Clueless and/or Cravenly Opportunistic I made the mistake of listening to Newt Gingrich on Hannity's radio show today. His comments on the Haditha tradgedy make it clear that the GOP is trying to recreate the mythical "smear the troops" meme. Evidently simply reporting the facts and the accusations of a cover-up have given the right wing the cojones to claim that anti-war folks are spitting on the troops. This, of course, is pure bullshit.

While Newt, his clan of Fox News pundits and the craven partisans who make up the right side of the web seem to think that having these seemingly credible accusations aired in the American press is a crime worthy of hanging, they miss the point.

This story was already all over the Arab press. Newt can worry about eroding domestic support for America's role in Iraq, but isn't the Iraqi reaction what we should really be worried about? It was the same with Abu Grhaib. The GOP blamed the press for undermining the troops, but the fact was that the Iraqi people already knew about the prison scandal and the real damage had already been done.

I guess when the GOP is politically desperate, they are capable of the most despicable forms of projection. If there is a domestic side to this story, perhaps that is it.  ¶ 9:19 PM