Is this any way to run a party?

In NRO, Jim Geraghty's TKS has an excerpt of Tim Russert's interview with Senators Durbin and McConnell on Meet the Press. Although he doesn't comment on this aspect of Durbin's remarks, I couldn't help notice:

RUSSERT: But if you had voted against authorizing the president to invade Iraq, would we be seeing some of the changes in democracy we're seeing in the Middle East?

SEN. DURBIN: I would have liked to have seen us go into Iraq under the right situation where the president described the situation accurately. Weapons of mass destruction didn't exist. Nuclear program didn't exist. Any connection with the 9/11 terrorism didn't exist. All of these things were said and those of us on the Intelligence Committee knew that they were, at best, exaggerations. I don't think you should mislead the American people, whether you're doing it intentionally or by accident, and in this case they were misled.

First, we now know that some WMDs did exist and that a wide scale program to develop a variety of WMDs, including nuclear ones, also existed. See here. We also know that there were connections between the Iraqis and Al Quaeda. Second, I find it amazing that Durbin is claiming that he knew that the president was misleading the American people at the time.

I sure don't remember Durbin telling us that during the debate. I do remember a lot of Democrats expressing fear that Saddam would use WMDs against our troops. If what he says is true, he is confessing to extreme irresponsibilty on his part. And of course, he's lying about what we found.


Do the Democrats really think that this kind of lying and irresponsible behavior is any way to win back the trust of a majority of voters?