Barney Fife Fires His Bullet

....multiple times. Since Harry Reid keeps missing his targets, I can only conclude that he sends his staff out each time to retrieve it for him. Wouldn't want anyone to think that he's so pathetic he'd run completely out of dud ammo.

It is amazing, though, that the extent of the Nevada chisler's "statesmanship" - to say nothing of his "bipartisanship" - is to hurl epithets at his opponents ("President Bush is a loser," "[Former Federal Reserve Chairman] Alan Greenspan is a political hack," "[US Supreme Court Justice] Clarence Thomas is illiterate," etc.). As well as generals for whose confirmation he has repeatedly voted.

Last week the Senate Majority Leader, in so many words, called Iraq Theatre Commander General David Petraeus a liar:

The President’s troop escalation is now complete, yet a New York Times article this morning reports that security goals are far, far short of the military’s hopes, with just one-third of Baghdad neighborhoods in some semblance of order. [emphasis added]

The Enemy Media, swallowing Reid's assertions like they'd been written on stone tablets by a big, glowing, disembodied Finger, rushed over to General Petraeus to collect another engraved "gotcha", and didn't quite get the deer-in-the-headlines scoop they were expecting:

PETRAEUS: I think it's important to remember that we're still a week and a half, two weeks away from having all of the surge forces even on the ground for the first time.

CNN: General, just to be clear, you do not have all of your troops on the ground in country in Baghdad yet?

PETRAEUS: That is correct. The fifth of the five surge brigades and the Marine Expeditionary Unit and the combat aviation brigade are still positioning themselves in Iraq as we speak, or moving up from Kuwait. And again, they'll all be in position and actually in operations in less than two weeks. [emphases added]

Was Dirty Harry full of crap, or was he just being his usual incompetent, Barney-Fife-with-a-pinch-of-Bud-Selig-esque self? Well, either way it must have stuck in his scrawny craw, because yesterday he, not "in so many words," directly called General Petraeus "incompetent," along with outgoing JCS Chairman, Marine Commandant General Peter Pace:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine General Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, "incompetent" during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported.

Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview.

This is but the latest example of how Reid, under pressure from liberal activists to do more to stop the war, is going on the attack against President Bush and his military leaders in anticipation of a September showdown to end U.S. involvement in Iraq, according to Democratic senators and aides.

Reid, who was bashed by Republicans for suggesting earlier this year that the Iraq war was "lost," is lashing out at top commanders while putting the finishing touches on a plan to force a series of votes on Iraq designed exclusively to make Republicans up for reelection in 2008 go on record in favor of continuing an unpopular war.

So far Reid's ideas of "doing more to stop the war" have included a series of meaningless publicity-stunt non-binding anti-war resolutions, a three and a half month dick-around on the Afghanistan/Iraq supplemental funding bill to try to force mandatory withdrawal timetables on the White House - which Reid and his party ignominiously lost, the aforementioned series of planned additional meaningless publicity-stunt non-binding anti-war resolutions, and pissing on the shoes of two generals for, again, whose confirmation he has repeatedly voted - Petraeus' just this past January.

That is what now passes for "competence" on Capitol Hill.

Meanwhile, this is a taste of General Pace's "incompetence":

Pace was born in Brooklyn, New York to Italian-American parents, and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey. He received his commission in June 1967, following graduation from the United States Naval Academy. He also holds a Master's Degree in Business Administration from George Washington University.

General Pace's personal decorations include:

Defense Distinguished Service Medal with two bronze oak leaf clusters (3 awards)
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star Medal with Valor device
Defense Meritorious Service Medal
Meritorious Service Medal with gold award star (2 awards)
Navy Commendation Medal with Valor device
Navy Achievement Medal with gold award star (2 awards)
Combat Action Ribbon
Navy Presidential Unit Citation with bronze service star (2 awards)
Joint Meritorious Unit Commendation with three bronze oak leaf clusters (4 awards) Navy Unit Commendation with bronze service star (2 awards)
Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation with three bronze service stars (4 awards)
National Defense Service Medal with two bronze service stars (3 awards)
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal with two bronze service stars (3 awards)
Vietnam Service Medal with silver and bronze service stars
Global War on Terrorism Service Medal
Korea Defense Service Medal
Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with two bronze service stars (3 awards)
Overseas Service Ribbon with three bronze service stars (4 awards)
Recruiting Service Ribbon

Senator Pencil-Neck, I think it's safe to say that you're not worthy to clean out General Pace's latrine with your tongue.

But I'd love to see you have to try. It'd probably be less unpleasant an experience than beholding your 19% approval rating. Or having to listen to Dennis Miller rip you from rectum to belly-button: