WaPo:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Sunday vehemently denied that she ever received a special CIA warning about an imminent terrorist attack on the United States, angrily refuting new allegations about her culpability in U.S. policy failures before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks by al Qaeda.
[…]
Rice was responding to charges in Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial,” that details disarray within the Bush administration over its troubled foreign policy. The book describes a special meeting requested on July 10, 2001 by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet and CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer Black to get Rice to focus on increasing intelligence pointing to an impending attack on U.S. soil. The book describes both men as frustrated by Rice’s polite but inattentive response, allegedly brushing them off.
[…]
“What I am quite certain of, however, is that I would remember if I was told–as this account apparently says–that there was about to be an attack in the United States. The idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible,” she told reporters.

The very idea that senior administration officials would ignore or distort key intelligence is totally incomprehensible. How anyone can even entertain the notion…

But Rice was on a roll:

Rice said her staff is now going back to check if there even was a meeting on July 10, 2001.

If only Dan Bartlett hadn’t shot off his mouth yesterday:

“It really didn’t match Secretary Rice’s recollection of the meeting at all,” said Dan Bartlett, counselor to President Bush, in an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.”

“It kind of left us scratching our heads because we don’t believe that’s an accurate account,” he said.

So Rice has recollections of meetings that she isn’t even sure ever occurred? Are you scratching your head yet?

Why is it so hard for them to get their stories straight? Maybe a round of workshops or seminars is called for? For senior White House officials, as well as the Republican leadership in Congress.

*** Update, 9 am ***
Bartlett isn’t the only one to have already confirmed that the meeting took place:

But White House and State Department officials confirmed Friday that the July 10 meeting took place, although they took issue with the portrayal of its results. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, responding on behalf of Rice, said Tenet and Black had never publicly expressed any frustration with her response.

“This is the first time these thoughts and feelings associated with that meeting have been expressed,” McCormack said.

So Bartlett, McCormack and unnamed White House and State Department officials all confirm that a meeting did indeed take place. Seems Condi is the last to know.

And once again, there will be absolutely no consequences whatsoever for a senior Bush cabinet member flatly lying to the press.