Now That's Comedy

I like it, sort of, when I go to write a blog post and someone beats me to it, especially when they do it better than I would have. In that spirit, you should go read this post by Hilzoy at the Washington Monthly covering the White House's conversion from propaganda to stand up comedy.

Hilzoy begins with this winner from the President in answer to a questions about the Administration's assertion that the US would be welcomed as liberators in Iraq:

"I think we were welcomed, but it was not a peaceful welcome".

Wow, I mean, wow. I thought the President was at his best two years ago when the search of post war Iraq turned up no nuclear or biological weapons and he responded by asserting that our forces have discovered "clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction program related activities". (And go see Brad DeLong's post on this for maximum snark).

Hilzoy has several other comedic gems, including the President asserting Tom DeLay's innocence, which last I checked, is an "ongoing criminal matter" while refusing to address the Valerie Plame case because it is... wait for it... an "ongoing criminal matter". Comedy gold I tell you.

But Hilzoy didn't include the best line of the week. On Monday, Interior Secretary Gail Norton was shilling once again for opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. The Washington Post reported her saying...

"ANWR would supply every drop of petroleum for Florida for 29 years," she told a friendly audience at the Heritage Foundation yesterday, "New York for 34 years, Illinois for 43 years, California for 16 years or New Hampshire for 315 years."

So how many years would ANWR's oil keep the whole country fueled up?

Norton balked at the question. "When you look at it for the whole country, you really get somewhat of a deceiving picture."

A "deceiving picture" indeed. Now that's comedy.

They're here all week. In fact, they'll be here until January, 2009. That noise you just heard was John Stewart and the writers of the Daily Show dropping to their knees to give thanks.