Viz., you note:
"As for Joe's stinging criticism of Bush on February 26, 2003, just weeks before the war, it is not only lame..."
In my diary, I quote extensively from, and link to, Joe's February 7, 2003 speech (less than 3 weeks prior to the one you quote) to the Euros, in Munich, where he stated:

But he [Bush] and I agree on the danger posed by Saddam and the need to do something soon to eliminate that danger to us, to you, and most immediately to his neighbors in the Arab world as do most other Democrats, Republicans, and Independents in the US. In fact, five years ago, after Saddam ejected the UN inspectors, John McCain and I gave up on containment and introduced the Iraqi Liberation Act, which, when it became law, made a change of regime in Baghdad official US policy. You might therefore say that, when it comes to Iraq, President Bush is just enforcing the McCain-Lieberman policy.

In so many words, I don't have to agree with W, because he's really my beeyotch.

Joe and McCain. BFF?