Kevin Drum, as usual, has the pithiest take on today’s bombshell NIE release:

I guess Cheney finally lost his turf battle on this one. … I wonder who pushed back? Who’s got the juice?

Indeed, this is the most important part of today’s revelations: not that the intelligence community has undercut the Bush Administration’s rationale for war with Iran, but rather that Cheney’s lost a doozie of an administrative battle in having these documents released to the public. I don’t place hope in war being averted due to a lack of a proper slam dunk casus beli. It’s certainly not stopped this administration before. Only a properly de-fanged Cheney will keep us out of trouble for the next year.