It worked, didn't it. Iraq got knocked out of the headlines of the news cycle for two, now going on three days. Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime-minister, ordered US troops to pack up their check points around Sadr City, these set up in an effort to find a US soldier kidnapped by insurgents. And the Shi'ite militias that support al-Maliki couldn't be happier, as they called this a "victory".
This got a brief blurb on the evening news, then disappeared under a hailstorm of phony indignation by Chimpy and Co over Kerry's gaff.
As for some of the candidates distancing themselves from Chimpy, ya got Lincoln Chaffee in Rhode Island, Bob Corker in Tennessee, Thomas Keane Jr in New Jersey, and John Hostettler from Indiana, among others. All are in tight races, and all have distanced themselves from Chimpy and his policies.
<blockquote>Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says if Republican candidates want to succeed on Election Day, they should turn their focus away from the
Iraq war. - Bill Frist, 10/25/06</blockquote>
And thus are GOP candidates are trying to do, in droves. And this tempest in a teapot helped divert the attention from Iraq. But it keeps raising its bloody head every day, as more of our troops die and more Iraqi civilians lives are snuffed out, as Iraq descends into chaos. It overshadows and influences everything else. And given that some 80% of Americans think Chimpy's handling of the war to be excrable, doesn't the will of the people count in this matter? Or does it only count when the issue is something as inconsequential as same-gender unions?