You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, sometimes an audio track is worth even more.
Case in point: Bill Frist’s appearance on "The Today Show" this morning. There he was, resplendent in a white sweater and nail apron, standing on the National Mall, where Habitat for Humanity is building 51 homes that will be sent to the Katrina-and-Rita-ravaged Gulf Coast.
While Frist fielded questions about his and John Warner’s new proposal on Iraq via satellite from a caffeinated Katie Couric, Habitat workers continued to hammer away in the background. Frist’s proposal calls on the administration to issue quarterly reports on what he called the “real progress” being made in Iraq. “I think the White House is actually doing a very good job,” he said. Is he watching the same war I am?
So there was Frist, trying to put a happy spin on Iraq and criticizing a Democratic proposal to establish a timetable for troop withdrawal as a “cut and run” plan. “Our provision does not say that,” he explained. “It says we’re going to have the goal of a safe, orderly, systematic Iraq in the future that is going to be secure… one that is prosperous, one that is under the rule of law. No specific timetable is going to be set, but that is going to be the goal.”
But every word of Frist’s ludicrous drivel was punctuated by the thump, thump, thump of hammers hitting their mark. Could the aural symbolism have been any more perfect? The sound of nails being hammered into the GOP’s Iraq policy coffin was unmistakable.
Thump, thump, thump.
Check out the video on Crooks and Liars.