If we stayed out of the Middle East, we would not be involved in the Middle East and in general Middle Easterners wouldn’t give a hoot about us. Our continued meddling there is why they care about us. 911 would not have even occured. (Note that I am not necessarily against us being there or anywhere else.)

I agree that Cheney et al were true believers – in many things. Sure they thought the Iraqis’ would welcome us, sure they thought we would gain power in the middle east, sure they thought we would gain power over oil, sure they thought that in the short term war would help the American economy, sure they sure they thought a lot about the money they would control and the power and money that would be funneled back to them, and sure they thought they’d get Saddam, a perk for GW.

There were lots of reasons for us to go to war.

Oh, I forgot we would eliminate the weapons of mass destruction too!

Daniel using you logic I can easily say that the only the things that weren’t botched were the things they profited from directly and in any case I don’t see how the fact that they botched the job so badly changes anything.

Back to Obama

Note : This is misleading. Although Obama wasn't present for the Mukasey confirmation vote, he was said to be agianst confirmation.

IMHO missing the vote against Mukasey is plenty of justification to satirize him – particularly if he missed it specifically so as not to be on record.

I think it's unfair to castigate Democrats for not blocking the Mukasey nomination. Even if Mukasey may be unwilling to stand up to Bush (which isn't entirely clear), critics have not put forward a single scenario which would put a less compliant person in the office. If Mukasey were rejected, Bush would have appointed without Senate confirmation an interim caretaker AG until the end of his term, who would be even less likely to stand up to him.

I really don't see the sense in criticizing someone for choosing the lesser of two bad choices when there isn't a better option on the table. I understand the frustration, but stamping one's feet and saying "We don't like Mukasey" won't make a better nominee come along.

Again, apologies for the thread drift.

You have a point and I agree, but if that what Obama thought, then Obama should have said exactly that. (Did he?) He could even have missed the vote saying he would have to help confirm him for just this reason.

Almost sounds like that might have occurred, but it isn't clear here.

I wasn't implying anything about what Obama was thinking; I was responding to the last panel of the comic strip that took Dems to task for not blocking the Mukasey nomination.

Does anyone here climb anymore?

Soon...soon.