intake and see what happens to cholesterol and biomarkers the day before thanksgiving. >> you picked a perfect time to begin to gain some weight. >> i think so. >> thank you for sharing a little bit of your reporting. that does it for us. "hardball" is up right here on msnbc. bush's exit strategy. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris mat in washington. a new movie "fair game" tells the story of what happened to him and his wife, valerie, directly there after. is that what you get when you

stand up for truth against the white house operatives and political hacks who beat the drum for war with iraq? our top guest tonight, joe wilson himself to talk about the former president who's out there now defending his war in his self-described sickening feeling when he learned that those nuclear weapons did not exist, the ones he swore were there, the ones he used to sell the war. also, mike isakoff reports that bush didn't so much as burp when he heard those weren't there. and will there be a democratic mutiny? the fight over who's in charge of the house, tonight. there's also a leadership fight be among republicans, some want to replace michael steele and find someone else to take the reigns of the party. and a look at hillary clinton that might make, let's put it this way. had you seen this hillary

clinton back in 2008, i think a lot of people would have made her president. >> your role, you have such high level meetings, have you ever said the phrase, you've just made a very powerful enemy? >> no, but i've thought it. let's start with joe wilson. also with us, an msnbc news reporter, michael isakoff. thank you for joining us. i saw the film last nig. it was a great film. i thought it was so well scripted, so well acted by naomi watts. those people were great. something more important, the issues behind the film. on wmd the president is writing --

what's your reaction to hearing the president say that? >> well, i think mike isakoff who has reported on this probably has a better take, but it was very clear to me and to valerie, has been for a long time. that whether there were weapons of mass destruction or not, that was not the rationale for going to war. that was the excuse to mobilize support. for whatever reason they wanted, whether it was to redo the politics of the middle east or bring democracy to the middle east or overthrow saddam, whatever it is, it had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. i was in europe at the military command when we were doing the no fly zone over the north. our generals were saying, this was in the mid-'90s, that it wasn't worth the time or money

because there was no threat from there. >> you're the reporter on this case. what did the president do when he heard there was tho weapons? did he act that was the reason because it wasn't that important to him? >> that quote, which is probably the biggest news bite in the book did leap out at me because david corn and i reported on this when we wrote the book. >> david kay describes the meeting, quote -- so this book is not an honest recounting of what happened. wilson says he didn't go to over over wmd, so wasn't shocked they weren't there. >> that comes from a passage where we're describing david kay

briefing bush for the first time in july of 2003. the guy, david kay had been sent there to find the wmd and he's telling bush, i don't think we're going to find what you told the country we're going to find. he's trying to be gentle about it. but he's being complete. >> and it didn't really bother bush. >> leapt out at david kay that bush hardly reacted at all. >> ambassador wilson says it wasn't the real reason for war. a fine film, whatever your view of the war. if you were against the war and were suspicious about the reasons given for fighting it, you will especially enjoy it. this is the part will valerie plame learns she's been outed as a cia act. >> never worked for the cia -- >> an agency operative.

he just went ahead and did it. >> did this run overseas? >> it's in the newspaper, valerie. >> is it syndicated overseas? >> everywhere. >> well, the number of people that had a hand in outing her, you could argue in terms of reporting to the press, michael, fleischer said thg to pink us, novak said something to miller. there were a lot of people out there talking. >> right. it was, it was -- the state department was the first one to disclose valerie plame's name to novak but the white house jumped on it very quickly before novak rote his column. rove was confirming it. ari fleischer got out there and dumped this information on him and judy miller got it from scooter libby, so definitely a

white house effort to use this information for whatever. >> to destroy joe wilson's wife. >> your view watching the film and putting it together, what's the historic importance of this? a boy or girl trying to understand how we got to war with iraq, a country that never attacked us, which was basically comprised of thugs from saudi arabia, how do you explain we went to war with iraq? >> i think you've asked two questions. one is about the film, which is a timeless story of power, the abuse of power and goes back to the time of the constitution when power and what to do with it was the central question and led to separation of powers, led to coequal branches of government. with respect to iraq, it's very

clear. that they were absolutely committed to overthrowing saddam hussein and any piece of spaghetti they could get to stick up against the wall they were going to use to justify it and the easy case to make that everybody was going to put the fear of god into everybody was this whole idea that we could not afford to wait for a mushroom cloud or smoking gun to come in the form of a mushroom cloud. that is the whole nuclear case. i think you see that in the movie in both the yellow cake story and aluminum story. >> the chance of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists would increase instead of our actions in iraq -- the weapons he described, chemical, biological, hasn't fallen into the hands of

saddam hussein yet. sure, we have to worry about weapons all over the world. i am worried about former members of the soviet union, those engineers that have weapons. they exist. about one of those guys selling one. i ain't worried about people in al-qaeda who have money and educations that are floating all around the world that could do this kind of thing. >> they did have a chemical program years earlier and it was discontinued in the early to mid-1990s and never resumed. the concern and talk about evidence that was fabricated, the idea that saddam was transferring weapons or sharing chemical weapons with al-qaeda terrorists, that ranks up there with something that was based on the flimsiest intelligence report. >> let's take another look at

the movie and we're going to quit this. this is an attempt by president bush to try to play the game that he really cared about weapons of mass destruction, that that was the reason we went to war in iraq and that he was so flabbergasted -- he read during the time anybody followed this story, that was the sales pitch to europe to try to get them on our side. that's why we ended up with the coalition of the willing because think thought we were nuts. let's watch this great scene. >> i went to the agency and i requested security to protect my family. i was declined because quote, my circumstances fall outside budget protocal. if this is a knife fight, sir, right now, we're fighting it alone.

>> joe wilson versus the white house, huh? i feel as a friend i should tell you that those men, those few men in that building over there, are the most powerful men in the history of the world. how much of a stretch do you think it would be for them to take on joe wilson? joe is out this on his own, valer valerie. >> ambassador wilson, i watched this movie, was so stirred by it. i have to tell you that i did think going back over the minor part i had in covering this, trying to figure out exactly what it was like to be on your side of this thing, to know that you had the white house, the smartest people in the political caravan, the president, spending day and night trying to skcrew you. what did that feel like? >> it was about survival. i suppose you'd go under ground, but it was very clear as you hear from the movie, one of the

quotes we're earth movesers over joe wilson. it was fight or flee i suppose. and at the end of the day, if you don't have your reputation, you have nothing. so you might as well fight for it. but i really think that if i was to sort of offer a lesson out of this movie, it really is that if joe wilson can stand up to power, then anybody can. and it doesn't have to be at the federal level. but it's what makes our republic strong, the willingness of its citizens, to stand up and be counted and hold their government to account. i've been saying that now nor several years. the one group that seems to have taken notice and done that of course is the tea party movement. >> i have to say, i'm not inspired to join the tea party, but my daughter, son, there's a way to fikt for your country

under frightening conditions. the heroic portrayal of your wife in that film and they billed it up a bit beyond her role, i don't know. but the role she played in that film was so stirring and patriotic and gutsy, i can't imagine any young woman walking out of that theatre who has american blood in her veins, not wanting to be like her. any way, congratulations on being married to valerie blame. hell of a movie here. hell of a movie and hell of a person that watts played so perfectly. you broke the story, as always. broke every story i've been living through, my friend. president bush, let's crack this case cht let's talk about the book. well, it's the bush exist strate

strategy. we'll get to his answers and dark spots in his presidency. katrina, torture, the collapse on wall street all on his watch. you're watching. >> harry:. ♪ or spread a little warmth. maxwell house gives you a rich full flavored cup of coffee so you can be good to the last drop. but i wasn't winning any ribbons managing my diabetes. it was so complicated. there was a lot of information out there. but it was frustrating trying to get the answers i needed. then my company partnered with unitedhealthcare. they provided onsite screenings, healthy cooking tips. that's a recipe i'm keeping. ( announcer ) turning complex data into easy tools. we're 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. both cost the same, but only the pringles superstack can makes everything pop! ♪ hey [ male announcer ] same cost but a lot more fun. everything pops with the pringles superstack can!

forget the idea that senator like joe manchin is planning to switch parties. fox news and others on the right speculated that he could become a republican after winning a close race in which he ran away from president obama in washington on many issues, but his spokesman says the popular governor is a lifelong democrat and he's not switching. "hardball" back after this. [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with our most powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don't let deposits hold your car back. get castrol gtx. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin.

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i am comfortable knowing that i gave it my all, that i love america and that i know -- >> welcome back to "hardball." that's former president george w. bush, kicked off his campaign to sell his new memoir. he's done a series of tv interviews to explain the

elements that hang over his presidency. here's what he told matt lauer. >> no one was more sickened or angry than i was when we didn't find weapons of mass destruction. you still have a sickening feeling. >> i do. >> was there ever any consideration of apologizing? >> apologizing would basically say the decision was the wrong decision and i don't believe it was the wrong decision. >> if you knew what you knew now -- >> that's right. >> you would still go to iraq. >> i didn't have that luxury. the world is better off without saddam hussein. >> despite all the smile, crinkling across his face, that's not true because the congress would never have

approved the war if he said i'm going to go there and knock off a dictator i don't like. tom and david corn, most importantly in this regard, author of the book about the effort to build up a wmd. he's rebuilding his image. building the case that the war of iraq made sense and proof is that he was sickened in his stomach when he found out there wasn't any. we have the evidence. he showed no signs of disappointment. >> even on background when you talk to white house officials at the time, nobody ever suggested to reporters that the president was remorseful or angry. there are lots of times when ari fleischer would talk about it, but on this one, there was nothing that suggested what the

president said. >> is that square with your reporting that the president never even made a pretense that he had an emotional upset or breakdown, as i said earlier, a burp when he found out the weapons weren't there? >> there's no public evidence on the reporting that mike isakoff and i did or any other great books of the time period in which bush got angry about this. while he's rewriting this, he's engaging in another spin-off. he say he has said that while he we had to take saddam hussein out because he had a capacity to build wmds. his own inspectors, charles dofer led the group that produced a report in 2004 saying there was nothing, no capacity,

that saddam hussein and iraq had shut everything down years earlier. saddam was in no position to pursue, create, produce any weapons of mass destruction. he's still trying to make the case because saddam could have developed these. >> let's take a look on oprah, how he was still right, we should have gone to war. he's still making a case. check out this exchange. it's with oprah. let's listen. >> everybody thought hussein happen weapons of mass destruction and when we didn't find weapons, i felt terrible and sick about it and still do because a lot of the case in removing saddam hussein was based upon weapons of mass destruction. >> right. we wouldn't have gone to war. >> he was a threat. the interesting thing that happened after he was removed, we had a team of inspectors go

in and reported he was equally dangerous. we may not have found the viles, but he had the capacity to make weapons. >> but yet you would not have made the decision. >> i didn't have that luxury. the decision was based upon solid intelligence. >> this is screwy. back to real. oprah winfrey asks a very smart question. then he switch to there were vials, then never answers her. she said it just right, if you didn't have the case, you couldn't have the war, but had a case that seemed real and that's why you had the war. no real moral case to go to war. in fact, which is the key to this whole war argument. it wasn't fact, it was fiction. it didn't bother him because he

knew. he had another reason to go to war. this is what gets people like me so passionate because it's murky as hell why we did go to war. >> chris, this is false with a capital "f." he said the inspectors went in and found he was equally threatening. no, they didn't. does he not know? did he not read the report? i wrote about this yesterday and i'm happy to put up a link to my twitter feed so people can see the evidence. what he's saying the 100% wrong. he's getting away with it, that saddam still posed something of a threat. he posed no threat and at the time, there was a debate. there were a lot of analysts who say there wasn't a wmd threat. the thing he leaves out is at the time, there were inspectors in iraq, they were coming up

with answers that there were no wmds and the process was ongoing, so if he really cared at the time, he could have kept the process going and we would have found the answer now. it was kaput. >> the enormous amount of manpower and supplies and cost that went into trying to find a wmd that could have been put towards other things. we deployed enormous resources so he could prove he was right only to find out he was wrong and then says, well, nice try. he didn't say anything. >> this is bush trying to take his best shot with history. as his father might say, this dog won't hunt. >> it's not just about him. it's about our history and we broke with our history of nothing being the aggressor in this case. we used to say they were the bad

guys. the ones who invaded were the bad guys. nobody's going to say saddam was bad guy. they might some day be a problem, that is not a reason for war. here's another quote -- now, not to go after dick cheney here again, but the question is the presidency has been offering up dick cheney as the super hawk, the one out front and it was just him following along in this case. why is he doing this? >> well, because, i don't know. it diminishes president bush to make that argument, but it also, the dirty little secret of the last couple of years of the bush administration was that there was distance between bush and

cheney. >> he downgraded him, didn't he? >> he did, indeed. not publicly, but privately. >> why? thought he had been given a bum steer. >> he felt that cheney and secretary rumsfeld had given him bad advice on iraq and he also felt like while their agenda may have coincided for the most part -- >> george bush senior picked dan quyale, said i made a terrible mistake, but can't admit it. maybe bush should say, i can't admit it. >> it seems really clear right now that what he's trying to do is portray himself as the guy who dealt with a hard problem, thought about it long and hard and finally heired on the side of being more call your

attention than not. in the book i did with mike israel cou isakoff -- bush is telling fleischer i am going to kick hussein's backside all over iraq. >> talk more about the middle east than ever for five minutes. he didn't understand all the motives. didn't have one himself. i wish somebody would do, maybe you ought to put this guy in a lie detector. i don't think you'd find -- thank you, tom and david. up next, the lighter side. i don't know why i'm being sarcastic. wait until you see hillary clinton with these funny comedians. this hillary clinton is one you get to see once in a while. i say if you see more of this, history might have been different. holiday gift list. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service.

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now to "sideshow." tonight, we've got something really different. this interview was conducted by a pair of australian comedians. their guest, our own hillary clinton. for those of you who haven't seen this side of her, this will be a real eye opener. maybe a wow. >> we start with a gift. it's potato chips or crisps. it's the gravy chip. >> i am thrilled. cannot tell you how much this means to me. i'm an eater of chips. >> we recommend not. if you try to eat them, technically, that's an assassination. >> should i wait until i'm out of australian air space. >> we're all required great negotiation skill, your husband also possesses those qualities. when you can't agree on what to get for take away dinner, who

wins out? >> you know, we practice different models of negotiation around important issues like that. if i were to say, what should we have for dinner and he were to say, you choose. if i come back and say, how do you feel about chinese or mexican or italian. if he says a second time, i really don't care. then i will go choose. >> you want to make sure people don't overhear the conversation because you've got a former president talking to the current secretary of state. how do you feel about chinese, i don't really like chinese. >> that's why we have our rooms swept every day. >> in your role now as secretary of state, you have such high level meetings. have you ever said the phrase, you've just made a very powerful enemy? >> no, but i've thought it. >> wow, i don't know the

politicals of that, but had more people seen that side of the former first lady, history might have gone down different ly in 2008. up next, take me to your leaders. after last week, should the democrats keep nancy pelosi and their team as their leaders? that's a good question. the knives are out. >> we've got a flood. hits the road, the nose the angels start second guessing where they tread. ♪ call 1-800-steemer

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gold prices hitting another record high moving $35 range in today's session. financials were the biggest drag on the market. bank of america giving back 2.5% after a solid run-up last week. yahoo! shares surged 3% on a rumor it could be a target of a buyout bid from private investors. chevron shares are down on plans to buy atlas energy and sara lee has agreed to sell its northern american business for $959 milli million. back to "hardball." congressman altmire, would you think that nancy pelosi would make a great leader for

the democrats in the next congress? >> i represent middle america. you know pennsylvania well, chris. if you look at the results in new york, pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois, wisconsin, that's middle america. that's the industrial midwest. we didn't fair so well last tuesday and i do think it's time for a change this direction. if you gauge effectiveness by a willingness to push forward legislation that's not popular with the american people and have literally multiple dozens of members cast politically suicidal votes, then yes, pelosi was effective, but nong that's the direction we want to go. >> that was jason altmire yesterday. looks like speaker pelosi will stay on without a formal challenge so far. the fight is for the number two spot, but no matter who wins, is it good for democrats to move forward with the same team?

that's my question to congressman anthony weiner of new york. is it smart to stay with the same team after you've been battered? >> it is the same team that took us from the minority in 2006 and built a winning coalition. >> she lost all the seats. >> but you can make a list as long as your arm. it isn't because she did the bidding of the caucus and helps bail out the economy. democrats said we want to try to solve these problems. of all the people that deserve blame here, i think nancy is the last of them. the senate jacked us up more times than i can imagine. >> why do republicans jump on her everywhere? all it was was republican ads attacks pelosi, even against candidates who aren't incumbents. they're blaming them for her. what do you make of this target

on her? >> speakers get caricatures. newt gingrich. it goes with the territory. we don't want the let the republicans choose our leadership. yeah, they may say that they're going to target her. we're going to go after john boehner. he's going to be the face of an unpopular republican majority. if you want to think about, you and i would be sitting here a year ago saying she was the most powerful speaker since sam raburn. i think she's been the strongest speaker i can think of in terms of internal discipline, but i've never seen this kind of discipline by a democratic party in my lifetime. this quote --

he is a progressive, a liberal. got tip o'neal's old seat. he's not one of these southern guys. what do you think he's speaking out? >> he is one of the smartest guys in the house and would make a great speaker at some point as well. there is this sense that nancy does have the opportunity, that she should have an opportunity to decide what the terms are she leaves on. to say that litany of losses was because of nancy pelosi, you could put anyone in that speaker's chair, if they had to deal with the tough hand she had to tedeal with, they'd get rougd up, too. she did the will of not only the congress, but of the american people. >> one last question. yes or no. is she stays primarily to keep steny hoyer out of that

leadership? >> she's trying to box out weiner. it's pretty clear. >> you're -- this is -- >> i'm sorry. >> you know, the inside, is it primarily she doesn't think steny highwoyer hoyer should be democratic leader of the house? >> no, i don't believe i. i believe she thinks she can do it and i think she can, too. >> thank you, sir. let's go to zack wamp of tennessee. you've got a colleague down there, spencer bacchus of alabama who said sarah palin cost you guys the senate, quote -- is than a honest, solid charge by your lights? >> well, normally, house members don't comment on what the senate sends up like. >> he did. >> i know he did, but i don't think it speaks for other house

members and sarah palin picked like 70% winners and i don't think that's the case anymore than you could say jim demint did. >> do you think she would be a great president? >> well, she is like newt gingrich. she's got an unbelievable base, she's electric, but i don't think either one will ever be president. >> let me ask you about a woman, christie gnome. even though she just got elected to become a member of your party's leadership, i want to know if you think someone of the tea party crowd should be a member of the leadership. let's listen. >> here on the ranch in south dakota, we don't take a lot of polls or hold many caucuses. we do what needs to be done. that's what i'll do in washington. unlike my opponent, i'll vote to lower the national debt, vote

against wasteful spending, repeal government mandated health care and work every day to create jobs cht oh, and one more thing. my first vote won't be to make nancy pelosi speaker. sorry, nancy. >> what do you think of christie nome? the new look of the republican party? >> this is an eclectic class. i came in an eclectic class in 1994, but 13 members of my class lost two years later and just based on the sheer size, you can look for the same kind of thing, but i think some of these members may actually lose to republicans because of redistricts, because the communities really got involved in taking out incumbents this year. but these guys are going to have to get together. the tea party will pull our party to the right like the progressive pulled the democratic party to the left, but the country is still right of center. the country has a way of

bringing everyone back to where they are. let me ask you about michael stee stee steele. he's on a pretty good winning streak. give him credit as party chair for the most amazing streak starting when he took over. a lot of pressure. he's almost like joe biden. he gets hit a lot for comments he makes. do you think he should get re-elected? >> he's been exciting, electric. that's going to be up to the republican national committee. there's a certain amount of fatigue that goes with that job. that is a hard job. i think people ought to do it once then step aside. >> you're a smart guy. thank you, congressman. i see why you're a congressman. you know how to talk. zblmpb next, more of michael steele. there's a movement to find an alternative to michael steele. i like him. [ woman ] you know, as a mom,

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who's the next senate republica republican? how about orrin hatch. he'll be going for his seventh term in 2012 and a new poll shows the likely voters in utah say they'd vote him out of office. 48% say they'd vote for somebody other than hatch. tea party activists say he is too entrenched in the washington establishment. robert bent lost his bid for renomination this year to a tea party candidate and hatch could be next. [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox

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we're back. one of the stars of last week's blowout is michael steele. so after an impressive record of wins, why is the gop looking for a candidate to run against him? scott brown in massachusetts, then picking up six senate seats, more than 60 house seats, more than six governorships, and then talk about getting rid of them this guy was coaching a football team, you wouldn't even think about it. >> no. i mean, he is -- michael, i hope he runs. i know he is still thinking about it. i have been a -- >> who is out to get him?

>> there's -- from day one, there has always been a group of people who didn't think michael steele should be the chairman of the rnc and some of them are still members of the rnc, some off the committee. but i think the facts speak for themselves. i think with michael's election victories and starting last year and then this year, i think he has a very -- an excellent chance of being re-elected. >> what are you reporting on this? what can you tell me -- an actual move to dump him if he tries again? >> yes, there is. now, how coordinated that is, chris, you can leave that up a little bit. i would say most people i talked to, 168 members of the rnc, the people that vote. steele was between 50 and 60 solid votes, needs 85, a simple majority to win. i don't know that he is going to get there. he may and he starts out ahead of anyone else. i think there is a desire among kind of the professional political class, consultants, strategists, people devising

2012. >> where is karl rove? >> i haven't talked to karl rove, i don't think he is behind michael steele. i don't know for a fact. chris, let me -- >> isn't rove out there trying to free boot and raise money and create a network of people he can call the republican party as opposed to the rnc? >> well, chris, he certainly -- look, he was founding in the american of crossroads as well as ed gillespie rnc chairman. i wouldn't say it that way. i wouldn't say karl rove necessarily helps a candidate running against michael steele, i think rnc, committee people are resistant to having the big wigs, white house types tell them who it should be. so, i don't know being rove's candidate helps. i think there is a concern that michael steele for the fact you ran through his resume, he did have some wins, some people would say that republicans won in spite of him, not because of him. i think there is a desire to have some -- >> mr. chairman -- >> no, i totally disagree with

that i mean, michael -- look where we were when he was elected office. we have lost the presidency. we had lost the congress. we didn't have a president in the white house to basically tell us who the rnc chairman was going to be, occurred for eight years that is the way it always works. so the chairmanship is up for grabs there were several people interested in t michael was very competitive from the beginning and he won. he has done a superb job and rnc raised $175 million. they have spent $175 million, but that is what party committees do, raise money, spend money and won election after election after election. i think the -- >> and i think -- >> the bus trip that he organized and scheduled was one of the best things that happened in bringing the 60-plus republican house members in and it also, i think, endeared michael steele to a lot of the rnc members who maybe he had not gotten enough because he spent time with them and also the

tremendous things for their parties. >> you think nailing -- nailing the target on nancy pelosi worked? >> yes. >> why? >> i think she was, first of all, she was a major target to begin w. >> a lot of people never heard of her, did they? all these people hear of her? >> chris, i think she was known very well. >> chris, i think over the last four years on the pelosi subject, i think '06 when she became speaker all the aten she's got as the historic first woman in '10, the polling, 90-plus percent of people knew who she was and in a lot of these districts, these are swing moderate to conservative districts, she was deeply unpopular, just as a sidebar. i do think people knew her. >> thank you for that i need to be corrected. just amazed to see in local election she is becomes the key issue which she seemed to become. thank you, chris cillizza. thank you, bob cape. when we return, let me finish with thoughts about joe and valerie wilson and fantastic new movie and i mean, first-rate movie, "fair game."

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let me finish tonight with a stirring movie i saw last night. i had heard of the first-rate script, masterful performances by the leads, naomi watts and sean penn. what he was not prepared for in "fair game" was the story itself, the wondrous dramatic story of it all. it is the war of terror trying to stop the spread of nuclear

weapons from get nothing dangerous hands. i was simply overwhelmed by the sheer guts of naomi watts' character, especially someone who has children like we do, young adults and how inspiring this must to be them, to risk all for your country like this young woman did. the real-life valerie blame wilson is the true hero of this saga. her career fighting the dangers facing us, her discipline keeping it secret, readiness to honor a loving marriage in all, the decision by war hawks in this country, neat yo con crowd holed up in the white house bunk here wanted to protect a case built for the iraq war, that whole pr campaign ramrodded out of the white house and the country's op ed pages that ran rough shod over good journalism and all the other on speakles we need if skepticism and eventually truth is ever to survive the onslaught of propaganda, especially the war-whooping kind that was embraced by this country's establishment after 9/11. this is one fine movie. while it will never be another