Well, it's about damned time...

I wouldn’t say the bubble has burst, but I’m pretty sure the balloon is deflating as the temperature drops and relations with Congress and the American people chill, even as we head into a long, hot summer.

The best evidence of this I can point to is the sudden willingness to come to the table with Iran The goal is to reduce the Shia-Sunni sectarian violence in Iraq and negotiate.

A White House spokesman said that Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker will meet with Iranian counterparts in Baghdad to prod Tehran to play a "productive role in Iraq." The confirmation came after the official Iranian news agency disclosed that the two sides had agreed to meet in Baghdad. U.S. officials said the meeting could occur as early as next week.

"The president authorized this channel because we must take every step possible to stabilize Iraq and reduce the risk to our troops, even as our military continue to act against hostile Iranian-backed activity in Iraq," said Gordon D. Johndroe, the spokesman for the National Security Council.

Someone refresh my memory…Wasn’t Bush calling Iran part of the “Axis of Evil” (which sounds a hell of a lot more like a problem for Superman and the Justice League, rather than the U.S. military, by the way) not so long ago? I’m pretty that’s what he said…

His Fathers Men tried to save him in December, in the form of the Iraq Study Group, which recommended the United States engage in diplomatic dialogue with Iran and Syria, but at the time the notion was received like five-day-old fish, and administration officials scoffed at the notion.

Since that rock-jawed refusal to cope with a reality of their own creation, the Congress has begun to push back and the realization is apparently slowly dawning that if the Resident intends to finish his term, he better pull his head out of his ass and make with the diplomats and the politicians, ‘cuz the Generals and the military can’t do the job alone.

Everyone with a C or better in 8^th grade History knows that wars are ended with diplomats and peace talks and treaties, not when the last man is left standing. The Resident has a degree in History from Yale. He is full-measure aware of this salient fact. His refusal to talk was evidence in the eyes of many that he had no desire for, nor intent to pursue, peaceful diplomatic solutions.

(And for the record, I am waiting for my cookie bouquet, damnit. It’s the least I should get for being right -and able to point to the archives to prove it- about pretty much everything that the Useless Tool™ and his neocon crew have managed to FUBAR.)