appeasement at the knesset

if you have any notion that george w. bush will go quietly into the night, or that he and john mccain are not completely joined at the hip, you were apparently napping during this amazing, appalling, ridiculous event on thursday.

our commander in chief used the event of an address to the knesset, celebrating israel's 60th anniversary, to level a snide and slimy attack on barack obama:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – President George W. Bush stirred up the U.S. presidential campaign Thursday by suggesting that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama’s pledge to talk to Iran’s leader amounted to “the false comfort of appeasement.”

“Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Bush said in a speech to the Israeli parliament marking Israel’s 60th anniversary.

Without mentioning Obama by name, he compared “this foolish delusion” to the appeasement of the Nazis ahead of World War Two.

“As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement,” Bush said.

just a quick note, if you actually listen to bush give this part of the speech, he doesn't say "argument" he says "argoo-ment." later in the day grandpa mccain jumped on the bandwagon:

COLUMBUS, OH (NewYorkTimes) – Senator John McCain, who has been critical of President Bush on the environment and other policies this week, on Thursday morning wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke in the Israeli Knesset of Senator Barack Obama that talking to “terrorists and radicals'’ was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio.

and then there was this not necessarily surprising but certainly strongly worded and welcome defense of not only democrats, but of obama. from none other than hillary clinton:

RAPID CITY, SD (New York Times) – “President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is offensive and outrageous,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Especially in the light of his failures in foreign policy. This is the kind of statement that has no place in any presidential address.”

a few other prominent democrats had some choice words for bush and mccain too. and my buddy chris matthews of msnbc's hardball seriously kicked some idiot conservative ass today.