding. But I somewhat blame the White House for this. Why hasn't the Administration been more public about what is known about Saddam's WMD program? The issue with the Niger yellowcake, and Joe Wilson's lies, is a good case in point. The White House was very weak in its defense of Bush's "16 words" in his State of the Union address dealing with Saddam's efforts to buy uranium from Niger. In fact, the only thing the White House said at the time of Wilson's article about his "tee-sipping" visit to Niger to check out the reports was that the statement shouldn't have been cleared for inclusion in the SOTU. The press, of course, went ape-poop over the story (Chris Matthews spit all over "Hardball" guests for weeks), the President was branded a "liar," and even now that the British have confirmed that indeed Saddam WAS trying to buy yellowcake from Niger, Bush hasn't completely recovered from the political damage.
The White House takes political hits on this whole WMD issue that they don't deserve to take, but they haven't done a good job of defending themselves. Personally, I believe that if Bush loses this election, it will be because of their refusal to be more forthcoming about what is known about Saddam's WMDs.