Quick Hits

• In support of the Republican senators rising up almost in unison and voting to prevent discussion of bipartisan (so much for that) resolution against the escalation of troops in Iraq, a White House spokesperson offered the following statement: "All sides have a right to be heard in this debate." And they wonder why political satire is dead.

• A development late Wednesday saw seven Republicans, five of whom voted against floor debate of the resolution opposing Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq, proclaiming themselves so desperate to debate and vote on that resolution that they're threatening to add it as an amendment to any other bill that makes it to the Senate floor. Unfortunately, even those five senators changed their vote, there are still 40 senators left who voted against debate. Sixty votes are what's needed to allow the resolution to reach the floor, so potentially the 40 Republican senators could be defeated. Unfortunately, they were joined in their Nay vote by a particular independent senator who, although he caucuses with the Democrats, seems to be at odds with them more and more often. No, I'm not going to tell you who that senator is--you'll just have to guess.

• In an e-mail discussion with which I was involved today, one respondent wrote, "Cheney is a pragmatist – The guy deals with things as they are." Does this sound like a pragmatist to you?

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." — August 26, 2002

"My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." – March 16, 2003

"We know he's been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." – March 16, 2003

"In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists, had an established relationship with al Qaeda, and his regime is no more." – Nov. 7, 2003

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." - June 20, 2005

"Bottom line is that we've had enormous successes [in Iraq] and we will continue to have enormous successes." - January 24, 2007

(Yes, this is pretty much the response I gave in e-mail, and it's sort of chintzy to tart it all up as part of a post, but I couldn't pass up the possibility of putting that research to work in the blog.)