The GAO vs the gop

We know that there has been little to no progress in Iraq… we know that the Bush(whacked) Administration is ‘cooking the books’ on the amount of violence… we know that republicans are starting to get desperate… so it should come as NO surprise that a republican would attack the GAO’s Iraq report…

This time it’s Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (r-FL) claiming that the GAO isn’t qualified to pass judgement.

Earlier this week at a House International Relations Committee hearing, ranking member Ros-Lehtinen tried to claim that the GAO was unqualified to render a judgment on the situation in Iraq and described the process of accountability as “unsettling,” saying; “I just feel uncomfortable listening to a report by the Government Accountability Office about a war effort.”

The accusations drew a critical response from GAO Comptroller General David Walker, who responded by defending the agency’s experience in such matters explaining that the work the GAO does is based on “looking at hard data, interviewing qualified individuals, and appropriate parties have an opportunity to review and comment on our work.” So in other words, they do the exact opposite of the Bush White House.

Walker continued by arguing that military experience is not a necessary requirement to offer a qualified opinion; “The President and the Vice President have no military or foreign policy experience. Does that mean I don’t respect their opinion? I do. They’ve got a lot of people who work for them that do. So I think it’s a false claim to say you know we’re not qualified to do this work. We’re eminently qualified to do this work. […] For the record, It’s my understanding that Secretary of Defense Gates does not have any military experience either. So frankly, I think we need to stick with the facts.”

(Facts? Facts? We don’t need no stinkin’ facts… just give us propaganda, thank you very much…)

As it stands now, Bush is desperately trying to keep republicans behind the surge and Ros-Lehtinen has drank the kool-aid while wearing the official Bush rose-colored glasses and has fallen in line, going as far as criticizing the GAO.

It seems to me that the gop could and would be better served by sticking to their old tenets of smaller government and fiscal responsibility rather than drinking the Kool-Aid of Bush and his merry band of cronies.

After all, Bush, like Tony Soprano, is the opposite of Midas – everything he touches turns to shit...