UFO in the Senate: A Spine???

What were those mysterious objects spotted in the U.S. Senate yesterday? A spine? A conscience? No! Is Hell freezing over yet?

Both Democrats and Republicans were asking Condoleezza Rice some very blunt questions about the Iraqi failure. She was one of the main architects of the Iraqi “strategy” (or lack thereof) and she had some ‘splainin’ to do.

Or maybe it was just a little hazing ritual, since she might be getting promoted soon. If the rumors are true, she’ll be our Vice President after Cheney gets frogmarched off to meet his new husband.

One could be cynical and wonder whether spines and consciences were really the cause of yesterday’s questioning. With Bush’s web of lies starting to unravel and his poll ratings sinking lower than the temperature in Greenland, it doesn’t take much courage to be dissing his top assistants.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee spent more than 3 hours questioning Rice yesterday. She was reciting the usual flowery rhetoric about Halliburton and Exxon democracy flowering in the Middle East, etc. But the senators weren’t buying.

Barbara Boxer, D-Cal., said the American people “don’t want the job of rebuilding the Middle East on the backs of our brave men and women and the taxpayers of the United States.”

Richard Lugar, R-Ind., said “Let’s say that the Iraqis, after all is said and done, really don’t want to have a united country…. Some Americans would say, ‘why are we there, if these folks not only don’t appreciate us, but they’re hashing the whole thing up, they literally don’t want to have the sort of Iraq that was envisioned by the British and French years ago?’ ”

Lincoln Chafee, R-Rhode Island, referred to the search for Weapons of Mass Destruction by saying “It was all a joke and the laugh was on us.”

That about sums it up. Unfortunately this “joke” has killed 2,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.