A dispute between Republican and Democratic spokesmen on the NewsHour last night crossed over into Onionesque self parody. It went more or less like this–

D: President Bush is politicizing the Iraq issue, using the war on terror for political gain! We demand an apology for his slanders against Democrats in the Senate. He should be ashamed of trying to score points this way with voters, trying to distract the American people, who are fed up with the way Republicans have lined the pockets of their corporate supporters and…

R: No, no, no — you’re politicizing the Iraq issue with this rhetoric. And I think the American people have had just about enough of the Democrats selling out national security to special interests, and siding with Osama bin Laden against the President of the United States!

D: This is scandalous! If you’ve had enough of this flagrant strategy of playing politics with defense issues, send your thousand dollar contribution to: Democratic National Convention, P.O Box…

Do I exaggerate? Sadly, only slightly.