Going McCarthy

There is an old saying: "When all you've got is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

The Democrats have gotten as far as they have politically taking a hammer to timid and/or indifferent Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill regarding the War Against Islamic Fundamentalism in Iraq. It finally worked last November because the Bush Administration spent three and a half years stubbornly persisting in refusing to engage Syria and Iran militarily and remaining on the defensive in Iraq, leaving it only a matter of time until the public tired of the war and turned to the Democrats to "end" it and get us all back to watching American Idol re-runs and Bionic Woman re-makes.

Suddenly aware that the clock on the war effort was now ticking rapidly toward extinction, the Bushies still didn't take the war to Tehran and Damascus, but did take a baby step forward by implementing the "Surge" strategy against al Qaeda and Iran's Shiite proxies. Eight months later all the PR "nails" have been swept up by General Petraeus' three additional brigades, and Donks have nowhere to pound their hammers except on their own political digits.

But they're doing it anyway, because, evidently, they hold to the reverse of the classic aphorism: "It's better to speak up and remove all doubt about your folly, than remain silent and be merely suspected of it."

Substitute the term "treason" and you split the pin in half.

Two more examples from this afternoon (via DP):

"Whom gods destroy, they first make mad."

-Euripides