The Oregonian is a paper that loves to endorse Republicans like George W. Bush. The only time they've endorsed a Democrat was Bill Clinton in 1992 (though they changed their minds and backed Bob Dole in '96). So their editorial on Bush this week was all the more damning:

Sadly, George W. Bush's performance during a "Meet the Press" interview on Sunday was lackluster across the board. By now, Americans are familiar with a kind of contagious unease they sometimes feel, watching the president fumble for answers.

What was downright unnerving this time, however, was the president's failure to betray even a whisker of the possibility that he has learned something from the collapse of prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Americans now know that the President brought the country into a unprovoked war with Iraq based on bad intelligence and a misinformation campaign led by Bush himself.

His unwillingness to adjust course made his statement "I'm a war president" far from reassuring. Although we can all hope that the future proves the president right about Iraq, Americans need straight answers now. And Bush gave no sign he's demanding them.

Where is this president's anger? Where is his determination to get to the bottom of intelligence failures that led him to conclude Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction?

"In light of not finding the weapons of mass destruction, do you believe the war in Iraq is a war of choice or a war of necessity?" NBC's Tim Russert asked the president.

"I think that's an interesting question. Please elaborate on that a little bit," Bush said. "A war of choice or a war of necessity? It's a war of necessity. We . . . had no choice when we looked at the intelligence I looked at . . ."

Which was in error, Mr. President.