You Found What?
In the aftermath of Rick Santorum's WMD "discovery," see e. g. ThinkProgress, Santorum: We Found the WMD, there has been a fair amount of snickering, shall we say, about the Senator's motives in revealing this find -- about the same time that polls are showing him trailing his opponent, Bob Casey, by 18%.
The Countdown with Keith Olbermann carried the report, Weapons of Minor Discomfort, about Santorum's "pimping a ... military intelligence report" for political advantage.
Dick Polman also looks at the political aspects of this "announcement," in Santorum's failed weapon of mass distraction, noting "There's only one problem with Santorum's "significant finding": The fact that it's not significant." Even the conservative press has had a hard time defending this one, as Polman describes:
[T]alk show co-host Alan Colmes confronted Santorum last night. First he quoted from the Duelfer report. Then he said, "The (Defense) official went on to say these are not the WMD’s this country and the rest of the world believed Iraq had and not the WMD’s for which this country went to war. So the chest beating (that) Republicans are doing tonight, thinking this is a justification, is not confirmed by the Defense Department."See also, Tom Ferrick's blog, Pass the Mustard Gas.
Santorum's response: "I'd like to know who that is. The fact of the matter is, I’ll wait and see what the actual Defense Department formally says or more important what the administration formally says."
Translation: "Uh, uh, uh..."
No wonder the apparent Bob Casey campaign strategy is to just let Santorum keep talking.
And, in closing, let me pose the most obvious question of all: If this report was really so revelatory, then why was it released by a senator with a 38 percent approval rating in his home state? Wouldn't the White House have insisted on announcing the good news, perhaps by having Bush parachute into the Green Zone with a cordless mike attached to his flight suit?
At his press conference, Santorum had an answer for that. Sort of. It went like this: "I think that's a question you have to ask them. It's certainly a question that we have asked them. You'd have to ask them."
Stephen Bainbridge, a UCLA law professor and a respected conservative blogger, was also pondering that matter today. After dismissing Santorum's scoop as "no big deal" and "nothing new," he answered his own question:
"Finally, why is a politico in the middle of the election fight of his life making this announcement instead of the Administration? It looks like more GOP politicization of intelligence."
And finally, we have The Satirical Political Report asking the question: ARE WMDs THE NEW UFOs? Don Davis concludes his report with:
Asked to comment on the the comparison between Iraqi WMD sightings and the UFO phenomenon, Dr. Stephen Hawking stated that “with UFOs, people actually see things that simply can’t be explained. In contrast, with WMDs, nuts like Santorum are ‘explaining’ things that clearly don’t exist.”What is most amazing to me about this whole "story" is the fact that Santorum has refused to back down on his stance, as the Inquirer reports Santorum insists that WMD report backs prewar threat, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he's wrong (or lied). As I've said before, He Knows About Which He Speaks -- it's the same old tale of the Scorpion, it's just his nature.
Also, it sounds to me like Santorum is trying to top that other PA Senator's "single bullet theory" in the Congressional Hall of Fame of nutty theories. Good try Rick, but Arlen still wins. Sorry.
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