Pot, meet kettle

Actually, that's probably not fair to most kettles.

Here's White House spokesperson Dana Perino:

"It is a trumped-up political stunt that is the height of cynicism," Perino said. "It is very disturbing to think that they possibly held up this money for the troops and troops' families and the resources that they need to try some PR stunt on this day."

What Dana's talking about is speculation that Congressional Democrats are sending the Iraq funding bill to the White House on May 1, which happens to be the 4th anniversary of "Mission Accomplished."



On the one hand, flying out to the US Abraham Lincoln on a fighter jet to give a speech about the successful conclusion of a war which, 4 years later, is claiming more lives than ever, will probably go down in history as the archetype of "a trumped-up political stunt that is the height of cynicism."

On the other hand, if George Bush was less cynical, he'd build the costs of the war into the budget requests that he submits to Congress every year so he wouldn't have to beg for an emergency supplemental whenever the well runs dry.

Of course, doing so would then require that the costs of the war actually be counted in the budget, and that wouldn't make the deficit look too good. So the supplemental request is actually "a trumped-up political stunt that is the height of cynicism," played out every 10 months or so to help the President make the claim that budget deficits are improving, or at least appear to be not as bad as they really are.

That's the depths of cynicism, Dana. Your boss.

How do these people look themselves in the mirror every morning?