NOTEBOOK.

IRAQ War, 2003-2011; CHALABI, Ahmad, 1944-2015; WEAPONS of mass destruction; MILITARY intelligence; UNITED States. Congress. Senate; SAME-sex marriage laws; CONSTITUTIONAL amendments; UNITED States presidential elections; TAX cuts; BUSH, George W. (George Walker), 1946-

IRAQReport Available; UNITED StatesReport Available

This section presents brief commentary pieces on U.S. politics and world affairs. If there's a word in Arabic for "chutzpah," Ahmed Chalabi should print it on his business card. Last week, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress (INC) gave a truly brazen interview to London's Daily Telegraph, addressing the fact that his anti-Saddam Hussein organization provided the United States with some of the intelligence that led to now-discredited claims about Iraq's weapons-of-mass-destruction programs. "We are heroes in error," Chalabi sniffed. "As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone, and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important." Which is why we find it mind-boggling that, according to a report by Knight Ridder last week, the Defense Department has set aside nearly $4 million to purchase more INC intelligence over the next year. This week, as congressional Republicans tried to explain why, contrary to President Bush's wishes, they were in no hurry to pass a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, many cited their party's longstanding reluctance to monkey with the sacred document. [But] they do it almost every election year. It's hardly surprising that the Bush administration is once again playing fast and loose with its numbers--implying that repealing the president's upper-income tax cuts, as proposed by John Kerry and John Edwards, would increase the taxes of large numbers of small-business owners. What's surprising is that, at long last, some members of the elite press are finally calling the administration on its math.