Please, God, let me keep a straight face

I'm trying hard not to laugh about this, because, after all, we're talking about war and death.

But it's hard not to chuckle at the rhetoric offered by George W. Bush in explaining his veto of the war-spending bill. He said success in Iraq does not necessarily require the complete elimination of violence. "Success," he said, "is a level of violence where the people feel comfortable about living their daily lives."

When Democrat John Kerry said essentially the same thing during the 2004 election campaign, Bush and his pals roundly chided the Massachusetts senator, and so did the supplicant media.

With a nod to Think Progress, the Madison blogger Griper Blade details the hypocrisy.