And I obviously, any time there’s a death, I grieve

With the polls showing a marked decline in American support for the war in Iraq, the Bushies fanned out to the talk shows to utter complete and utter gibberish. Here’s Condi Rice on Fox: “it is a generational commitment to Iraq. But it is not a generational commitment in military terms; it is a commitment of our support to them, our political support and an understanding that democracy takes time.” As Tim Dunlop points out, “This is typical of the could-mean-anything drivel that is characteristic of modern politics”; it’s not clear what “it” refers to, or even whether generational means “lasting one generation” or “lasting across the generations.” Tim wonders how many military bases this commitment would require; I’d ask what is meant by “political support.” The bit about understanding that democracy takes time is all too clear.

Bush, avoiding answering a reporter who asked whether he agreed with Cheney that the Iraqi resistance is in its last throes, said today about the American soldiers there, “and I obviously, any time there’s a death, I grieve.” So that’s what, one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three times he’s grieved? Does he go through all five stages of grieving each time? Really, it can’t be that long a period of mourning, probably about the same length of time as a fart.

Speaking of mournful farts, Newt Gingrich, who once appointed a House historian who supported equal time for the views of Nazis in educational programs about the Holocaust, has written a letter to members of the Senate calling Dick Durbin “despicable” and calling for a vote of censure “on record,” by the same Senate that failed to have a voice vote on the apology for lynching last week, against Durbin for daring to mention Guantanamo in the same breath as gulags and concentration camps. Gingrich falsely claims that he “equates the terrorist detainees at Guantanamo with the millions of innocent men, women, and children exterminated by the order of evil dictators.” Gingrich — Newton Leroy Gingrich, mind you — says that Durbin impairs the dignity of the Senate — the Senate, mind you.

Former Speaker Gingrich