The Baker-Hamilton report aka "Cover my Ass with 168 pieces of Grade-A gov't certified paper" has an interesting cast of characters as authors doesn't it? Russ Feingold on Olbermann tonight made a really excellent point, that this report is totally "inside baseball" for the 1600 Crew because not a single member of the commission was ever opposed to the war in Iraq at any time. It is a report of "True Believers" assuaging their consciences over doing the wrong thing.

I also have to wonder how painful (if at all) this must have been for Sandra Day O'Connor. Had she voted to support the law in 2000*, there would have been no Iraqi War, there would have been no 2,800-plus American servicemen and women and countless Iraqis dead, our debt for this war would not be pushed into generations unseeable. No, Ms O'Connor put party and politics before country. I wonder how she felt getting figuratively slapped in the face every day she had to see what she wrought by selecting her man for her party as she sat on the commission and heard testimony and read the classified reports of how fucked up her boy has made this mess.

Too bad, Ms O'Connor, I hope it brings the consequences of your decision home in a way that nothing else would have. The blood of many is on your hands for your allegiance to party not principle and the rule of law.

***Update and correction
Why I need an editor -- observant and wise reader Marcel caught an error in this post that I missed. I had put 1999 instead of 2000 for the Bush v Gore court case without realizing it. Thanks Marcel. You rock!