Ralph Reed, the former director of the Christian Coalition, now director of Bush ‘s Southern Presidentail Campaign, references a page of the 9/11 commission over and over on the Daily Show….and , as usual, like his boss (Bush), totally distorts what the said page ACTUALLY said (ie. Bush totally fuzzied and distorted what Kerry said about Saddam, which ABC highlighted quite well).

Pandagon: The Truth About Page 66 or Ralph Reed is a Liar

Ralph Reed popped up on the Daily Show tonight. Reed, former director of the Christian Coalition and current director of the Southeast for the Bush campaign, found himself attempting to rebut Stewart’s instinct that Iraq was a diversion from the War on Terror. In his quest to do just that, Ralph mentioned page 66 of the 9/11 Commission Report no less than three times. By repeatedly referencing the extensive and incriminating ties supposedly documented on a specific page of the authoritative document, Ralph both employed the old debater’s trick of hinting at extensive knowledge by virtue of knowing insignificant details (hence the repetition of the page number) and drilled viewers with the knowledge that the 9/11 Commission had, in fact, found terrific examples of cooperation and thought them important enough to report.
Very good Ralph, very convincing. And while page 66 does talk about the few links between al Qaeda and Iraq, it concludes “to date we have seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States.”