BUSH VS. AARON/RUTH/BONDS?

No, not that 700-club. The other 700 Club:

A White House spokesman denied Wednesday that President Bush told Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson that he did not expect casualties from the invasion of Iraq.

"The president never made such a comment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.

Senior Bush campaign adviser Karen Hughes, a longtime confidant of the president, said she was "certain" Bush would not have said anything like that to Robertson.

"Perhaps he misunderstood, but I've never heard the president say any such thing," Hughes said on CNN's "Inside Politics."

Robertson, an ardent Bush supporter, told CNN in an interview Tuesday night that he urged the president to prepare the American people for the prospect of casualties before launching the war in March 2003.

Robertson said Bush told him, " 'Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties.' "

More than 1,100 American troops have been killed in Iraq since the invasion, most of them battling an insurgency that followed the overthrow of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

I must admit, I would never have expected this.

I'm not particularly fond of Pat Robertson; his and Falwell's comments in the aftermath of 9/11 were despicable and had no place in an advanced society. But man, what exactly did Bush do to piss him off so much that he went forward with this less than two weeks before the election?

I'd love to hear from either Bush or his underlings exactly why it is that ol' Pat isn't credible on this issue. And naturally, the Kerry camp would love to hear about that as well.

Kerry's campaign issued a statement Wednesday challenging Bush to say whether the "700 Club" founder and 1988 GOP presidential candidate was telling the truth.

"We believe President Bush should get the benefit of the doubt here," Kerry spokesman Mike McCurry said in a news release.

"But he needs to come forward and answer a very simple question: Is Pat Robertson telling the truth when he said you didn't think there'd be any casualties, or is Pat Robertson lying?"

This is an interesting situation because we have exact opposite statements from both sides, and we have them quickly. Wonder how it will pan out. Someone needs to stick a mic in front of Bush soon.

Even if we operate on the idea that Robertson is lying about the Bush comment, what would his aim be in doing that? Maybe Bruce Bartlett was right about the whole "civil war" thing.