BREAKING: Fred Thompson Remembers Something!

And it actually happened before last week's Office premiere! Only thing is, what he remembers didn't actually happen at all.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson said today he was certain former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a point of contention in the 4.5 years since the war began.

"We can't forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program," the former Tennessee senator told an audience of about 60 at a Newton cafe.

Freddie is in the furthest reaches of Outer Wingnuttia with this one. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, it's an article of faith on the far right that Saddam sent all the weapons to Syria before the war (in special invisibility-cloak transport vehicles that our radar didn't see), or he had his Imperial Guard eat them, or SOMETHING. They simply can't believe that the major WMD programs were dismantled, and there was no credible effort to acquire nuclear material. This isn't just a fundamental question of policy, it's a fundamental question of sanity.

The sidelight of this, of course, is that when it's a subject Hollywood Freddie would rather not touch, it's banished to the part of his memory that's on permanent lockdown. But when it's something he doesn't mind highlighting, then, WHAM! Total recall.

I believe that neurologists and scientists studying the brain call this "the pander effect."

Also, as a complete side note, Thompson's top-level brain trust was with him on this trip:

Thompson was traveling with his wife, Jeri, and country music star John Rich, the second half of the act Big and Rich.

The Big and Rich guy has a lot of competition for Cabinet posts or a major foreign policy portfolio: