Was it good for you, too? The House Iraq debate, I mean

Though I've locked up my TV in the liquor cabinet, along with that baggie of smack the Good Doctor left me, I did manage to catch a smidgeon of the "hastily organized" House debate--say, how's that DéLay fella doing?--on Bush's Iraq Clusterfuck last night, using my postage stamp-sized Real Player. It's surprising how bad Republican hair can look, even in miniature! And I did catch Pelosi's comment that the Republicans "sank to a new low. Even for them." No surprise there, though. Could be anything.

Reading Pravda (A1) between the lines, the House [cough] leadership was working from a page in the Republican Playbook with 10 simple points:

1. Panic when hawkish Dem (Murtha) introduces resolution that threatens to pop Republican war bubble by laying out a practical plan for withdrawal from Iraq.

2. Call the Democrats traitors.

3. Call the Democrats traitors.

4. Introduce your own resolution, which is a caricature of the Democratic resolution that leaves out the practical planning part.

5. Insist the two resolutions are the same.

6. Call the Democrats traitors.

7. Vote against your own resolution.

8. Wait for the Democrats to vote against your resolution, since it's a gutted version of their own.

Still to come:

8. Insist that the Democrats are now "on record" against withdrawal from Iraq.

9. Call the Democrats traitors.

10. Call the Democrats traitors.

Yawn. More Winger Projection Syndrome (WPS). And say, how's Libby doing? And Fitz's new Grand Jury? Is Unka Karl still lawyered up? Seems to me, that if the Republicans are on the hunt for traitors, they could start by doing a little, um, "House" cleaning....

UPDATE Of course, what the Republicans are really doing is laying the groundwork for a "Stab in the Back" propaganda campaign against the Dems ("Who lost Iraq?") when they do in fact, cut and run themselves before 2006 or 2008, or before the money tit goes dry, whichever comes first. Because the essence of WPS is to accuse others of what you plan to do yourselves, and WPS is the essence of today's (post-)modern Republican Party. (Just ask Henry "Youthful Indiscretion" Hyde. Or aWol himself.)

NOTE The Old Grey Whore just can't learn new tricks. The Times is still purveying WMD disinformation! (Big hat tip to Atrios) Looks like Sulzberger is, indeed, in on it. This nonsense couldn't continue unless top management approved it. Notice how no other media outlets are picking the latest and greatest Times WMD story up? I wonder why?