The 'Momento' Administration's New Lead Actor

Bush administration point man du jour and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) answered questions on 'Face the Nation' this last Sunday, June 17th -Father's Day.

The PR job that he strung together with the sole intention to reframe Bush as without fault - without even a hint of blame - for the debacle called the Iraq occupation/civil war, and to get the utterly disastrous 2000 to 2006 Republican do nothing Congress and Senate off the hook for Iraq, was infuriating. There is no other explanation for these talking points, notions crafted to sound authoritative and plausible but based in pure dishonesty. This is the type of political stunt that shows contempt for the American people. Its about preserving party identity by ameliorating failure.

Let's take a look at some of his fairy tales.

"The Iraqi government has been a pretty big disappointment, we've given them an enormous opportunity here over the last 4 years to have a normal country and so far they haven't been able to take advantage of this opportunity and our commitment will not be there forever."

Here is what we do know; poor idea to even get into a war in Iraq, absolutely no post war planning to pacify the shocked and awed country in 2003, no neo-con forethought to deal with a civil war foretold by anyone who bothered to investigate that possibility, clueless about an insurgency, and on and on and on. The rehashing itself is tedious but clearly necessary to refute such blatant propaganda. As often as this type of revisionism occurs, we need to bring forth reality more.

The list of screw ups, bad planning, torture!, deception, wasted money, all that stuff - no - the Iraqi government blew it. The Iraqi government is really the problem with Iraq. How obvious, it was there all along. How could we possibly have missed that one. Thank you Senator for clearing up 5 years of failed Bush policy, if you can call it a policy.

Another McConnell quote from Sunday:

"..forward deploy so we can still go after Al Qaeda which is all over Iraq and still a serious threat to us here at home. By being forward deployed, of course we have a better chance of protecting us here at home which is the whole point of being on offense since 9-11."

If at first the B.S. doesn't succeed, try try again. The old we are fighting them there so we don't fight them here baloney is an ageless slogan beauty. It gets dressed up over and over. Throw on some new shoes, and that rotten carcass plays the part of Cinderella and he gets to mention 9-11 to boot.

Where do you start? Senator, it was the invasion of Iraq that brought Al Qaeda to that country. Bush might as well of sent out handwritten invitations to Osama for this legacy defining catastrophe. Al Qaeda is pinned down in Iraq?

"...Al Qaeda is reported to have a global reach, and the countries where it maintains a presence include Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Jordan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Syria, Xinjiang in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Mindanao in the Philippines, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya, Dagestan, Jammu and Kashmri, Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Eritrea, Uganda, Ethiopia, as also in parts of the West Bank and Gaza. The dispersed nature of Al Qaeda cadres around the globe has provided Osama bin Laden command over a global terror network with capabilities to carry out lethal terrorist attacks."

That list doesn't even mention Europe, site of some of the worst attacks. But this Senator seems to have the short term memory issue of the main character in 'Momento.'

Now along comes this: Suicide Bomb Teams Sent to US, Europe

"Teams assigned to carry out attacks in the US, Canada, Great Britain and Germany were introduced at an Al Quaeda traing camp graduation ceremony help June 9."

An implication of McConnell's quote is that we have George Bush to thank for pinning Al Qaeda down in Iraq - dream on.

Final McConnell quote:

"...The President himself has spoken favorably of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group..."

From back in December of 06. the titles of the articles alone say it all:
Bush Dismisses Key Recommendations of Iraq Study Group Report

Conservatives attack Iraq Study Group report as "surrender," "not a serious document"

Bush Aides Seek Alternatives to Iraq Study Group’s Proposals, Calling Them Impractical

With the surge heading in reverse off a cliff, the old Iraq Study Group plan has been dusted off and is being paraded around by the same people that virtually laughed at it.

I am not going to defend the Iraq Study Group plan, that's another story. This Senator is grasping at straws, this is putting a pretty ribbon on a pile of garbage. Expect to hear these three fictional talking points for an extended period of time. They will surface in Republican Presidential candidates as well. Painting a smiley face on a bomb crater is the tactic.