Talk about your law of unintended consequences: The 9/11 Commission said Saddam and Al-Qaeda weren't working together, and now the administration is flat-out flaunting its belief that the two were significantly linked -- a belief the Bushies (Cheney excluded) more or less slunk away from a long time ago.

Maybe we should have seen this coming. Now it's probably punk rock to believe in the Saddam-bin Laden link -- it's iconoclastic, like snickering at the Warren Commission.

Republicans since the Reagan era have loved acting as if they were Sticking It To The Man. Nnever mind the fact that for years Republicans have been The Man -- they've controlled the White House, both houses of Congress, or both for 21 out of the last 23 years, and they've controlled the Supreme Court since Jesus was a corporal.

So now preppy, tweedy Tom Kean is driving the totalitarian tank and Bush and Cheney are the brave, lonely rebels standing in front of it. Maybe I'm misreading this -- I sure hope so -- but I'm really afraid this is how the whole thing is playing.