More lies: For this week’s Insider Poll, National Journal asked inside-the-Beltway types their views on whether George Bush is gearing up to lead from behind in an invasion of Iran:

The new insiders poll asked 40 congressional Democrats and 35 congressional Republicans to grade the administration’s handling of Iran. Bush received an average C-plus grade from his fellow party members and a D-minus from the opposition. The perception that Bush has already decided to act against Iran was commonly cited.

“I would have given him an F, but he has not invaded yet,” a Democratic insider who gave Bush a D grumbled. A colleague echoed that reasoning, adding that a military strike “would be an utter disaster with enormously negative consequences.”

Indeed, Democrats’ skepticism of the administration’s stated intentions for dealing with Iran led Defense Secretary Robert Gates to tell reporters this week, “For the umpteenth time, we are not looking for an excuse to go to war with Iran.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Thursday suggested she would try to nip Bush’s alleged Iran ambitions in the bud with a binding resolution requiring congressional approval for military invasion.

Predictably, Democrats were all but evenly split on whether Bush should receive a D or an F (not one gave him an A). Republicans were more forgiving: Forty-six percent gave him a B, 29 percent gave him a C and just 3 percent gave him an F. One of the 9 percent who gave him an A laid blame for the diplomatic crisis with Iran squarely on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “It is difficult to work with a person who seeks world destruction.”

There are two popular lines of thought when it comes to the Bush administration and Iran. One is that a military strike would more likely be considered justified because of Tehran’s nuclear program, and a fresh war would entice the American public to rally behind the troops. The other is that the Bush administration is chastened by the Iraq war and is sincere in seeking a diplomatic solution with Iran.

But even if the latter is the case, insiders have more criticism to add to the pile. Groused a GOP insider who gave Bush a D: Bush “should not rely on the weak-kneed lefties at the State Department to manage our interests in Iran.”