Staying the quagmire in the fog of war

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Master political cartoonist Pat Oliphant -- the Honoré Daumier of today -- portrays the latest effort by the Bush administration to cool off the Iraq-in-flames issue in the lead-up to election day in a way that made me laugh. How about you?

To think that anyone would be fooled by suddenly jettisoning the stay-the-course mantra, in favor of yet more double talk about “benchmarks” and scolding the Iraqis is funny in a bitter sort of way.

Now even Virginia’s No. 1 Bush loyalist, Sen. George Allen, is trying to creep away from the classic idiot motorist attitude -- I’ll-never-pull-over-to-ask-directions, no matter what -- of the hopelessly lost in the fog of war Messrs Rumsfeld and Cheney.