I've Got To Find A Way To Quit The Republican Party, Too

John Cole over at Ballon Juice is almost always good, and he's in form regarding the recent Iran NIE:

I gotta admit, when I heard the news that the new NIE stated that Iran had rolled back any designs on nuclear weapons as far back as 2003, I knew it would be spun by the Bush dead-enders, but even I didn’t see this coming. The Instapundit:


"This story lets the Bush Administration take credit for pressuring Iran into stopping its weapons program by invading Iraq—meaning that the invasion really did end a major WMD threat—and also punt further serious action on the Iran issue to the next administration. Cui bono? I think it’s pretty obvious. . . . "

Up next, why we should invade Japan to solve our North Korea problem. You gotta give these guys some credit for chutzpah, if nothing else.

*** Update ***

Now that's a good start and it gets better, but the comments section contains a real jem, and I couldn't make this up:

Peter Johnson Says:

This probably was leaked by the CIA to hurt Bush. But that doesn’t matter if it is an accurate assessment. Two points though:

(1) The CIA screwed up Iraq and Pakistan badly, thinking one had WMD when they didn’t and that the other didn’t have nukes when they did.

(2) If the Iranians really did stop their nuclear program in 2003, isn’t that quite a coincidence? I mean, nothing happened in 2003 that might scare a country into giving up its WMD, did it?

Now stick with me a bit there's quite a bit in between and then:

Peter Johnson Says:


"-I’d find plenty of evidence that the Bush administration said we had to invade Iraq to end Iraq’s WMD program."

Call it collateral success. The bottom line is that if this is true, then Bush’s policies have worked. You just can’t bring yourself to admit that, can you? The Clinton “flowers and candy” approach didn’t work. The Bush “drop your weapon” or else did. The party of John Wayne trumps the party of Richard Simmons, yet again.

I've got to admit it, I was jealous, and I just couldn't help myself:

Chuck Butcher Says:

John,
Can I have peterjohnson, please. Hey, no caps and no ticking nukes in a grade school. Please, he’s such a step up from my overwrought righties. Really, I just finished wiping CocaCola off the screen and keyboard.

goddam, “collateral success” is wonderful in a cretin sort of way. C’mon John, you’ve got all these other commenters, you can afford one little rightie, let me take it home with me.

Man it’s all there, the CIA is out to get us, it’s Clinton’s Fault, A RonnieR line, “Drop Your Weapon” for faux cowboy GeorgeII, oh man I’m jealous. I’ll even admit that heartstopping finishes are no way for the Browns to win football games, c’monnnnnnnn.

I promise not to try to poach any more than this one…

Really, I could wind this one up tighter than a cheap watch.

Now all I’ve got to do is figure out how to quit the Republican Party, too.

Oh darn, I’d have to join it first?

Nah, I like my commenters, but this one was too good to leave laying around loose. It is just a classic, think just a little while about what he's proposing, with a straight face. That and the GOP would probably have to do something to itself if they found out I'd joined up.

I know it's cheap snark, but really...