Racing with the Vatican: Comes now Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Baghdad):

The Washington congressman who criticized President Bush (news - web sites) while visiting Baghdad last year has questioned the timing of the capture of deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., told a Seattle radio station Monday the U.S. military could have found Saddam "a long time ago if they wanted." Asked if he thought the weekend capture was timed to help Bush, McDermott chuckled and said: "Yeah. Oh, yeah . . . There's too much by happenstance for it to be just a coincidental thing."

Perhaps to clarify that atrocious last sentence, he later changed his story from the rather explosive to the thoroughly mundane:

McDermott, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, called the timing of Saddam's capture suspicious but said he was not alleging it had been intentionally delayed.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.