RE: It’s All About 9/11: The president links Iraq and al Qaeda — and the usual suspects moan.

Steve opines:

Sorry, Mr. McCarthy. Your spin cycle is broken. Those tired excuses are the ones Americans just aren't buying any more.

Regardless of all these ties to 9/11, some of them so tenuous as to be transparent, Americans want to know why we are still in Iraq. Conservatives want to know why we are expending time, money, and lives in Iraq to defend freedom while Bush oversees (or more accurately, ignores) the fastest decline and destruction of the fabric of federalism and republicanism in history right here at home. Many Americans want to know why they must send their sons and daughters over to die in the desert when we can't even secure our own borders.

Bush's speech last night was a non-event. I didn't watch it. I wasn't interested. If he had decided to speak on how he plans to reign in the judiciary, grow vertrebrates in Congress, drastically cut the size of the federal government, and return to the Republican ideas of lower taxes and less government, I would have listened. Instead, he decided we need to hear some more about George's excellent adventure in Iraq, wrapped up nicely in some patented Karl Rove spin.

Sorry, watching this detestable little Nero fiddle while Rome burns is more than I can stomach.