Over 130 killed in Baghdad car bombings. Is Cheney headed there?

UPDATE: This is now being called the deadliest insurgent attack since the Iraq war began.

Not much to give thanks for in Iraq today. Extreme violence on top of extreme violence:

Six car bombs killed more than 130 people Thursday in Baghdad's Sadr City, according to Iraq's health minister.

Police had conflicting numbers for those killed and wounded, but Health Minister Ali Shummari said the death toll is 133, with 201 wounded.

Earlier, police said three car bombings and a mortar round firing occurred within a 30-minute period in Sadr City, a densely populated Shiite slum in northeastern Baghdad.

The minister said a missile was fired in addition to the car blasts.

In a separate incident, police also said U.S. forces killed four people Thursday when they opened fire on a minibus in Sadr City.

But a "surprise visit" by Cheney would make this all better. Against the backdrop of this spiraling violence in Iraq's civil war, let's review the words of our Vice President in 2003:

On CBS's "Face the Nation" on March 16, Cheney said the fight would be "weeks rather than months. There's always the possibility of complications that you can't anticipate, but I have great confidence in our troops." Cheney also predicted the fight would "go relatively quickly, but we can't count on that." That same day on NBC's "Meet the Press," Cheney said, "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators." It was then he predicted that the regular Iraqi soldiers would not "put up such a struggle," and that even "significant elements of the Republican Guard . . . are likely to step aside." Asked if Americans are prepared for a "long, costly and bloody battle," Cheney replied: "Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way. . . . The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein, and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that." Cheney has spoken that way for months.

Let the Great Liberator tour Sadr City today.