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Preempted Talking Point

The Bush administration is desperate to find a scapegoat for their disaster of a war in Iraq. And since their fruitless search hasn’t yet yielded a war czar to pin it on, the Democrats in Congress are the most logical choice. So they’ve been pressing the meme that the Democrat’s plan (i.e. funding tied to a withdrawal proviso) will result in troops having to stay there longer. Yea, I know, sounds silly that a call for withdrawal would make them stay longer. But then, logic was never this administrations strong suit and neither was getting everyone on the same talking points page since the “consequences” that Bush was warning of has now become official White House policy.

Which begs the question: was Bush aware of this before he started slinging around this false narrative? White House spokesman Dana Perino sure intimated that he might not have, which I highly doubt is the case. As some have suggested it's quite possible, indeed probable, that Bush was fully aware of the shift in policy and was simply waiting until after his veto threat was carried out in order to paint the troop extensions as the direct result of the Democrats actions.

Remind me again who's playing politics with the troops?

(Filed at State of the Day)