While watching The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I was really struck by how ridiculous politics can be.
Dick Cheney was quoted as saying that the Iraqi insurgency was in its “last throes” and then General Abizaid indicated that there was a lot more work to do. Cheney and Rumsfeld were trying to defend the “last throes” remark on TV and they were totally concentrating on splitting hairs with the meaning of the word “throes” and how throes can be violent and not necessarily calm. But the thing is, I don’t think anyone was really questioning the “throes” part of the remark – heck, it’s pretty obvious that what’s going on in Iraq now is not calm 🙂 The debate was about the “last” I’d say; not the “throes”. But it’s interesting how you can apparently just answer a different question and steer the discussion in another direction and no one really notices. 🙂