Wherever your personal sympathies lie in the present conflict between Russia and Georgia, doesn't it just blow your mind when members of the Bush administration can say something so glaringly hypocritical that it literally takes your breath away, and have absolutely no clue how it sounds coming out of their mouths?

Condi Rice is probably the most intelligent person in the entire Dubya cabal. Yet these words actually passed her lips in yesterday's press conference:

"This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten a neighbor, occupy a capital, overthrow a government and get away with it. Things have changed."

Really. She really said that. With a straight face. Like she had never in her life heard of a place called Iraq.

That's okay. Condi's smart. She was just tired, she's allowed a little slip every now and then. Surely it was just a m---

"I have heard the Russian president say that his military operations are over. I am saying it is time for the Russian president to be true to his word."

Nope. Not a mistake. Nobody could be that tired. How could anyone possibly forget the day her boss stood on an aircraft carrier with a huge backdrop reading "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" and told the world that major combat operations in Iraq were over? That was five years ago. That was a trillion dollars ago. That was 4,000 American lives ago. A million dead Iraqis ago.

American exceptionalism. Arrogant cognitive dissonance. Shameful shamelessness.

And if you're wondering how the 20% of Americans who still believe George W. Bush will go down in history as a great president feel about the situation, this comment from the right-wing blog, Gateway Pundit, pretty much sums it up: