How the world turns

This from Instapundit makes a very good point which I will elucidate after first quoting his blog:

AT THE GYM [this morning] they were for some reason running Face the Nation , where they usually show CNN or FoxNews. But that means I caught this very interesting statement from John McCain:

[Bob] SCHIEFFER: President Bush accused his critics of rewriting history last week.

Sen. McCAIN: Yeah.

SCHIEFFER: And in--he said in doing so, the criticisms they were making of his war policy was endangering our troops in Iraq. Do you believe it is unpatriotic to criticize the Iraq policy?

Sen. McCAIN: No, I think it's a very legitimate aspect of American life to criticize and to disagree and to debate. But I want to say I think it's a lie to say that the president lied to the American people. I sat on the Robb-Silverman Commission. I saw many, many analysts that came before that committee. I asked every one of them--I said, `Did--were you ever pressured politically or any other way to change your analysis of the situation as you saw?' Every one of them said no.

I think the "Bush lied us into war" meme is in trouble [says Instapundit], and the GOP pushback seems to be a general effort, not a one-off. And I also think that the reason that so many antiwar people want to move from discussion of whether specific behavior is unpatriotic, to the strawman question of whether any criticism of the war is unpatriotic (note Schieffer's question [my italics] -- "Do you believe it is unpatriotic to criticize the Iraq policy?" -- and how it differs from what Bush actually said) is because they know they're on weak ground on the specifics.

Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds) is assuming that veteran newscaster Schieffer is passing on — mouthing, parroting — Dems.  This is it: MainStreamers’ whole frame of reference is Democratic, which is one reason why they are so apoplectic about accusations of bias.  “Can’t you people see?  It’s the way things are!  You’re the one who wants it slanted!” they say or seem to say.