Okay, he lied...

We've known he lied for months now.
According to Howard Fineman per the Imus program this morning, the only real question is, "President Bush, dupe or knave"?
Now why do I think that the whole dupe-knave dichotomy plays to Bush's intangible strengths?
Maybe I'm getting worn down by this gruesome little ideologue but it seems to me, that if the President was duped into including the Niger forgeries into the State of the Union, well then he's already lowered expectations on his brainpower to an acceptable level. Bush will fire a few people and move on with a shrug.
On the over hand if he's proven a knave, well Bush has already made the case that lying is a necessary part of Presidential leadership.
Granted much of this is occurring in a vacuum. The press refuses to pursue the issue with Monica-esque intensity, there are no extra-governmental institutions harassing the Admin, and no-one is challenging their credibility in the courts, so the President has an unusual freedom of movement when it comes to this issue.
In my view it's not dupe or knave, it's right or wrong...no well constituted court would take "I'm stupid" as a mitigating circumstance. And as for "I'm a knave" well....it's a risky defense strategy to be sure.