Speaker-to-be Botox: "There's no al Qaeda in Iraq"

Nice to know that the impending second-in-line for the presidency has such a firm grasp on the nature of the enemy. Fortunately for the left, the MSM is running interference for the San Francisco Treat. From Newsbusters:

Asked by a reporter about how “President Bush today blamed the surge of violence in Iraq on al Qaeda,” incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded with a disjointed answer about how “the 9/11 Commission dismissed that notion a long time ago and I feel sad that the President is resorting to it again." Though al-Qaeda is clearly in Iraq and responsible for deadly bombings, and the 9/11 Commission conclusion was about links before September 11th, on Tuesday's NBC Nightly News reporter David Gregory treated Pelosi's off-base retort as credible and relevant. Without suggesting any miscue by her, Gregory segued to Pelosi's soundbite with a bewildering set up of his own about how “incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disagreed, warning that such rhetoric about al Qaeda will make it harder for Democrats to work with the White House."

On FNC's Special Report with Brit Hume, after panelist Mara Liasson characterized Pelosi as “confused” and Morton Kondracke suggested she was just “mixed up,” Fred Barnes maintained that “she clearly screwed up here. The question was absolutely clear. 'President Bush today blamed the surge in violence in Iraq.'” Barnes argued the media wouldn't let a Republican get away with such a flub, telling Kondrake: “If some Republican had done this, if Bush had done this at a press conference, if Newt Gingrich had said it, if John Boehner had said it, if Roy Blunt had said it, you'd have been all over it. It would be inexcusable."

Neither ABC's World News or the CBS Evening News played the Pelosi soundbite.

I could have sworn I've heard and seen references to "Al Qaeda in Iraq" before! I must have been hitting the Long Island Iced Teas with Ted Kennedy.

To summarize: When Bush says "misunderestimated", he's an idiot. When Pelosi says "There's no al Qaeda in Iraq and the 9/11 Commission backs me on that", she "misspoke." Nope, no liberal media bias!