Milk it while you can, Ray

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood (RINO-Peoria) is the luckiest sumb*tch on Earth.

We all know the story by now. LaHood was one of many people attending a meeting with President Bush the other day. LaHood remarked that it sure would be nice if somethign could be done about Abu Musab Zarqawi, the terrorist leader responsible for, among many other things, the videotaped beheading of Nick Berg. What LaHood didn't know was that throughout the meeting, Bush was getting secret updates on the attack on Zarqawi's safehouse.

As a result, LaHood is getting press like this piece from the admittedly pro-GOP Washington Times:

Given the irony surrounding this week's U.S. air strike in Iraq that killed terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, one thing is certain: henceforth, Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois will have President Bush's ear whenever he desires. "I was shocked, I really was. I had no idea this air strike was going on over there," the six-term Republican from Peoria told Inside the Beltway yesterday.
[snip]
"The president was nice enough to call me this morning," Mr. LaHood told this column. "He said, 'LaHood, you will go down in history for making a prediction that this would happen. ' "

Yeah, that's right. LaHood's a friggin' genius for figuring out that it might be a good idea if one of the world's worst terrorists took a dirt nap. The episode reminds me of the time LaHood told several newspaper editorial boards that the U.S. was close to arresting the then-figutive Saddam Hussein. At the time, he denied saying it, then denied saying it on the record. Then some U.S. troops found the deposed thug hiding in a hole.

LaHood has a lucky streak a mile long. I suppose if you make enough stupid, ill-informed generic statements about a subject of great importance, you might get lucky once in a while. If he was really in the know, he would have kept his mouth shut about both Hussein and Zarqawi. We can safely assume LaHood knew absolutely NOTHING in advance

But he's getting national press now, press he should have received when he joined a bunch of Democrats who opposed a bill that cuts off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority while the terrorist group Hamas is in charge. LaHood was worried that this would deprive little children of aid, a conclusion based on the incredibly naive belief that Hamas wouldn't divert aid into the making of the bombs that strap around little children, who they then send to kill Jewish people.

Upon learning that LaHood accidentally became part of the Zarqawi story, Peorians reacted with their typical provincialism. "Oh, look. They mentioned a Congressman from Peoria on CNN. Gee, I guess LaHood is an important guy."

Nonsense. LaHood followed Illinois House speaker Dennis Hastert to Iraq and visited a few secure areas. Nothing wrong about it, but there was nothing particularly brave about it either. He may or may not have gathered a few insights from his visit, but nothing to change his opinion and nothing to change the fact that the reason for the trip to was to help deflect some of the criticism and accusations of corruption being leveled against Hastert. The primary beneficiaries of the Hastert/LaHood visit to Iraq were Hastert and LaHood.

So keep telling the rubes in the beltway that you have President Bush's ear, LaHood. Keep saying it over and over. Fewer and fewer people are buying your act. You don't have a real opponent this time around, but two years from now ... the Dems might screw up the courage to find a real candidate.

Crossposted at Peoria Pundit.