Spinning hearts and minds

To me, this latest cash-for-spin scandalette is just a perfect little representative slice of the farce that is our misadventures in Iraq.

I will not pretend to be shocked by the fact that we tried to manipulate the press in Iraq. I mean, in terms of all the other shit that's going down over there, pulling an Armstrong Williams is a minor sin, perhaps even an excusable sin provided that they pulled it off. Which they didn't. Frankly, even if nobody blew the whistle on this, I don't think we would have fooled many Iraqis this way. "On the one hand", they'd think to themselves, "people are getting blown up and death squads are running amok in our country. But oooh look! The paper said that they opened a new school yesterday. Truly, freedom is on the march."

What I am shocked by is the amount we paid Lincoln Group for this little stunt -- up to 100 million over five years. More cost-effective PR flacks please!