No comparison

· It amazes me that people on the Right (e.g. John Thune) are so very, very upset about spending borrowed money in America to benefit Americans, but they thought it was a great idea to commit our nation to $3 trillion in spending and (essentially entirely) debt in prosecuting an optional war in Iraq. (John Stewart made this very point surprisingly straigtforwardly (with clips) on The Daily Show last night). To spell it out, it's all but beyond dispute now that the Iraq policy was originally predicated on knowing untruth, carried out with spectacular dishonesty, illegality, and incompetence, and never plausibly in the country's interests in the first place. I know this is no valid argument for current spending. But it amazes me nonetheless. It's like equating, with a straight face, an international gun running racket with people who fiddle their expense accounts to make a few bucks while basically doing the job they're paid to do. Both are worthy of criticism and penalty, but there's just no comparison.