Something tells me that a year from now we're still going to be "getting the surge in place" and "giving it a chance to work".

Excerpted from this breaking story:

http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/17417803.htm

Another GOP senator urges Iraq pullout

ANNE FLAHERTY

Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Sen. George Voinovich said Tuesday the U.S. should begin pulling troops out of Iraq and bolster diplomatic efforts, becoming the second Republican lawmaker in as many days to declare President Bush's war strategy a failure.

"It's in their best interest to become part of the solution instead of sitting on the sidelines," the Ohio senator said of the Iraqi people. "I don't think they'll get it until they know we're leaving."

Voinovich's remarks come on the heels of similar comments by Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. The two GOP senators previously had expressed concerns about Bush's decision to send 30,000 extra troops to Iraq in a massive U.S.-led security push in Baghdad and Anbar province.

Could someone please explain to me why the press corpse bothers to go through this charade known as the "white house press briefing"??? All it offers is a chance for the white house to lie and the TeeVee news to broadcast misinformation and propaganda.

I fail to see the point. Wouldn't everyone be happier if they just gave up on the whole dog and pony show?

Snow: What we've been trying to do is be straight with everybody about the difficulties of proceeding and trying to make sure that people are getting information in a timely fashion about what's going on.

Really? Since when?

"Look, obviously, we are completely incompetent and even all our old friends hate us. Old news. Let's just move on and talk about how we're gonna keep repeating all our past mistakes until we're done."

I'm bored. This is boring. Mr. Grieve, seriously. I know it's your blog and it's my choice to read, but c'mon. Can't you just summarize what Tony Snow is saying? It's not fun anymore to read the same old same old about an unnamed reporter (most likely Helen Thomas) beating against the same old wall.

Here's a template:

"Today Tony Snow was asked some questions about [insert issue here]. In response Tony blathered for a while about total bullshit, acting annoyed that he's asked any questions at all and suggesting that the reporter should just go and shove it. These proceedings were of interest only to certain bloggers and only because they feel it's their duty to report on such crap. And now back to the interesting stuff."

This can be used with pretty much every so-called press conference with anybody from the White House. Tony Snow, like Paris Hilton, does not deserve so much bandwith. (Seriously, if I hear Snow say that it's a complicated situation one more time, I'll break something pretty and fragile. I swear.)

Catch 22: They can do whatever we can't stop them from doing.

Right now, they're just running out the clock and looking to leave the whole mess for the next President to deal with. We can't stop them, ergo they'll do whatever they can get away with-- which looks to be pretty much anything at this point.

Sign me,

Waiting for the other shoe to drop and wishing as well that my party's leaders felt as fervently and deeply outraged as I... (then maybe they'd actually DO something about it all)

Bush and his crew need to stop blaming this mess on the Commanders on the Ground. Unless Commanders on the Ground is a subidiary of Halliburton.

is what President Cheney's response was to Lugar's comments. Has Darth fired Lugar yet? Absorbed his job? Outsourced his District? Give a directive to V.P. Bush about what sort of ill advised initiative to begin to deflect this clear thinking on the "surge"?

Let me ask this; What did you expect Tony Snow to say? Did you really think he would say something along the lines of "Sen. Lugar's comments have dealt a body blow to our entire Iraq policy and we'll have to reconsider everything?"

This man works as the President's PR man. Doesn't it seem somehow detached from reality to expect any answers other than the ones he's providing? Or are we so pathetic that we all just enjoy feeling morally/intellectually superior to Tony Snow after he has to shovel the Administration's crap to us on a daily basis? (As if that's an accomplishment.)