Word To The Wise

I don't subscribe to any GOP e-mail lists and I certainly don't have access to the daily talking points that so obviously are passed around amongst the bow-tied, doughboy Republican cognoscenti, but it doesn't take an insider to figure out what they are since they multiply like bacteria into the media within minutes of introduction.

Here's the current infection:

Yesterday, Perle gave aninterview on RTL in which he claimed that Chirac and Hussein have been "good friends" since the 70's. This is not news, but it was also put forth as a startling revelation on Brit Hume's show on Fox News yesterday. I would bet that it's all over Talk Radio again today.This adds to the contention that Chirac has given so much illegal contraband to his friend in the hopes of good deals on oil leases that he's petrified that good people everywhere will recoil in disgust when they find out the truth.

Charles Pierce pithily retorts to that last accusation today on Altercation saying, "if you’re keeping score at home, it should be noted that it wasn’t the Freedoms who redacted 12,000 pages of the Iraqi weapons report before they made it public. What did we edit out? The receipts?"

No way, Marseilles. Just so's ya knows -- Jacques has promised his lover Saddam a stocking full 'o Nukes for Christmas. And, apparently, out 'o principle, John Negropont and Don Rumsfeld kept those 12,000 pages of love letters from the world in order to spare Mrs. Chirac the embarrassment. Or something.

The Wurlitzer always plays on key.