[Egregious Philbin]

You may well be right about the "political costs," TomB, but i'm guessing the Democrats don't think so, and so it becomes at least a small issue for Bush and Co., in that the press has picked up the WMD issue and will be persistent in asking about it. Even a simple "we're putting together our case" would defuse a good amount of this press, but instead this Administration engaged its usual routine - make bold statements, then backtrack from them (why do they do that!?). I don't know about the press argument, VRWC - the flood of stories coming from Iraq during the war has slowed to a trickle.

When everyone was yelling what was taking Bush so long to go to war with Iraq

Who was that? For many, quite the opposite - what was the rush? And that's a big part of this WMD thing - the Administration claimed deposing Saddam was urgent, yet two months in we haven't found any WMDs. We may still find them, or they may be building their case, but will that represent the imminent threat to the U.S. that Saddam supposedly represented.

[VRWC_minion]

Even a simple "we're putting together our case" would defuse a good amount of this press

Bush and his spokespeople already said this.

[VRWC_minion]

Who was that? For many, quite the opposite - what was the rush?

I should have said everyone on FR. But the proof works both ways. It was obvious Bush didn't change his plan either for his critics that wanted the war now or the critics that wanted him to put it off for ever. He had his preplanned time line, he never sought to justify it to anyone and he implemented it on his time frame.

Watching that prior scenario, (which an observor coudl see that he has employed on almost every issue) it should be apparent that one should not assume that the search isn't on a similar path. The timing of which is one of Bush's choosing.