How quickly they forget:

John McCain: Blunders Never Cease.
by Bo Cotton
Tue Mar 18, 2008 at 11:19:55 PM PDT
It was almost one year ago that John McCain and Huckleberry Graham strolled through a Baghdad marketplace, interacting with the peaceful, happy Iraqis, who were overjoyed at the prospect of selling some of their wares to some rich American tourists. Senator Huckleberry was proud to say he had bought "5 rugs fer 5 bucks." A Republican Congressman along for the ride compared their shopping spree to an autumn afternoon at a county fair in his home state of Indiana. The Senators and their party were attired in matching bulletproof vests for their leisurely expedition outside of the heavily fortified Green Zone. Just for good measure, they invited a hundred or so Army Rangers to tag along, presumably to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of cotton candy and popcorn in the Iraqi air. A half a dozen helicopter gunships hovered overhead just in case the Senators had to adjourn to another area for a cocktail or another photo-op.*

For the past couple of days, McCain, now the presumptive nominee for President of the United States, is back in the Middle East, this time, with two of his best war buddies, Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham and "Holy Joe" Lieberman, both of whom happen to be on his Veep short list. The three Senators have been (auditioning?) meeting with various kings and puppets throughout the region, ostensibly on official Senate Armed Services Committee business, but there is little doubt that this is a kind of pre-Presidential dress rehearsal for McCain, who is trying his dead-level best to look Presidential, even though those bulletproof vests he wears seem to look sillier and sillier every time he puts one on. It's not quite Dukakis-in-a-tank silly but it’s damn close.

So that brings us to St. John’s blunder of the year. Some might even say it’s his Gerald Ford moment in the campaign ("There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration."—which gaffe probably cost Gerald Ford the election.)

Anyway, McCain, was holding a press conference in Amman, Jordan, with his potential veeps by his side. Everything was going just hunky dory until McCain said this: "Well, it's common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq. That's well known and it's unfortunate."

Oops.

Then Holy Joe leans over after an uncomfortable silence and whispers in St. John’s ear that it is Shiite insurgents who are going in and out of Iran, not al-Qaeda (whose fighters are Sunni and sworn enemies of the Iranians.) McCain turned four shades of red and coughed and sputtered into the microphone: "I'm sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al Qaeda. Not al Qaeda. I'm sorry,"

Sorry, indeed. So the future nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States of America was not aware until today, that Iran and al-Qaeda have no connection whatsoever. How do I know that? Because he had said the exact same thing twice in the last two days, including in an interview with Hugh Hewitt, who apparently did not know any better either.

John McCain is fortunate that he made his monumental gaffe on a day when all the media sunshine was focused on the fellow who will most likely see to it, come November, that McCain spends the rest of his old age in the U. S. Senate instead of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

*Note: Shortly after that visit to the open air market in Baghdad last April, that particular market was blown to bits and the merchants that sold them the rugs were killed in broad daylight, so this time the Senators decided against a return visit, even though they surely could have gone if they had wanted to because the Surge is (ahem, cough, cough) working like gangbusters. Yep. You betcha.

Thanks for the great post, Chelsea24.

Excellent post Chelsea!!!

I was going to say something, probably caustic, but no, I'm not getting into that stuff any more.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR4TW...eature=related

Muncle,
Your mother would be proud of you! Happy Mother's Day!