After a day of nationwide remembrance and bipartisan displays of patriotism, PBS host Tavis Smiley tried to revive the cheaply divisive “Bush lied” refrain today when he appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” — but host Joe Scarborough and former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham refused to let slide Smiley’s travesty of a talking point. As disappointing as it is that anyone is still repeating that tired line, it’s encouraging that Scarborough and Meacham didn’t let him get away with it. My favorite line comes from Scarborough at about 4:15. “I can’t believe I’m having to say this again,” he says. “Google it.”

As one commenter put it on NewsBusters, the phrase won’t die because “the lefties like those nifty chants. ‘Bush acted on bad intelligence – people died,’ just doesn’t have the catchiness of ‘Bush lied – people died.'”