happy anniversary

via digby

"President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished' for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission," White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. "And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year."

We have certainly paid a price, for some values of we

Now in its sixth year, the war in Iraq has claimed the lives of at least 4,061 members of the U.S. military. Only the Vietnam War (August 1964 to January 1973), the war in Afghanistan (October 2001 to present) and the Revolutionary War (July 1776 to April 1783) have engaged America longer.

and at that, it's not actually the most staggeringly inappropriate thing Dana Perino had to share on the subject

She said what is important now is "how the president would describe the fight today..."

On behalf of Ms. Perino, I should point out here that it's every bit as tacky to bring up what the President's press secretary says to the press at press conferences as it is to discuss the president's expensive taxpayer-funded televised photo opportunities if they aren't as successful as he might like.


Have you people no empathy at all?