reality-based educator

Do Republicans really want to run on the campaign theme of "competence" in the November midterms?

Judging from a speech Dick Cheney gave at a GOP fundraiser yesterday, it sure sounds like at least DeadEye Dick wants that to be the 2006 theme:

Cheney, speaking at a GOP fund-raiser in Orlando, Fla., took on Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and party chairman Howard Dean. He said leading Democrats have demanded a "sudden withdrawal from the battle against terrorists in Iraq - the very kind of retreat that Osama bin Laden has been predicting."

"With that sorry record, the leaders of the Democratic Party have decided to run on the theme of competence. If they're competent to fight this war, then I ought to be singing on "American Idol,' " Cheney said.

So Cheney thinks Democrats are too incompetent to take on the major challenges of the day like fighting the war on terror and balancing the budget.

Considering that the Associated Press reported yesterday that two captured Iraqi documents show the Russians collected information on the Iraq invasions from sources "inside the American Central Command" and provided that battlefield intelligence to Saddam in Iraq, Cheney has a lotta nerve calling the Democrats incompetent on national security issues, dont'cha think?

ABC News has more on the alleged Russian spying (because that's what it was):

According to those documents obtained by the U.S. government, Vladimir Teterenko, the Russian ambassador in Baghdad, gave specific details of the planned action to Iraqi officials before the United States went to war with Iraq in 2003.

The documents' account of Teterenko's revelations included the specific number of troops, tanks, fighter planes and cruise missiles, along with other highly sensitive information.

"That they would actually pass such specific information to the Iraqis that could possibly compromise our troops and put them at risk, that is frustrating and it is disturbing," said former U.S. Army Gen. Jack Keane, now an ABC News consultant.

Two Iraqi documents say the Russians collected information from sources "inside the American central command" and that Teterenko provided battlefield intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

The second document details a meeting with Teterenko four days after the start of the war. It gives alarming information about the top-secret U.S.-coalition war plan. It cites information Russia obtained through its sources at the U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar. "The Americans," it says, will "depend on deployment along the Euphrates River … while avoiding entering the cities."

The Washington Post says both the State Department and Central Command, which overseas military operations in the Middle East and is located in Jeb's homestate of Florida, refused to comment on the story.

The Russians are denying the story.

No word if anybody called Scottie for a comment.

Can you imagine if the Russians had gotten inside info during the Clinton administration and had leaked it to our enemies right before the start of a war?

There should would be some intense outrage pouring from the wingnuttery about how Clinton was a traitor, can't keep us safe, is weak and incompetent, etc.

But so far all we have gotten on the Russian spying story is the sounds of silence.

Let's see how long that lasts because if this story is true than we are truly fucked as long as George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Karl Rove, Karen Hughes, et al. are running this government.