Need a briefing, John?

While CNN is off in the VP weeds, pretending it's breaking news that their reporters are staking out Joe Biden and Evan Bayh, there is still real war and real journalism going on in Iraq (h/t Joe Klein).

John McCain claimed he didn't need a briefing on Russia's invasion of Georgia, and he might have been right. After all, one of Georgia's lobbyists runs his campaign, despite his made-for-media, bullshit purge of a few of his lobbyist buddies.

The renewed civil conflict in Iraq, however, is a return to the Sunni-Shi'ite distinction that McCain still needed Joe Lieberman's help with, despite at this point what surely must have been hundreds of briefings.

Don't Duhbya and the Bushists prove once and for all that we need a leader who will listen and learn? McCain would bring four more years of going with the gut. Voters who want more of the same are choosing the longest self-service colonoscopy on record.