<i>WaPo</i>'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."