The problem with poking fun at the Bush Administration is it’s becoming just too damn easy. I keep telling myself it’s time to move on to different topics, but then a shiny new gem is uncovered. Sure it’s like picking off the proverbial fish in a barrel, but I lack the willpower to stop. And really, who can resist such obscenely tantalizing material? Consider the following roster of missteps, most occurring just within the past couple of weeks:

1) Not only have we failed to find the once-feared weapons of mass destruction in Iraq threatening our hemisphere, there is now speculation the threat was deliberately overblown to justify the invasion. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is being crucified by opponents for claiming Iraq had the capability to launch a biological and chemical attack within 45 minutes. Seems like a bit of an overstatement in retrospect, to say the least. Robin Cook, Blair’s foreign secretary until Cook resigned over the war, is among those now howling for an investigation.

2) U.S. News and World Report says Secretary of State Colin Powell was pressured to use unsubstantiated information when he made the Bush team’s pitch for war to the United Nations back in February. Powell was so wary of including potential fictions he reportedly assembled his own review team to help weedthem out of his presentation. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported Thursday that CIA analysts also felt pressured by repeated visits from Dick Cheney to cook intelligence data fulfilling the White House’s recipe or war.

3) The BBC says the rescue of U.S. Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch - probably the key rallying point of the war for Americans - may have been staged for dramatic effect. Evidence indicates there were no enemy troops on hand when Lynch’s rescuers charged into the hospital. At the very least it appears details of Lynch’s Rambo-like capture - in which she allegedly blasted away at enemy soldiers until she ran out of ammo and was taken only after being shot and stabbed - were exaggerated at best and downright fabricated at worst. She had neither bullet nor stab wounds.

4) Former Secretary of the Army Tim White told CNN this week Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon underestimated the number of troops necessary to occupy Iraq. You might recall when then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress a while back several hundred thousand troops would be needed for such anoccupation, he was essentially rebuked by Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Now we’re hearing the more than 150,000 troops attempting to restore Iraq are not enough. Meanwhile, they’re also fighting to stay alive.

5) Within days of each other, Rumsfeld acknowledged Iraq may have disposed of its weapons before the war and Wolfowitz admitted the focus on weapons of mass destruction was a "bureaucratic decision" to rally support for the invasion plans. These remarks ignited the weapons issue throughout Europe and helped spark the furor now facing Tony Blair. (Don’t you wonder if Blair is asking himself why he ever got mixed up with these morons? And isn’t Rumsfeld just the kind of poetic pal you’d want to make the toast at your wedding reception?)

6) Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a fellow Republican, criticized Bush two weeks ago for fumbling the post-war effort in Iraq. "I am concerned that the Bush Administration and Congress have not yet faced up to the true size of the task that lies ahead, or prepared the American people for it," Lugar, himself a former presidential candidate, wrote in the Washington Post. The plans for rebuilding Iraq didn’t seem nearly as defined as the plan to invade it, he said.

7) Even now, no evidence tying Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks on Americans or linking him to Osama bin Laden has been uncovered. On the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, Bush called Iraq an "ally of al-Qaeda" but as usual still hasn’t backed the claim with facts. Just this week he told American troops inQatar "no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more." Of course, he neglected to mention we’re not even sure Iraq was in the mass weapons-peddling business in the first place.

8) Neither Osama nor Saddam nor Saddam’s psycho sons nor, apparently, Saddam’s cousin "Chemical Ali" have been apprehended yet. In fact, we’re not even sure whether they are dead or alive, although it now seems Chemical Ali isn’t as dead as we thought.

9) As witnessed by the recent wave of terrorist attacks across the globe attributed to al-Qaeda, bin Laden’s thugs haven’t realized they are supposed to be reeling from the crushing U.S. victory in Iraq which was somehow related to our war against them.

10) You see where this is going, right? The Bush Administration prodded the intelligence community for information to help promote its war campaign, highlighted what they wanted and used it as the basis for the attack. Now when they’re questioned about the veracity of their claims they can shrug and say, "Hey, that’s the information we were given."

Powell in particular has emphasized CIA Director George Tenet’s role in reviewing the data with him, and insisted on having Tenet sit behind him when he made his UN presentation. Now the CIA - realizing it may be the scapegoat of the Bush team - is leaking reports of how the data was used to advance a political agenda. Let the finger-pointing begin. I mean, talk about the Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

Now some U.S. lawmakers are calling for congressional hearings to find out whether the Bush Administration truly did overhype the threat posed by Iraq. Republican Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former secretary of the Navy (as well as one of Liz Taylor’s ex-husbands), has said his panel will take part in such a probe. But somehow House Majority Leader Tom DeLay thinks this is all unfair.

"They pick at every little thing they can to try to undermine this president and where he is taking us on this war on terror," he said of Bush’s critics. First, let’s get it straight - the Bush team created its own problems. With few exceptions like Sen. Robert Byrd (how ridiculous is it when a reformed Klansman has to carry the banner of moral courage for the Democratic Party?), Congress has rolled over for the White House on the Iraq issue. With even fewer exceptions, the mainstream American media (especially the network news teams) have been gutless sycophants.

But it seems to me Bush supporters should welcome an investigation, to prove to the world the Iraq war has justified. Especially now, since these reports have stolen the spotlight from W’s efforts to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians and to rally Europe behind the war on terrorism. Unfortunately, he’s damaged his own credibility at a time when America could be the big brother everyone looks up to. And if the Bush Administration isn’t misrepresenting (or straight-out lying about) the existence of these massive weapons, wouldn’t it be smart to try to find them before some demented terrorist does? Even if it means accepting help from the UN weapons inspectors?

D. Allan Kerr thinks these congressional hearings would make for great reality TV, especially if they’re hosted by the rude British guy from "American Idol."