This week in Politics

Umm…uhh….first of all…what happened to WordPress????????? The write page is all different! My categories are down there instead of over there and….whoa!

Also, it’s been a slow week. So much time between primaries and I really don’t like to talk about the mud slinging everyone does. In fact, you wont see me do that at all. I might defend some stupid spins on things, but I wont promote other ones. No, not even against McCain. I’ll tell you why I *like* my side, but I will not tear down the other.  Yes, I know the negative is effective, but I think others cover that plenty well enough and that is just not my style.

Unless we are talking about humor..because THEN, I can steal from Bill in Portland Maine again with one of his intro paragraphs that had me shaking my head all day:

Shocking

It starts with an innocent sentence fragment plucked like a ripe tomato from a broader statement:

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“For the first time, I have seen Osama bin Laden and General Petraeus in agreement.”
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[Click] The Rube Goldberg machine activates.

Someone sends a tip to Drudge, who catapults it with one of his little flashing sissy lights. Red State, Instapundit and Powerline howl: How DARE those traitorous liberals besmirch the good name of General Petraeus by comparing him to Osama bin Laden! Never mind the context, there are some things in this country that are just flat-out unacceptable. This is so typical of the Blame-America-First crowd and an insult to the troops! Sign the petition!!!

Michelle Malkin finds the statement so odious that she pulls her cheerleader costume out of mothballs and tears up her lawn doing a spastic loony dance.

Fox News picks it up. The screen crawl slithers by every three minutes:

…DEMOCRAT EQUATES IRAQ WAR HERO GEN. PETRAEUS WITH AL QAEDA LEADER…TERROR ALERT ELEVATED TO ORANGE…ANNA NICOLE SMITH SPOTTED AT GRAND RAPIDS BURGER KING?…

The surrogates—O’Reilly, Morris, Hannity, Cavuto, Barnes, et al—swarm. “Shameless!” “Treason!” “They’re helping the terrorists win!” they shout.

Rush Limbaugh, who doesn’t really give a crap, goes on a multi-day tirade, knowing that the fracas will translate into more money for him.

Stories appear in Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times and Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post: UNHINGED! Liberals Reignite “General Betray Us” Campaign In Attempt To Doom Surge!

CNN and MSNBC, not wanting to miss out on the drama, pick up the story. Pat Buchanan and Lou Dobbs sob openly. Joe Lieberman claims Democrats are responsible for the deaths of all 4,001 American troops in Iraq and then, just before he plugs the GOP Happy Caribbean Fun Cruise hosted by Tom DeLay, calls for an end to the bipartisan bickering “that the Democrats started.”

The cascade continues as The Washington Post and The New York Times report on the “story.” Michael O’Hanlon and Ken Pollack suggest the irresponsible statement has set back the training of the Iraqi forces by at least six months. The AP’s Nedra Pickler provides balanced analysis by interviewing the founder of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and Dick Cheney. Then the networks weigh in—the anchors reflecting the seriousness of the situation with their solemn tones and furrowed brows. Their eyes say it all: “Awful…just awful.” Newsweek’s Conventional Wisdom Watch unleashes a ‘down’ arrow: “Surge savior savaged—again!—by ax-grinding libs. Al Qaeda to send flowers to DNC?”

President Bush calls the statement “cowardly” and says the only way to make up for such heinous rhetoric is another $100 billion emergency supplemental for Iraq and retroactive immunity for all registered Republicans and their supporters.

And then the cherry is placed lovingly on top of the shit sundae as the House and Senate condemn the statement with official resolutions.

Just one inconvenient hitch: a Democrat didn’t say it. John McCain did.

Nothing to see here. Please move along.