WaPo's Milbank Compares GOP Lawmakers To Prostitutes

As extraordinary as it may be to see Republican lawmakers throwing dispute and critique in the direction of White House darling General David Petraeus and his stammering chum, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, seeing their comments get such wide play still galls a smidge. After all, where were these guys in the five years that have passed since the fall of Baghdad? Mostly rubber-stamping the administration's The Plan Is We Have No Plan plan for Iraq. At a time when critics of the Bush war strategy continue to look increasingly prescient in the eyes of voters, shouldn't they be taking home a greater portion of the news-share?

Well, credit Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank for coming up with a way to make news of GOP discontent palatable:

In character, the four-star general commanding U.S. troops in Iraq could hardly be further from escort-service owner Deborah Jeane Palfrey, who is accused of running a prostitution ring. But a coincidence of the calendar put them in similar positions yesterday: She sat in a courtroom facing accusations from her former escorts who had turned against her, while, six blocks away, he sat in a House hearing room facing hostile questions from once-loyal Republican lawmakers.

So...the "Republican lawmakers" are whores? Well, played, Mr. Milbank! This is a comparison we are prepared to accept. And in that vein, this line takes on a special news resonance: "By the end of the day, the general and his sidekick, Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, had become accomplished in the art of gulping."

Comments

[Rog49Thomas]

What an unfair and scurrilous comparison!

Brother Dana should be ashamed for degrading prostitutes with such a comment..

[GrandpaMcCain]

I love it.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

So I take it if Randi Rhodes had called Ferraro and Clinton Plump Philandering Prostitutes everyone would have been cool with that, right?

[Grannysue]

You've got that right Dana!

[PhoenixtheUndying]

Never mind

[ObserverinVancouver]

So far no one has mentioned what I assumed was Milbank's play on words (which delicacy forbids me from pointing out). Or maybe I am simply confused as to who are the prostitutes and who are the customers.

[RIBassist]

Sorry, Jason, but you missed the point of Milbank's analogy. The relative careers of the questioners/accusers is beside the point. The point was that Petraeus/Crocker faced a similar type of courtroom situation as Palfrey; namely, being confronted and antagonized by people who were once loyal to you. To say that the analogy included a suggestion that the people doing the confronting were of a kind is stretching it a bit.

However, I would be tempted to agree that GOP lawmakers are whores... except for the fact that it's insulting to whores.

[GrandpaMcCain]

That's because whores must have at least SOME standards, while Repunklicans... well...

[Oreva]

"Whores" is putting it nicely

[YellowDogInRedCounty]

How rude to compare Republicans to whores. Whores are professional business people who provide a needed service in exchange for money whereas Republicans are worthless scum.

[imusintheevening]

hahahahaha, yeah but they need to visit whores frequently to make sure they know all the tricks of the trade! Suck on that Lindsey Graham and friends.

[BOBZILLA]

The spineless wimps at Air America asked Randi Rhodes to quit for saying the same thing about Hillary.

[Boboday555]

Then Go ENLIST Bob...show us what a BUSHY is all about!

[BOBZILLA]

"Go enlist"?? Huh? Join Air America? What are you blubbering about?

[RadioResearch]

Actually, If anyone should know a "whore" when he sees one, its Dana.

[sleepless]

As much as Dana Milbank bothers me, today I love the guy. Go Dana.

[EngineerBill]

A prostitute gives services rendered on an agreed upon price based on a free market economy. A politician figures out which way the parade is going and runs to the head of it. Who is more honorable? I wonder...

[MizLiz]

Those once-loyal Republican lawmakers would like very much to get re-elected so they can keep their snouts in the trough. It's all posing for the public.

[ROBOT8]

NOW THEY TRY TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM THE JOHNS THEY SCREWED
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, THE TRUTH IS THE GREATEST ENEMY OF THE STATE." -- Joseph Goebbels, German Minister of Propaganda, 1933-1945

"The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of an eye: the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts."
Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, U.S. Supreme Court