For the Foreign Minister to suggest that is was the left that started using dirty ad tactics is revisionist in the extreme and unworthy of a response. McCain’s complaint about the Swiftboat ads is that Bush did the same thing to him during the 2000 primaries. To compare Bush’s ad tactics to MoveOn.org or Misleader.com is equally ludicrous.

Incidentally, it was Bush who boastfully claimed to be the “War President” (ah, remember Bush in the flight suit?), so the war experience of his cabinet is a legitimate issue. How else to explain how badly they’ve bungled the one war they’re responsible for starting? And while the Minister of Propaganda did not support Dole for President, he also never attacked the man’s military record nor tried to suggest he hadn’t earned his honors. Nor, in fact, did Clinton. The Bush use of such a tactic is shameless and without precedent.

The Minister of Propaganda will admit to a certain amount of glee in pulling the Foreign Minister’s chain directly and is not opposed to the Foreign Minister’s equally inflammatory replies, as long as no actual brandishing of weaponry is involved.

One presumes that the Air Marshal, meanwhile, is preparing another deadly barrage of Redskins nostalgia.

Your Minister of Propaganda is writing in the third person in case he has to take over for the questionably-missing Maximum Leader, permanently. It’s also a lot harder to insult someone directly, so he thinks he needs the practice.

Expect a cabinet shuffle soon…

Believe.