Boehner makes a boner

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), is being slammed by conservatives for his new stance on the Iraq war.

First complaint: Boehner is embracing a resolution that would "micromanage" (their words)the war effort in Iraq by setting benchmarks, etc. Also, implicit in the GOP support for such a resolution is the acknowledgement that Bush is either unwilling or unable to do what is necessary to win.

Second complaint: Boehner's support for any resolution undercuts the assertions of Dick Cheney and General Petraeus (Bush's new puppet general in Iraq) that every resolution Congress offers (unless it's a resolution that says "we love Bush" and that's about it) undercuts our troops and emboldens the enemy. In a recent conservative radio interiew, Boehner was asked why his resolution doesn't undercut the troops and embolden the enemy, and he refused to answer, repeatedly.

The conservatives conclude that this is become Boehner either never considered whether his resolution would help the enemy and hurt the troops, or because Boehner doesn't care. I would posit a third, more likely explanation:

Boehner may be evil, but he's not stupid. He knows that all this talk of emboldening the terrorists and hurting the troops is a lie, though a useful one, that the administration (and lots of dictators through the ages) pulls out to silence dissent, even though they know it's not really true.

That's why Boehner didn't answer. He couldn't answer. Either he would be forced to agree with the ridiculous notion that he's actively trying to help Al Qaeda and kill our soldiers, or he'd have to admit that what Cheney and Petraeus said was an un-American lie meant to chill the 70% or so of the public that understandably is concerned about the quagmire in Iraq.

Like I said: evil, not stupid.