I’m one of those people that has been totally unimpressed by the excitement over Bob Woodward’s new book. I haven’t read any of Woodward’s books since “All The President’s Men” primarily because he is simply a regurgitator, with some extra facts, of either the conventional wisdom or the anti-convention wisdom once it becomes the new conventional wisdom. To wit: gee, we now know the Bush Administration lied about the war and is incompetent.

The real question has to be: where were the reporters back in 2002? Well, they were all cheerleaders for the rush to war. Anyway, Frank Rich gets it right–again–in his column entitled “So You Call This Breaking News” where he, among other point says:

The supposedly shocking key finding in the N.I.E. — that the Iraq war is a boon to terrorism — isn’t remotely news. It first turned up in a classified C.I.A. report leaked to the press in June 2005. It’s also long been visible to the naked eye. The latest New York Times/CBS News poll, conducted before any revelations from the N.I.E., found that nearly half the country believes that the Iraq war is increasing the terrorist threat against America and only 12 percent thinks the war is decreasing that threat. Americans don’t have to pore over leaked intelligence documents to learn this. They just have to turn on the television.

Tonight on “60 Minutes,” Bob Woodward will spill another supposedly shocking intelligence finding revealed in his new book: a secret government prediction that the insurgency will grow worse next year. Who’d have thunk it? Given that the insurgency is growing worse every day right now — last week suicide bombings hit a record high in Baghdad — the real surprise would be if the government predicted an armistice. A poll released last week by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that about 6 in 10 Iraqis approved of attacks on American forces. Tardy investigative reporting is hardly needed to figure out that the insurgency is thriving.

The rest of Rich’s column is here. Personally, I would recommend saving your money on Woodward’s book and buying Rich’s new book instead: “The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina.”