I Say Rosy, You Tell Congress

You may recall that Joe Lockhart, who has stepped up to the plate as Kerry's no-bullcrap spokesman, recently made the following comment about Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi's speech to the U.S. Congress:

"The last thing you want to be seen as is a puppet of the United States, and you can almost see the hand underneath the shirt today moving the lips."

Republicans exploded into histrionics. How dare Lockhart suggest that the White House was telling Allawi what to say! Some called Lockhart's concerns "absolutely unacceptable coming from a Presidential campaign in wartime" and called for Kerry to fire him. Others called it "astonishingly irresponsible campaign rhetoric" and disgraceful.

Bush's spokesman himself said that Lockhart sounded like a terrorist.

"That echoes what the enemy is saying in Iraq, and that echoes what a lot of the terrorists have said," Mr. Mehlman said. "I think that's an unfortunate statement."

Well, if Lockhart was suggesting that the White House helped draft Allawi's speech, he was a little off. It was Bush's reelection campaign!

From the WaPo:

The unusual public-relations effort by the Pentagon and the U.S. Agency forInternational Development comes as details have emerged showing the U.S. government and a representative of President Bush's reelection campaign had been heavily involved in drafting the speech given to Congress last week by interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Combined, they indicate that the federal government is working assiduously to improve Americans' opinions about the Iraq conflict -- a key element of Bush's reelection message.

Think about that for a minute. The reelection campaign.

So, let's get this straight. The Bush reelection campaign gets to tell the Iraqi Prime Minister what to say to our Congress, and if Kerry's campaign tells the American people you can almost see the hand moving Allawi's lips.... they sound like terrorists?

That, my friends, is astonishingly irresponsible campaign rhetoric, and is unacceptable from a presidential campaign during wartime.