Sandwich Singalong: "Rick Santorum was a desperate little man"
As Santorum sinks lower and lower in the polls, his election strategy gets more and more desperate. Not long after accusing his opponent of sending 'operatives' to spy on his wife and children in a house where they don't even live, he's decided to jump on the presidential bandwagon of rewriting history in the invasion of Iraq. "And Fox News is there!"
Santorum today: Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons. … Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.
You've gotta admire the way he pretends he was there in the dunes, pith helmet on and flashlight in hand.
The administration begs to differ, though. Here's what their own Iraq Survey Group had to say after a year and a half of scouring the country: While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered.
This is just a repeat of all the breathless right-wing stories that emerged prior to the '04 election, where every empty and rusted-- but very suspicious-- canister that was discovered was incontrovertible proof (PROOF, damn you!) that Saddam was armed to the teeth and ready to nuke the US.
As Think Progress notes, Fox's John "The Man With the Golden Pompadour" Gibson has already hit the airwaves to say "In fact, WMDs were found in Iraq." Expect the rest of the righties to follow suit.
UPDATE: Looks like Santorum and Hoekstra's fleeting moment of bogus triumph has already been shattered. On Fox News, no less. While appearing on Hannity & Colmes, it was revealed to them that the Department of Defense has already commented on their story:
COMBS: Congressman, Senator, it’s Alan Colmes. Senator, the Iraq Survey Group — let me go to the Duelfer Report — says that Iraq did not have the weapons our intelligence believed were there. And Jim Angle reported this for Fox News quotes a defense official who says these were pre-1991 weapons that could not have been fired as designed because they already been degraded. And the official went on to say these are not the WMD’s this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had and not the WMD’s for which this country went to war.
Hilariously, having been confronted with official word from the administration and the Defense Department, Santorum says he'll "wait and see" what the administration and DOD have to say about it. Yes, really. He's completely lost it. Poor guy thought this would be his big, shining moment, but he falls on his face right out of the gate. Or maybe it's more like having the gate open and being caught trying to rub one out in anticipation of how sweet victory would be.
Santorum today: Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons. … Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.
You've gotta admire the way he pretends he was there in the dunes, pith helmet on and flashlight in hand.
The administration begs to differ, though. Here's what their own Iraq Survey Group had to say after a year and a half of scouring the country: While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered.
This is just a repeat of all the breathless right-wing stories that emerged prior to the '04 election, where every empty and rusted-- but very suspicious-- canister that was discovered was incontrovertible proof (PROOF, damn you!) that Saddam was armed to the teeth and ready to nuke the US.
As Think Progress notes, Fox's John "The Man With the Golden Pompadour" Gibson has already hit the airwaves to say "In fact, WMDs were found in Iraq." Expect the rest of the righties to follow suit.
UPDATE: Looks like Santorum and Hoekstra's fleeting moment of bogus triumph has already been shattered. On Fox News, no less. While appearing on Hannity & Colmes, it was revealed to them that the Department of Defense has already commented on their story:
COMBS: Congressman, Senator, it’s Alan Colmes. Senator, the Iraq Survey Group — let me go to the Duelfer Report — says that Iraq did not have the weapons our intelligence believed were there. And Jim Angle reported this for Fox News quotes a defense official who says these were pre-1991 weapons that could not have been fired as designed because they already been degraded. And the official went on to say these are not the WMD’s this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had and not the WMD’s for which this country went to war.
Hilariously, having been confronted with official word from the administration and the Defense Department, Santorum says he'll "wait and see" what the administration and DOD have to say about it. Yes, really. He's completely lost it. Poor guy thought this would be his big, shining moment, but he falls on his face right out of the gate. Or maybe it's more like having the gate open and being caught trying to rub one out in anticipation of how sweet victory would be.
posted by Matt Sandwich | 9:02 PM
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