Mark Shields wants to know, "Just how dumb do they think we are?"

I'd kinda like to know that myself, Mark.

How dumb do you think they think we are?

Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News, who has covered Rove long and well, puts it this way: "Throughout his political career, bad things happen -- sometimes involving dirty tricks -- to his enemies or rivals." Is that because he's evil? "He's amoral. He doesn't set up a plan to damage, defeat or destroy his enemies because he's evil. He does it because he's so unbelievably competitive and amoral."

All of this raises one nagging question: Just how dumb do the Bush people believe we are, that we would swallow, for even a nanosecond, the fabrication that Karl Rove's only motive in calling reporters was to discourage inaccurate stories? Do they really think we are that stupid?

Actually, Mark, they think we're even dumber than that.

They think they can tell us they were fighting the good fight against terrorism right up until the moment those planes plowed into the World Trade Center even though they had conspicuosly and willfully ignored President Clinton's outgoing warnings about Osama Bin Laden.

They think they can tell us that Saddam Hussein helped to plan 9-11.

They think they can tell us, and that we will believe, that the war in Iraq is one and the same with the War on Terror.

They think we believe the president when he says that 140,000 Iraqi troops have been trained.

They think we'll believe that the Medicare Drug Benefit is all about helping seniors, and not about lining the pockets of drug company executives.

They think we'll believe that gay people are destroying marriage in this country and that abortion causes breast cancer.

They think we'll believe that the Healthy Forests initiative is about healthy forests and that the Clean Skies Act is about clean skies.

They think they can convince us that THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARMING!!

Heck, they even think we'll believe that George W. Bush won the 2000 election.

They think all that and more. That's exactly how dumb they think we are, and you know what Mark? They have been, so far, absolutely right.